Super-Prime Credit

Super-prime credit is a credit score that is at the highest end of a credit bureau’s score range. Consumers with super-prime credit are considered to have excellent credit and pose the least risk to lenders and creditors. Lenders and credit card companies offer their best loans and cards with the lowest interest rates and most favorable terms to consumers with super-prime credit since they are considered to be the lowest risk consumers.

Each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — has its own credit score range. For Equifax, it’s 280 to 850. Experian's range is 330 to 830. TransUnion is 150 to 950. Having super-prime credit means having a score near the top of these ranges. Experian, for example, considers a credit score of 740 or above to be super prime. Consumers with slightly lower scores, in the 680 to 739 score range, are considered prime borrowers and are also offered very good terms, though their interest rates may be slightly higher than what super-prime borrowers pay.

For example, if a super-prime borrower can get an auto loan at 2.7% APR, a prime borrower might get the same loan at 3.1% APR. Most of the new credit and loans that banks issue go to super-prime and prime borrowers because these consumers are the most likely to repay what they owe. In markets where credit is tight, super-prime borrowers are more likely to retain access to credit than subprime, near-prime and sometimes even prime borrowers.

A consumer’s credit score and classification as super-prime, prime, near-prime or subprime can vary by credit bureau for two reasons. One, the consumer’s credit file with each bureau may have somewhat different information, because some lenders only report to one or two of the three bureaus. Two, each bureau uses a different method of calculating credit scores. As a result, a consumer that one bureau classifies as super prime might be classified as prime by another bureau.