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569 Credit score: What You Need to Know in 2025
July 1, 2025
TL;DR
While a 569 credit score indicates there's room for improvement, it's a starting point on the path to building a stronger credit profile. This score falls within the "poor" FICO range, highlighting clear opportunities to take control and enhance your financial health.
What Does a 569 Credit Score Mean?
A 569 credit score falls into the "poor" category of the FICO scoring model, which ranges from 300 to 850. Lenders generally view scores below 580 as a sign of significant credit risk, often stemming from a history of payment issues, high debt, or other negative financial events. This score indicates to potential creditors that you may have difficulty managing and repaying new debt, making them cautious about extending you credit.
With this score, your financial options will be limited. You'll likely face difficulty getting approved for new loans or credit cards. If you are approved, it will probably be with very high interest rates and less-than-favorable terms, making borrowing significantly more expensive. While a 569 score presents considerable hurdles, it's important to understand that credit scores are dynamic and can change over time as your financial habits evolve.
Who Has a 569 Credit Score?
Your age doesn't directly factor into your credit score, but there's a strong correlation between age and the average score. Older generations have had more time to build a positive payment history and a longer credit history, which are key scoring factors. Here’s how average credit scores break down by generation as of 2023:
- Generation Z (ages 18-26): 680
- Millennials (ages 27-42): 690
- Generation X (ages 43-58): 709
- Baby Boomers (ages 59-77): 745
- The Silent Generation (ages 78+): 760
Credit Cards With a 569 Credit Score
A credit score of 569 places you in the "poor" credit category, which can significantly impact your ability to get approved for a new credit card. Most lenders view scores in this range as high-risk, meaning you may face outright denials for many conventional, unsecured cards. While it's not impossible to get a card, your options will likely be restricted to secured cards that require a cash deposit or specific credit-builder cards with less favorable terms.
Kudos offers AI-powered tools like Dream Wallet that analyze your unique spending habits and financial needs to provide personalized recommendations. These tools help you compare options from a database of nearly 3,000 cards and even offer insights into how applying for a new card may impact your credit score.
Auto Loans and a 569 Credit Score
A 569 credit score places you in the subprime borrower category, which can make securing an auto loan more challenging. While you may still get approved, lenders will likely offer you a significantly higher interest rate, making the loan more expensive over its lifetime.
- Super-prime (781-850): 5.25% for new cars, 7.13% for used cars
- Prime (661-780): 6.87% for new cars, 9.36% for used cars
- Non-prime (601-660): 9.83% for new cars, 13.92% for used cars
- Subprime (501-600): 13.18% for new cars, 18.86% for used cars
- Deep subprime (300-500): 15.77% for new cars, 21.55% for used cars
Mortgages at a 569 Credit Score
A 569 credit score significantly narrows your mortgage options, but homeownership isn't entirely off the table. Your most viable path is likely an FHA loan. With a score below 580, FHA guidelines require a down payment of at least 10%. Conventional and jumbo loans are generally unavailable, as they require scores of 620 or higher. While VA and USDA loans have no official minimum score, it's rare for lenders to approve an application with a score in this range.
If you do secure a loan, your 569 credit score will lead to less favorable terms. You can expect a higher interest rate, which increases the overall cost of your mortgage. Lenders will also scrutinize your financial history more closely through a process called manual underwriting. This, combined with the larger down payment requirement, makes qualifying more challenging and the loan itself more expensive than for borrowers with stronger credit profiles.
What's in a Credit Score?
Understanding your credit score can feel like trying to solve a complex puzzle, as it's a blend of several key financial habits. The most common factors that determine your score include:
- Your payment history tracks whether you have paid past credit accounts on time.
- Credit utilization is the percentage of your available credit that you are currently using.
- The length of your credit history considers the age of your oldest account and the average age of all your accounts.
- Credit mix refers to the variety of credit products you have, such as credit cards, retail accounts, and loans.
- New credit inquiries and recently opened accounts can also temporarily impact your score.
How to Improve Your 569 Credit Score
Having a 569 credit score is not a permanent financial sentence; your score plays a crucial role in your financial life, and it is always possible to improve it with consistent effort. Here are several proven methods you can use to begin raising your score:
- Monitor your credit reports. Checking your free credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com allows you to find and dispute inaccuracies or fraudulent activity that may be dragging down your score. This ensures your 569 score is based on correct information, giving you a true baseline to improve upon.
- Establish automatic bill payments. Payment history is the most significant factor in your score, so setting up automatic payments is a simple way to prevent late or missed payments. For a 569 score, this is a critical step to stop any further damage and start building a positive history.
- Reduce your credit utilization ratio. This ratio is the second-largest component of your score, and keeping your balance below 30% of your credit limit is ideal. Paying down your existing balances is one of the fastest ways to give a 569 credit score a significant boost.
- Become an authorized user. Being added to a credit card account of a trusted person with a good credit history can add their positive payment data to your own credit file. This can help build your credit history and lower your overall utilization, which is especially helpful when recovering from a 569 score.
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