What is your score actually costing you?
Everyone talks about credit scores as a number. Nobody shows you the number in dollars. Set your score and what you owe, and see the ten-year gap between where you are and where an 800 sits.
Where your credit sits today
Not sure? Pull all three reports free at annualcreditreport.com. Pick the middle one.
What you borrow
Set to zero if you rent or own outright.
What you would finance on your next vehicle.
The balance that does not get paid off each month. Set to zero if you always clear it.
Your 800 Gap
Extra interest over 10 years compared with an 800-tier borrower
That is roughly $0 a month you are paying for a gap in information rather than a gap in character.
Inside you get the courses, the dispute letter builder and the rest of the toolkit. Free, no card. Members book a free 15-minute Zoom with Lynden whenever they want one.
Illustrative estimate only.
How this is calculated, in full
You should be able to check the arithmetic on anything that tells you a number about your money. Here is exactly what this does.
The assumption. Each score band is assigned a representative APR drawn from typical published lending patterns for that band. These are general market patterns, not your actual offer, and rates move constantly.
| Score band | Mortgage (30 yr) | Auto (60 mo) | Credit card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 580 | 9.50% | 17.50% | 29.90% |
| 580–639 | 8.50% | 13.50% | 27.50% |
| 640–699 | 7.60% | 9.50% | 24.50% |
| 700–759 | 7.00% | 7.00% | 21.00% |
| 760+ | 6.60% | 5.50% | 18.50% |
| 800 tier (the comparison) | 6.50% | 5.20% | 17.50% |
The maths. Mortgage and auto figures use standard amortization: the monthly payment at your band's rate minus the monthly payment at the 800-tier rate, multiplied out over ten years. The auto figure assumes two consecutive 60-month loans across that decade. The credit card figure applies the rate difference to the balance you said you carry, for ten years.
What it is not. It is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of what any lender will give you. Your actual rate depends on far more than your score, including income, debt-to-income ratio, down payment, loan term, the property or vehicle, your state and the individual lender's pricing on the day.
The point of the number is not precision. It is scale. Most people have never seen the cost of their credit expressed as a figure they could otherwise have spent, and seeing it tends to change what they do next.
Now go and close it
The gap is one number. The courses, the dispute letter builder and the utilization tools that actually shrink it are inside the free community, and they cost nothing.