Experian bands and what they unlock
Experian's 0-999 scale is the most widely-quoted in the UK. Roughly: 0-560 Very Poor, 561-720 Poor, 721-880 Fair, 881-960 Good, 961+ Excellent.
For car finance, Good (881+) opens prime lenders and rates from 9.9% APR. Fair typically means 13-19% APR at near-prime lenders. Poor and Very Poor route to specialist bad-credit lenders at 21-35% APR.
Equifax and TransUnion equivalents
Equifax uses 0-1000; TransUnion 0-710. Mainstream lenders check at least one, sometimes all three. It's not unusual to have very different scores across the bureaux — a 750 on Equifax roughly equates to 850 on Experian.
Score isn't everything
Affordability, employment stability, deposit and existing debt all weigh alongside score. A 720 Experian score with rock-solid income and a small deposit will often out-perform an 820 score with irregular income and heavy card usage.
The 60-second sanity check
Use a soft-search quote before applying anywhere. It tells you the exact rate you qualify for right now, without touching your file. Any reputable UK broker does this by default.
