If you’ve recently found out your credit score, you’re one step closer to understanding how potential lenders judge you when you apply for credit cards or loans. But what does your specific credit score actually mean? Is your score good or bad? We’re here to help!

Choose the range below into which your score falls to see exactly what your score means in the real world:

• Over 760. That’s excellent!
• Between 700 – 759. That’s still good.
• Between 650 – 699. Only average.
• Under 650. That’s bad.

Credit Score Over 760? That’s Excellent!

If you have a credit score over 760 (out of a possible 850), congratulations! You have excellent credit!

What does excellent credit get me?

Excellent credit gets you the best of the best when you’re applying for a credit card, mortgage loan, or other financing. You do not have to worry about whether or not your application will get approved, because lenders are hungry for borrowers like you! That means they will give you their lowest interest rates and possibly other perks, too, such as richer credit card rewards or waived fees that those with worse credit might have to pay.

Your long history of paying your bills on time and not piling up too much debt shows that you can handle credit. Strangely enough, once you show you can handle credit, lenders start falling over themselves to give you more and more credit, even when you no longer need it. For you, that’s a good problem to have.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

We all know that professional athletes make a lot of money — millionaire athletes are commonplace, right? But being a billionaire? That’s a whole ‘nother level. (A billion is a thousand millions!)

Which athletes in the world of sports have reached billionaire status? For the most part we can only guess based on past earnings, though in at least one case we can be very sure. Here’s a list of athletes that have reached at least a billion in net worth or are very close:

1. Michael Jordan – Perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time, the vast majority of Jordan’s initial wealth actually came off the court from endorsements. What really pushed him over the top into billionaire status, though, is his majority ownership stake in the Charlotte Hornets. (He owns an estimated 90% of the team.) The Hornets are worth at least $1 billion, given recent sales of NBA teams, meaning that Jordan’s stake in the team might make him a billionaire even without any of his other money. Forbes estimates his net worth at $2.1 billion.

2. Tiger Woods – At one point, it seemed like a no-brainer to say that Tiger Woods was a billionaire, what with his many major golf tournament championships and his even more plentiful endorsements. But then he got divorced. And then he got hurt. So, some of those earnings are no longer in his pocket. Still, with a comeback of sorts over the last couple of years to add to his earlier pots of gold, he’s gotta be close, right? He’s the top lifetime earner on the PGA Tour, but that “only” accounts for a little over $100 million, so it’s really the many endorsement deals he’s had over his career that put him in the billionaire sphere. Woods has claimed he’s not a billionaire, but we think he’s just trying to look humble! Estimated net worth: $1 billion.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

I hate buying cars. I hate going in and dealing with the salespeople. I always feel like there are a lot of fake niceties but in the end their goal is to sell me a car at the highest possible price and make a sucker out of me. I hate feeling like I’ve been played for a fool.

So, for the second time in the last 10 years, my wife and I bought a car through the Costco Auto Program. This time, though, the process included an unintended experiment, which added to my appreciation of the Costco car buying experience. I’ll tell you about that experiment in a moment.

A quick review of how the Costco Auto Program works

Costco does not sell you a car directly. Instead, Costco has a network of dealers it works with, and it sets firm prices on car models with those dealers. The price you get will probably be invoice + $500, but not always.

There is usually a dedicated person at the dealership who deals with Costco customers. He or she has a whole book that details what each model sells for; you can ask to see that if it is not volunteered by the sales person. Note that some dealerships leave out certain models from the program, usually popular models that they think they can sell at a higher price without Costco’s help.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Not all practice is equal. If you like to golf, going to a driving range and hitting a bucket of balls is practice. It keeps you in a sort of rhythm so you don’t get worse. But it doesn’t necessarily help you improve.

On the other hand, if you do “deliberate practice” (a term coined by peak performance psychologist Anders Ericcson), you wouldn’t just drive some balls — instead, you’d have very specific targets to hit, you might bring a coach to watch your swing, you’d write down what felt different when you had an especially good drive. You’d go further than mindless practice that only maintains the status quo. You’d reach higher.

You can use deliberate practice regardless of your goals. This includes making money, investing money, or saving money.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

I was talking to my wife a while back about a friend I had in high school whose parents made $60,000 between them and how rich I thought they were despite having a fairly modest lifestyle. (I can not remember how I learned of their income.) I was sort of laughing at my younger self, thinking $60,000 had been a fine income but not that big of a deal.

My wife said, “Well, that probably would be a lot of money today, probably double now. They’d probably be making $120,000. That’s good money.”

“No!” I protested. “It wouldn’t be that much different today.”

“You don’t think so? That was over 30 years ago.”

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Everyone thinks they have the secret to getting cheap flights, but the truth is that there is no single flight search engine or website that is always going to show you the cheapest price. Your best bet is to have a few go-to sites that you use to compare flights. One of them will usually have that cheap price you’re looking for, or you’ll quickly realize that they all currently have the same pricing available at that particular time.

Below we offer our list of the 10 best sites to search for cheap flights, whether you are searching for exact dates and times or you have some flexibility and want to keep your eyes open for good deals to a desired destination. (Honestly you could probably just use the first three and be satisfied.) IMPORTANT: Not all airlines show up on all search engines (Southwest in particular), so you may want to check directly with the airlines as well to compare the prices you see on any search engine.

