What Is a Good Credit Score to Get Approved for a Credit Card?

The question most people search for is “what is a good credit score?” The better question is: good enough for which card?

A 670 is a solid score. It also won’t clear the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s underwriting threshold. A 720 is excellent by most standards and still borderline for the Amex Platinum. The number that matters isn’t an abstract definition of “good.” It’s the floor for the card you actually want.

Here’s what I’d actually tell a friend who asked me this: credit card issuers don’t think in terms of abstract score categories. They work from tier minimums, and the tier you’re in right now determines which card categories are available to you.

This guide maps those tiers directly to the cards available at each level. It also covers what issuers look at beyond the score, because a 720 can still get declined. And it lays out the fastest path from wherever you’re starting to the card you’re actually aiming for.

Credit Score Ranges: What Each Tier Actually Unlocks

The short answer is that FICO scores run from 300 to 850, and the tier you fall into is the most practical indicator of which cards you can realistically apply for right now.

FICO Range	Tier Name	Approval Odds	What It Unlocks
800–850	Exceptional	Excellent	Every card. Best APR offers. Rarely declined.
740–799	Very Good	Very High	Almost all premium cards. CSR, Amex Platinum, Venture X.
670–739	Good	High	Most rewards cards. Chase Sapphire Preferred, Amex Gold.
580–669	Fair	Moderate	Starter unsecured cards. QuickSilverOne, Freedom Rise. Higher APRs.
300–579	Poor	Low	Secured cards. Some no-credit-check cards. Rebuild phase.
No file	Thin/New	Varies	Treated like Poor by most issuers. Secured cards are the entry point.

A few things worth noting before moving on.

The average FICO score in the US is 714, which puts most Americans squarely in the Good tier. About 48% of Americans have a FICO score of 750 or higher. If you’re sitting between 670 and 730, you’re in the range of most creditworthy borrowers, and the cards worth having are within reach. Your score also shapes the APR you’re actually offered within a card’s range; see What Is APR and How Does Credit Card Interest Work? for that mechanic.

Credit Karma and similar apps show VantageScore, not FICO. Good on VantageScore starts at 661, versus 670 on FICO. The two scores typically track closely, but use the FICO scale above for planning. Most card issuers pull FICO, not VantageScore. For a full breakdown of which services show which score, see Free Credit Monitoring: Which Services Are Actually Worth Using.

One distinction that matters and most guides skip: having no US credit history is not the same as having bad credit. Immigrants, recent graduates, and anyone new to the US system show up as “thin file,” not negative. A thin file typically means the bureaus can’t generate a score at all, rather than generating a low one. The path from thin file to 670+ is usually faster than recovering from actual derogatory marks. For a full explanation of what goes into your score, see How Credit Scores Are Calculated in the USA.

What Credit Score Do You Actually Need, by Card Category

The thresholds below are the realistic approval minimums by card category. Apply these as planning benchmarks, not guarantees. Individual applications depend on your full credit profile, not just the score.

Score Range	Card Category	Example Cards
No file / 300+	Secured (no credit check)	OpenSky Secured Visa, Chime Card
No file / 580+	Secured (credit check OK)	Capital One Quicksilver Secured, BofA Secured
580–669	Starter unsecured	Chase Freedom Rise, Capital One QuickSilverOne
650–669	Basic cash back	Capital One Quicksilver, Capital One SavorOne, Amex Blue Cash Everyday
670–699	Mainstream rewards	Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Freedom Flex, BofA Unlimited Cash
700–719	Entry travel rewards	Chase Sapphire Preferred, Amex Gold Card
720–759	Premium travel	Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum
760+	Best approval odds	All of the above, with lowest denial risk on premium cards

No file or 300+ (Secured, no check required)

These cards are built for people starting from zero. The OpenSky Secured Visa and Chime Credit Builder Card don’t check your credit at all; they only need a deposit. Others in this tier, like the Capital One Quicksilver Secured and BofA Secured, do run a credit check but are designed specifically for thin files and sub-600 scores. The deposit becomes your credit limit, and after 6 to 12 months of on-time payments, most of these cards automatically review you for an upgrade to an unsecured card.

