The Average Consumer Credit Score

Credit scores are a measure of a consumer's credit profile. A low credit score means the person is a high credit risk, while a high credit score means the person has an excellent credit history.

Significance

Generally, those people with credit scores significantly above the average are said to have "good" credit, while those significantly below the average are deemed to have "bad" credit. People with scores within a few points of the average have "average" credit. According to Credit Scoring, a score of 730 or above is considered good, 640 to 720 is considered average, while any credit score below 620 is considered bad.

Function

The average consumer credit score gives lenders a "baseline" from which to gauge a customer's creditworthiness. This allows financial institutions to make informed decisions on providing credit to consumers

Considerations

According to Money Zine, the majority of consumers have credit scores significantly above the average. However, the average is where it is due to consumers with very low credit scores that are hundreds of points below the average.