590 credit score I know what your thinking. What can I do with that? A credit score is a number that represents an individual’s creditworthiness or ability to obtain financial aid from lenders. Your credit score is primarily based on your credit history and gives an idea of how responsible you have been repaying your past debts. One of the most popular credit scores is FICO scores designed by the Fair Isaac Corporation. The FICO scores range from 300 to 850 and are highly trusted by lenders.

This is a guide to help you understand exhaustively the 590 credit score and the crucial topic of credit scores in general.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road

Let’s start with the basics.

How do you know your credit score?
To know where your credit score, you need to request a credit report from a Credit Reporting Agency (CRA). There are three main CRAs you can work with; Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. It would help if you requested a credit report from all three companies and evaluate/scrutinize them properly since there may be some form of inaccurate reporting with one of the agencies.

Many financial institutions; including banks, credit card companies and loan companies also provide credit score information to their customers. Remember to check your credit score regularly to ensure you have the most updated figure.

Major factors affecting credit score

The credit score you get from a CRA is a representation of these 5 major components:
•    Your credit payment history
•    The amount you currently owe lenders
•    The span of your credit history
•    Your current types of credit (loans and credit card accounts)
•    The lines of credit you have opened recently

All these elements vary from person to person and so are the credit scores. Keeping this in mind, you should first understand that a 590 credit score has a part of each of the above components influencing it.

So, what does a 590 credit score mean or represent?

There is no better way to understand this than to look at the FICO credit score ratings. Here’s the breakdown:
•    300 to 579-Bad
•    580 to 669-Fair
•    670 to-739-Good
•    740 to 799-Very good
•    800 to 850-Exceptional

Note that your chances of getting financial assistance from lenders increases as your credit score increases.

It is clear that the 590 credit score falls in the ‘Fair’ range and the implication is that people with this credit score have limited financial support options. This opens up our next discussion below.

Is there financial assistance limitations when you have a 590 credit score?

With a credit score of 590, some lenders will always associate you with some level of payment risk; hence, it will be fairly difficult for them to accept your loan applications.

But does this mean that you cannot access credit or financial assistance at all with a credit score of 590? The answer is No, as there are lenders who even give loans to people with bad credit.

For this credit score, you will find a good number of subprime lenders ready to give you financial aid. However, you need to do your research well and find a reliable lender as some of them are fond of charging high-interest rates or simply take advantage of your lower credit score situation.

If you have bigger financial projects that require decent funding, you should go for personal loans offered for the 590 credit scores. Again check the interest rates with several companies to ensure that you are working with the best in terms of affordability.

Credits cards are an excellent way to get a few hundred dollars with this credit score. Credit cards can help you settle your minor financial commitment as you try and work to improve your credit score for larger loan amounts.

Before we explore how you can build and improve your credit score, let’s first look at the most suitable credit cards for the main credit ratings.
Note that these are CNBC’s latest recommendations and so they can be faced out by others with time.

•    Bad credit- Discover it, Capital One, DCU Visa, and Open Sky. Most cards here are secured.
•    Fair credit- Keep in mind that this is where our credit score falls. Perfect credit cards here are Petal 2, Capital One, and Quicksilver One.
•    Good credit- Capital One, Venture, Chase Freedom Flex, Wells Fargo Propel American Express, and City Simplicity.
•    Excellent credit- The American Express Gold Card, Citi Simplicity Card, and Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Now let’s build up this discussion by looking at the practical strategies you can use to improve your credit score.

How to improve your 590 credit score

With a credit score of 590, you only need 80 points to get to the ‘Good’ rating. This should, of course, be your short term goal as you can even improve your credit score to better ratings following the correct strategies. Here are a few ways to get you started:

•    Leverage a credit builder loan – A credit builder loan is a type of loan specifically meant to show the Credit Union your ability to make monthly payments until the entire loan is paid off. You can take this as both a saving strategy and an opportunity to improve your credit score.
•    Go for a secured credit card– As mentioned above, you can access financial aid through secured credit cards even when you have a lower credit score. As long as you keep the card’s usage below 30% and commit to all your monthly installments, this strategy can help improve your credit score.
•    Lower your debt usage- If you manage your money well, you can reduce your credit utilization rates and, in turn, improve your credit. A 0% credit utilization rate is the best, but since sometimes credit is unavoidable, just make sure that the rate is below 30%.

Additional tips:
•    Pay off debts and keep your credit card balances as low as possible
•    Pay your bills on time
•    Reduce your new credit application

Closing thoughts
Hopefully, you now know what a 590 credit score means and how it can affect your financial options. Although you can still get some form of funding (low amount loans with just fair interest rates) with this credit score, you stand a chance of getting even higher amounts and better loan terms if you follow the strategies discussed above.

To ensure that your credit score is always in check, take full responsibility for managing all the credit associated with you and always be ready to talk to your financial lender when things get rough and you are unable to repay the loans.  always be mindful of your spending and always keep track of What is left over.