#1. Momondo – Momondo is a “meta” search site, which means you find your travel deal here but book your travel directly with travel providers. This matters little to you as the end user, but sometimes it feels like Momondo finds prices you don’t see elsewhere, and that “meta” search aspect may be why.

A couple features to like in particular:

• “Cheapest” and “Best” and “Quickest” flight options are offered at the top of the search page, with prices and length of flight displayed. This is a nice way to see in a glance your options — for example, if the Cheapest flight is only $20 less than the Best flight but it would take you an additional 6 hours to arrive at your destination, you can quickly take that into account.
• “Flight Insights” give you a nice visual way to see how much you might save if you were flexible with your travel instead of being committed to exact travel dates. (Some other sites actually display the alternate travel dates right in the main search results, which DRIVES ME BANANAS — if I enter exact dates, I don’t mind you suggesting other dates in the way Momondo does, but I don’t want them in my main results, because then I might think I’ve found a great deal only to realize it’s for dates I can’t travel!)

Below we rank the main Citi-branded credit cards (Citicards) and give a short review of each card to help you see which (if any) is right for you. Note that we’ve listed the student and secured Citi cards at the bottom in a separate area, because they are intended only for certain types of cardholders. Also, we have not included co-brand cards issued by Citibank such as the Costco credit cards or cards from American Airlines.

Citi Double Cash Card – Our favorite Citicard gives you 2% cash back on everything you buy, although you get that 2% back in an unorthodox way: 1% cash back when you make the purchase, and then 1% cash back when you pay off your purchases. No annual fee. Who It’s For: If you want a great cash back card that doesn’t require you to keep track of various spending categories in order to maximize your return, start here.

Citi Prestige Card – This is Citi’s high-end travel credit card, meaning it has a high annual fee but also loads of perks. Annual fee is $495, but perks include a $250 travel credit each year, access to over 1,000 airport lounges, a 4th night free hotel stay when you book a stay of four consecutive nights at the same hotel, and more. Plus, you earn Citi ThankYou points: 5 points per dollar on air travel and dining purchases, 3 points per dollar at hotels and cruise lines, and 1 point per dollar on everything else. Has a 50,000-point bonus opportunity for new cardholders. Who It’s For: Anyone that can take advantage of both the 4th-night-free offer AND the $250 travel credit might want this card, especially with its generous points on travel and dining. However, if you can’t take advantage of the 4th night free or max out that travel credit, the card’s annual fee will not be worth it.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

There is no reason for you to EVER pay to see your credit score. First off, there are plenty of ways to see your estimated score for free. Second, every lender uses a slightly different scoring system, so a paid score is no more valid than a score you got for free.

Remember, every credit score you see is only an estimate! All scores free or paid are going to put you in a similar range, so don’t stress out about where you got your score and whether you paid for it!

That said, here are some options to get a free credit score with no credit card required and without any hidden charges:

• Discover Credit Scorecard – Offers a free FICO credit score from the credit bureau Experian. You do not need to be a Discover credit card holder to use this, and there is no hidden charge or other string attached.
• Capital One CreditWise – You do not have to be a Capital One customer to get a free credit score using this service. This is a VantageScore credit score provided in partnership with the credit bureau TransUnion.

Credit Karma is a Web site known mostly for the fact that it offers free credit scores, and was one of the first sites to do so. In the past, when free credit scores seemed only to be a come-on to trick you into some sort of credit monitoring subscription service, many people wondered if Credit Karma was legitimate or just another scam pulling a bait-and-switch. However, then as now, Credit Karma does offer free credit scores with no real strings attached, other than the fact that they most definitely want to use those scores as an entry point to other things.

In our eyes, Credit Karma asks for too much personal information before it will give you your free credit score. We’d suggest you look at other ways to get your free credit score (including FICO scores) before giving up so much info to Credit Karma. These days there are a ton of free options out there.

See, Credit Karma makes its money by providing leads to other financial companies, with credit cards being the big fish. If you’ve just looked up your credit score at Credit Karma, you might be in the market for a credit card, yes? So, if you ever wondered how Credit Karma could give free credit scores, you can be sure they are making more than enough money on the back end to make those scores a simple marketing cost. And the best way to sell you on other financial products is to get as much of your personal information as possible, more than they really need. But we’ll get back to that.

• Average consumer credit card interest rate: 18.24%
• Average small business credit card interest rate: 17.17%
• Average retail store credit card interest rate: 25.09%

Analysis

In the approximately 18 months since our last report, the average credit card rate on mass market consumer credit cards has actually barely moved — it is now 18.24%, up from 17.99% in August of 2018.

Nevertheless, credit card rates are at all-time highs, so the relative stability is not a lot to cheer about.

Rates By Card Type

In addition to the overall market average noted above, we also track reward credit cards vs. non-reward credit cards to showcase the difference that forgoing rewards (or not) can have on the interest you’ll pay if you ever carry a balance. Our rule-of-thumb is that a rewards card will generally charge 2 percentage points more on average than a card with no rewards. Our current calculations roughly bear this out:

• Consumer credit cards that do not offer rewards have an average interest rate of 17.20%
• Consumer credit cards with rewards programs have an average interest rate of 19.00%