For a full list of options at this tier, see Best Secured Credit Cards for 2026 and Best Credit Cards for Building Credit in 2026.

Not every no-credit-check card in this tier requires a deposit, either. The Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card runs no credit check at all — WebBank underwrites using alternative income, savings, and cash-flow data instead of a FICO score — and needs no security deposit, a genuine unsecured option at the very bottom of this table. It doesn’t cleanly fit the Fair/Good/Very Good/Excellent tiers above since there’s no score involved in approval at all; its base rate starts at 1% and only reaches the tier-comparable 1.5% after 12 months of on-time payments.

Full reviews: Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card Review.

580 to 669 (Starter Unsecured)

No deposit required, but rewards are limited and APRs run high. At this tier, the point of the card isn’t the rewards. It’s the credit history. Pay in full every month, keep utilization under 10%, and most people move up a tier within 12 to 18 months.

Two cards worth knowing at this level: the Chase Freedom Rise, which works best if you already have a Chase checking account, and the Capital One QuickSilverOne, which earns 1.5% on everything with no deposit required. These aren’t just credit-builder tools. They’re real cards with real rewards that happen to be accessible before 670. Store cards sit at this tier too: the MyLowe’s Rewards Credit Card (Lowe’s Advantage) carries no official cutoff, but secondary sources put approval odds around 620-640+ FICO, in line with the rest of this band. The Home Depot Consumer Credit Card sits here as well, no official cutoff from Citi either, with secondary sources putting approval odds around 640+ FICO. The Amazon Store Card lands in the same band, with neither Synchrony nor Amazon publishing a numeric minimum but NerdWallet placing it at roughly 580-669 FICO. The Wayfair Credit Card lands in the same band too, no official cutoff from Citi, with NerdWallet, WalletHub, and Crediful converging on roughly 640+ FICO for the closed-loop store card. The Ross Mastercard sits here as well — no official minimum from Comenity, but widely reported as one of the easiest store-card approvals around, consistent with its own “Fair” label. The Victoria’s Secret Mastercard is a variant on the same idea: Comenity doesn’t publish a numeric minimum at all, and a single application can land you either the open-loop Mastercard or the store-only card depending on where your file falls. Student cards belong here too: the Discover it® Student Cash Back publishes no numeric FICO cutoff at all, just a qualitative “Fair” label and Discover’s own “no credit score required to apply” language, aimed squarely at readers with a thin or nonexistent file rather than a specific score. A credit union card sits at the low end of this same band: the Navy Federal Credit Union cashRewards Credit Card is reported at 640 FICO by WalletHub, the only source with a published number, worth treating with the usual single-source caution — and its bigger gate isn’t the score at all, it’s Navy Federal membership itself, open only to active-duty military, veterans, DoD civilian employees, and their families. For the full rundown of realistic approval ranges across the store-card category specifically, see What Credit Score Do You Need for a Store Credit Card?.

I’ve held the QuickSilverOne since my first year in the US. When I arrived in December 2022, I had a blank US credit file. Not bad credit, just nothing. No score, no history, no presence in the system. The QuickSilverOne was the card that got me in, and I didn’t apply for anything else for the first 12 months. One card, paid in full, utilization kept low. That’s the whole strategy at this stage.

Full reviews: Capital One QuickSilverOne Review, Chase Freedom Rise Review, MyLowe’s Rewards Credit Card (Lowe’s Advantage) Review, Home Depot Consumer Credit Card Review, Amazon Store Card Review, Wayfair Credit Card Review, Ross Mastercard Review, Victoria’s Secret Mastercard Review, Discover it® Student Cash Back Review, and Navy Federal Credit Union cashRewards Credit Card Review.

