What does a credit score of 475 mean?

Last Modified 16th of February 2021

This is a common question, but on its own it is difficult to answer. The problem is that you don’t actually have a single, universal credit score. Your actual credit history will look fairly similar whoever you go to, but the score you are given will vary a lot between different credit reference agencies.

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There are dozens of credit reference agencies in the UK, their main role is to store information about your credit history including any debts you have or had paid off, late payments and defaults and so on…

As a secondary function, most of them will also allow you to see a report of what information they hold, along with various other added value, including among other things, your credit score.

There are 2 big credit reference agencies in the UK; Experian and Equifax. Depending on which of these agencies you got your credit score from, it will affect what the score actually means.

Experian

Experian give you a score between 0 and 999 – 999 being perfect credit. Their scoring isn’t evenly spread out though. A score of 475 with Experian is well within the “very poor” category, their lowest category. So 475 with Experian is very bad.

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Equifax

Equifax score you between 0 and 900 and their scale is very different. This time, 300 and better is out of the “very poor” range and your score of 475 is just within the excellent category. So if you got that credit score from Equifax, you should be quite happy with yourself.

Some other agency

If you got your credit score from another agency then you should ask them for an explanation of what it means. Remember that your score is just an indication; all that you should really worry about is whether your given score is considered good or bad. Ultimately, the actual score is just a way to help you understand the data.