--- title: The Average Credit Score Just Reached an All-Time High description: The average credit score in America is now 718 — an all-time high. FICO scores are rising even as credit card debt hits its highest levels. authors: - name: Brenden Rearick role: Reporter url: https://money.com/author/brenden-rearick/ bio: Brenden Rearick is a former reporter at Money who specialized in covering breaking news and enterprise stories about credit cards, real estate, investing, and personal finance trends. education: University of Pittsburgh, BA at_money_since: 2023 articles: 133 covers: - Credit - Banking - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology former_staff: true editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Credit - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-10-31T20:39:09.000Z' modified: '2024-02-23T09:30:07.000Z' section: Credit tags: - News word_count: 568 canonical: https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![The Average Credit Score Just Reached an All-Time High](https://img.money.com/2023/10/News-Credit-Score-Record-High.jpg?quality=85&w=1012&h=569&crop=1) Your credit score is key to your financial identity. It's the metric that pretty much any lender uses to determine your worthiness as a borrower. So it's great news that the average American's [credit score](https://money.com/what-is-a-credit-score/) just reached a new high: It's now 718, up a couple points from a year ago. Financial data company FICO is behind the most popular measure of credit — the FICO Score — and its [new report](https://www.fico.com/blogs/average-us-fico-score-718) shows that FICO Scores have improved to a record high. The company says that higher employment and some medical debts being removed from credit reports are among the forces driving this improvement. According to FICO, the average credit score is now 718, which is well into the realm that's considered "good" credit. It's the highest ever average score reported by the company, and the first increase since April 2021, when the average was 716. America's average credit score has increased significantly during the pandemic years, rising from 708 in April 2020 to 718 today. One reason for the recent improvement is that [medical debts under $500](https://money.com/medical-debt-removed-from-credit-report/) have been removed from Americans' credit reports. Credit bureaus have been planning to do this for a long time, and earlier this year, they finished implementing the change. FICO says that while the change didn't affect a huge number of borrowers, those who *did* have a medical debt removed from their report between April 2022 and April 2023 likely saw an increase in their FICO Score as a result. FICO also points out that credit scores have inched higher partly because the unemployment rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels, near record lows. Naturally, higher employment means more Americans are earning wages, putting them in a better place to pay bills. It's worth noting that while credit scores are on average the highest they've ever been, so too is the level of [credit card debt](https://money.com/how-to-pay-off-credit-card-debt/). Earlier in the year, the total [credit card debt](https://money.com/pay-off-credit-card-debt-1-trillion/) of all U.S. borrowers surpassed $1 trillion, or almost $6,000 per household. All said, the fact that the average score is up doesn't mean that the financial situations of their owners are improving, besides general credit worthiness. ## How to improve your credit score Having a high credit score can help you get approved for certain [credit cards](https://money.com/best-credit-cards/), as well as lower rates and better terms on [mortgages](https://money.com/how-to-choose-a-mortgage-lender/), [auto loans](https://money.com/auto-loans/) and more. One of the best ways to [improve your credit score](https://money.com/7-ways-to-improve-credit-score/) is to make payments on time. Missed payments are a mark on your score, and timely ones are a sign of responsibility that will increase your score over the long haul. Setting up automated payments is a simple way to ensure that you're doing this. Paying off outstanding balances is also a good idea. If you can help it, keeping your utilization rate low also helps. Using 30% or less of the total amount of credit available to you is best. You should also avoid closing out credit accounts, as doing this can hurt your score. Instead, consider downgrading your less-used cards. Finally, you can get a boost to your credit score by finding and reporting errors that are hurting your score. Getting delinquent payments or accounts that aren't yours removed from your report will help your score. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Credit", "item": "https://money.com/credit/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Credit Score", "item": "https://money.com/credit-score/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Average Credit Score Just Reached an All-Time High" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/", "name": "The Average Credit Score Just Reached an All-Time High", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-10-31T20:39:09.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-02-23T09:30:07.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Average Credit Score Just Reached an All-Time High", "articleSection": "Credit", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/10/News-Credit-Score-Record-High.jpg?quality=85", "width": 2880, "height": 1920 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brenden Rearick", "url": "https://money.com/author/brenden-rearick/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brenden-rearick/#author", "description": "Brenden Rearick is a former reporter at Money who specialized in covering breaking news and enterprise stories about credit cards, real estate, investing, and personal finance trends.\r\n\r\n", "email": "brenden.rearick@money.com", "alumniOf": "University of Pittsburgh, BA" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2023-10-31T20:39:09.000Z", "description": "The average credit score in America is now 718 — an all-time high. FICO scores are rising even as credit card debt hits its highest levels.", "abstract": "The average credit score in America is now 718 — an all-time high. FICO scores are rising even as credit card debt hits its highest levels.", "@id": "https://money.com/average-credit-score-record-high-2023/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-02-23T09:30:07.000Z", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 568, "keywords": [ "News" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Credit Score", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Credit score", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Credit history", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_history" ] } ] } ] } ```