670 to 699 (Mainstream Rewards)

This is where the cards most people actually want start becoming available. Flat-rate cash back cards with 1.5% to 2% on all purchases, no annual fee, and real reward value. Chase Freedom Unlimited, BofA Unlimited Cash Rewards, and Capital One Quicksilver all land at this tier. If your goal is a solid everyday card with no complexity, 670 is the realistic floor. Airline co-brand cards start showing up here too: the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® confirms a 670+ floor, in the same “Good” band as the rest of this tier. A second airline co-brand lands at the same floor: Barclays doesn’t publish an official minimum for the JetBlue Plus Card, but The Points Guy and Upgraded Points both independently recommend the same 670+ (“Good”) bar for approval, with better odds at 700+, the same convention used for Platinum Select above. Its no-fee sibling, the no-fee JetBlue Card, sits in the same band: Barclays doesn’t publish an official minimum for it either, and sources disagree on the exact figure — The Points Guy recommends the same 670+ (“Good”) bar, while WalletHub lists a 700 recommendation on two separate pages.

A hotel co-brand lands at the same floor: Barclays doesn’t publish an official minimum for Wyndham Rewards Earner Card’s approval odds either, and sources disagree in the same pattern as its JetBlue siblings — The Points Guy recommends a 670+ (“Good”) FICO score, while WalletHub states 700, both landing within the same Good band used for the rest of this tier.

Not every card at this tier earns rewards, either: the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card confirms the same 670 “Good” floor, but it’s a pure 0% intro APR play with no rewards program at all, worth knowing about at this tier even though its value case is entirely different from the cash-back cards above. If a 0% intro APR or balance-transfer offer is what you’re actually shopping for, see our full 0% APR and balance-transfer card roundup, which spans Fair (640+) to Good (670-690+) credit across its eight picks.

A travel card lands in this tier too, not just cash-back and 0%-APR cards: the Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Journey Card confirms the same 670 (Good) floor as the cards above, Bankrate and WalletHub agree, no conflicting figure found, a $95-fee travel card that undercuts the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 700 minimum by one full tier.

A business card lands here too: the Wells Fargo Signify Business Cash℠ Card doesn’t get an officially published minimum from Wells Fargo, and sources disagree on the exact number — Motley Fool and The Points Guy cite 670, WalletHub cites 700, NerdWallet cites 720 — but the lower 670 (Good) figure is used here per this site’s convention of taking the lower of two disputed figures, the same approach used for Reflect and Autograph Journey above.

Full reviews: Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® Review, JetBlue Plus Card Review, JetBlue Card Review, Wells Fargo Reflect® Card Review, Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Journey Card Review, Wells Fargo Signify Business Cash℠ Card Review, and Wyndham Rewards Earner Card Review.

700 to 719 (Entry Travel Rewards)

Chase Sapphire Preferred and Amex Gold Card both typically become accessible in this range. These are the cards with meaningful sign-up bonuses, transferable points to airline and hotel partners, and real long-term value. Most people building toward travel rewards have one of these two as their target. Eighteen months after starting with the QuickSilverOne, I crossed 700 and qualified for both. The Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card sits at the same ~700 tier with a genuinely different tradeoff: no annual fee at all, in exchange for more modest earning than the two cards above.

Premium cards don’t always publish a firmer number, either: the Hilton Honors American Express® Aspire Card is a $550-fee card, well above the Sapphire Preferred and Amex Gold, but Amex gives only a qualitative “Good to Excellent” label for it, with no numeric minimum confirmed from an approved source. Treat “Good” as the realistic planning floor here too, the same tier as the cards above, until a firmer number surfaces.

The same pattern shows up on the business side: the American Express® Business Gold Card publishes no numeric minimum either, with NerdWallet and Bankrate both placing its recommended personal-credit range at good to excellent rather than a single score, the same qualitative floor as Aspire above.

A card at the boundary of this tier and the one below it: the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®, the priciest AAdvantage co-brand card on this site at a $595 fee, has an even thinner sourcing picture than Aspire or Business Gold above — card-specific sources actually disagree on a number rather than just omitting one, The Points Guy and Bankrate cite 670+, WalletHub cites 700+. Treat it as a 670-700 range rather than a single figure, and lean toward the top of that range for realistic planning given a fee this steep.

