Can I use a credit score as leverage for a lower interest rate when seeking a loan or line of credit?
• It is never a bad idea to work with issuers and lenders to reduce your interest rate. You definitely have more leverage if a credit score puts you in the low risk range. However, because there are many different credit scores, the model used to calculate the score you obtain, and the score itself, may be different than the one the lender uses in making its decision. For instance, you may get a generic credit risk score from Experian, but an auto lender might use its own custom scoring model with a different scale, so the numbers won’t be the same but will likely represent a similar level of risk.
