# Credit Score

A credit score is a three-digit number (typically 300-850) that represents your creditworthiness based on your borrowing and repayment history. FICO and VantageScore are the two main scoring models.

## Why it matters

Your credit score affects the interest rates you're offered on mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards — even a 50-point difference can mean tens of thousands in extra interest over a mortgage's lifetime. It also influences rental applications, insurance premiums, and sometimes employment decisions.

Example

A borrower with a 760 credit score might get a 6.5% mortgage rate, while a 660 score could mean 7.8% — on a $300,000 loan, that's over $90,000 more in total interest.

## How Ray helps

While Ray doesn't pull your credit score directly, it monitors the financial behaviors that affect it: credit utilization, payment timing, and debt balances. Ask to check utilization across your cards.

Terminal

`$ ray "am I using too much of my available credit?"`

## Related terms

[FICO Score](/content/learn/fico-score/index.html) - A FICO score is the most widely used credit scoring model, created by Fair Isaac Corporation.

[Debt-to-Income Ratio](/content/learn/debt-to-income-ratio/index.html) - Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) compares your total monthly debt payments to your gross monthly income, expressed as a percentage.

[APR (Annual Percentage Rate)](/content/learn/apr/index.html) - APR is the yearly cost of borrowing money, expressed as a percentage.

[Mortgage](/content/learn/mortgage/index.html) - A mortgage is a loan used to purchase real estate, where the property itself serves as collateral.

[Credit Score](/content/learn/credit-score/index.html) - A credit score is a three-digit number (typically 300-850) that represents your creditworthiness based on your borrowing and repayment history.

## Try Ray free

Open source, local-first, and takes five minutes to set up.

`$ npm install -g ray-finance` [View on GitHub](https://github.com/cdinnison/ray-finance)