The cheapest card carrying that same qualitative floor: the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card is Amex’s own entry point into the Delta lineup, and like Aspire, Business Gold, and Executive above, it publishes no numeric minimum, just a “good to excellent” label from secondary sources. Unlike those pricier cards, Blue carries a genuine $0 annual fee, permanently, so the stakes of that placement guess are much lower here.

A hotel co-brand with the same “Good to Excellent” spread: Chase doesn’t publish a numeric minimum for the World of Hyatt Credit Card either, and secondary sources describe it the same way as Aspire and Business Gold above. It lands here at the lower “Good” bound of that range, the same convention used for its sibling hotel co-brand cards on this site.

Its higher-earning sibling carries the same gap: Chase doesn’t publish a numeric minimum for the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card either, only the qualitative “Good credit or better” bar, and secondary sources disagree from 650 to 700 with no majority. It lands here alongside World of Hyatt at the same “Good” tier, on the same no-numeric-minimum convention as the rest of this site’s Chase hotel co-brand cards. Its $0-fee sibling, the IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card, carries the identical gap — Chase confirms only the same qualitative “Good credit or better” bar, with sources disagreeing from 650 to 700 — so it lands at the same tier, with lower stakes given its $0 fee.

An airline co-brand carries the same gap: Chase confirms only the qualitative “Good credit or better” bar for the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, with secondary sources disagreeing from 670 to 700 and no single majority figure. It lands here alongside the IHG and World of Hyatt cards above, on the same no-confirmed-numeric-minimum convention used across this site’s co-brand cards.

Its step-up sibling carries a similarly wide gap, if slightly higher: Chase confirms only the qualitative “Good to Excellent” bar for the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card, with secondary sources disagreeing from 670 to 730 and no single majority figure, a wider spread than Plus’s 670-700 range. It lands in this same tier on the same no-confirmed-numeric-minimum convention, with higher stakes than Plus given its steeper $149 fee.

The top of the same lineup carries the identical gap, at higher stakes still: Chase confirms only the qualitative “Good to Excellent” bar for the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card too, with no numeric minimum published and the same 670-730 range sourcing disagreement as Premier. It lands in this same tier on the same no-confirmed-numeric-minimum convention, with the highest stakes of the three Southwest cards given its $229 fee, the lineup’s steepest.

A store card carries an unusually high floor for its category: the Ulta Beauty Rewards® Mastercard® Credit Card publishes no official minimum from issuer Comenity Capital Bank, but NerdWallet, The Points Guy, and WalletHub each independently confirm the same 700+ (Good to Excellent) bar for the Mastercard version, well above the 580-669 range where most store cards on this site land.

Full reviews: Chase Sapphire Preferred Review, Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card Review, Hilton Honors American Express® Aspire Card Review, American Express® Business Gold Card Review, Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® Review, Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card Review, World of Hyatt Credit Card Review, IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card Review, IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card Review, Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card Review, Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card Review, Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card Review, and Ulta Beauty Rewards® Mastercard® Credit Card Review.

720 and above (Premium Travel)

Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Amex Platinum are all in this tier. Annual fees run from $395 to $695. Issuers are stricter here, not just about the score but about the entire credit profile. Clean payment history, low utilization, and at least two years of established credit age all carry significant weight at this level.

Not every card at this floor is a premium travel card, though: the PNC Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card is a $0-fee cash-back card, but PNC doesn’t publish an official minimum and only one secondary source, WalletHub, gives a specific figure — around 750 (“Excellent”) — with nothing to corroborate it. Worth treating that single-source number with the usual caution, but it’s the only figure available.

Full reviews: Capital One Venture X Review and PNC Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card Review.

What Issuers Actually Look At Beyond the Score

This is the section most guides skip, and it explains why a 720 can still get declined.

The score is a filter, not a guarantee. Once your score clears the minimum threshold, issuers evaluate the full credit profile. Getting denied despite a solid score almost always comes down to one of the following.

Credit utilization

If your score is 700 but your existing cards are running at 70% of their limits, most premium issuers will decline. They want to see utilization below 30% overall, and ideally under 10% on each individual card. Paying down balances before applying can shift the underwriting outcome meaningfully. For a detailed explanation of how this works, see How Credit Utilization Works.

