Business & Finance

This should explain it to you.

FICO scores from 300 to 850 and Vantage scores from 501 to 990.

Here is the breakdown for both systems.

Vantage Plus system scores from 501-990.
A-901-990
B-801-900
C-701-800
D-601-700
F-501-600

FICO system scores from 300-850.
Elite-740-& up
Prime-700-739
Preferred-660-699
Standard-625-659
Sub-prime-624-& under

FICO is the only one that matters since it's the one that all major lenders look at.

Since you say this is a Plus score that means it's the Vantage system so you would be rated a C.

It is a waste of money to pay for credit monitoring. You can get your free annual credit reports form each of the credit bureaus thru AnnualCreditReport.com. Spread out one bureau every 4 months and you should be able to catch any errors.

Credit monitoring services use Fakko scores -- their own formula and in this case their own scale ("701 on a scale of 330 - 830." ). Creditors use FICO. You can get FICO scores for TransUnion and Equifax at MyFico.com. Equifax sells FICO scores. Consumers can no longer purchase FICO scores for Experian anymore.

You really don't need to check your score more than once a year, if that often. Just pay all your bills on time, check your credit report annually for accuracy, and your score will take care of itself.

CreditKarma.com offers a free score estimator that's sorta like FICO, give or take 50 points or so.

I use a service through AMEX that keeps me posted about changes to my credit rating. They check the three agencies, but they call it a PLUS Score. What do they mean?

For example:
PLUS Score from TransUnion
This PLUS Score is based on information from your TransUnion credit report.
Your PLUS Score is calculated using the information in your credit report. Since information often differs among your three bureau reports, your PLUS Scores based on those reports will also vary.
Your PLUS Score is: 701 on a scale of 330 - 830. (GOOD)