Too many recent applications

Chase is the most explicit about this. The informal 5/24 rule means Chase typically declines applicants who have opened five or more new accounts in the past 24 months, regardless of score. Other issuers apply similar logic without stating it publicly. Spacing applications at least 90 days apart reduces the risk significantly.

Account age

A 700 score with eight months of credit history looks different to an underwriter than a 700 with four years. Premium cards tend to want established history, typically two or more years of accounts in good standing, before approving applicants.

Income

Issuers are required by law to assess your ability to repay. A lower income applying for a card with a $550 annual fee will likely trigger additional scrutiny. There’s no published hard cutoff, but income is a factor underwriters weigh alongside the credit profile.

Derogatory marks

A late payment or collection stays on your report for seven years and carries significant weight, even if your score has recovered. Most premium issuers prefer a clean payment history with no late payments in at least the past 12 months.

The practical takeaway: if you’re getting declined despite a score above 700, check your utilization and application frequency first. Those are the two most common causes of denial for otherwise-qualified applicants.

How to Find Out Your Score Before You Apply

Never apply cold. A denied application costs you a hard inquiry on your credit report, which typically drops your score a few points and stays on file for two years. (See Hard vs Soft Credit Inquiries Explained for the full distinction.)

Three reliable ways to check before applying:

Free monitoring services, like Credit Karma, Capital One CreditWise, and Chase Credit Journey, are free, require no credit check, and update weekly. They show VantageScore, not FICO, which is useful for tracking direction but not for precise pre-application planning.

Free FICO score is available through Experian’s free tier (FICO 8) and Discover Credit Scorecard (FICO 8, open to non-Discover cardholders). Use one of these before applying for any premium card. This is the number that actually matters in underwriting.

Official free credit reports are available at AnnualCreditReport.com. No score is shown, but you get full reports from all three bureaus. Run this at least once a year to catch errors that could be dragging your score down without your knowing it.

For a detailed breakdown of which services are worth using and how to get your actual FICO, see Free Credit Monitoring: Which Services Are Actually Worth Using.

The Upgrade Path: From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

This isn’t a grind. It’s a two-stage process with predictable timelines.

Stage 1: 580 to 670 (6 to 18 months)

Start with one secured card or one starter unsecured card (see How to Choose Your First Credit Card if you’re picking that first one). Pay the full balance every month, no exceptions. Keep utilization under 10%. Don’t apply for anything else during this period. At 12 months, request a credit limit increase on your existing card, which is typically a soft pull and won’t affect your score. By 18 months with one card in good standing, most people in this cohort reach 670.

One shortcut worth knowing: Experian Boost lets you add utility, phone, and streaming payment history to your Experian credit file. The impact can show up in a single day. The boost only applies to scores pulled from Experian, but it’s free and takes about five minutes to set up.

Stage 2: 670 to 700+ (6 to 12 months)

At 670, add one flat-rate cash back card, something like the Capital One Quicksilver or Chase Freedom Unlimited. This lowers your utilization on your first card and adds a second account to your credit mix. Pay both in full every month. At 12 months, check whether you qualify for a travel card. Chase Sapphire Preferred is usually the realistic target at this stage.

When I moved from a blank file to 700+ in about 18 months, the QuickSilverOne was my first and only card for the first year. That’s not the most exciting advice, but it’s what actually works. One card, paid in full, nothing else. The score follows.

For options specifically designed for people starting with no US credit file, see Best Cards for Immigrants in the US.

Where This Leaves You

The score range that matters isn’t “good” in the abstract. It’s good enough for what you’re actually aiming at. A 670 is excellent if your goal is a no-fee cash back card. A 720 is the realistic floor for premium travel rewards.

The path is consistent regardless of starting point: one card, pay in full, keep utilization low, and don’t apply for anything else for 12 months. The score follows.

Once you’re above 670, the question shifts from “can I get approved” to “which card actually earns the most for how I spend.” That’s a better problem to have, and one worth thinking about carefully before you apply.