Is 700 a Good Credit Score in Canada?

What 700 means on the Canadian scale

Canadian credit scores run from 300 to 900. A score of 700 sits in the band the bureaus and most lenders call good, comfortably above the midpoint of the scale and inside the range where mainstream lenders approve without treating the file as a risk case. It is a score that opens most doors. It is not the score that opens them at the lowest price.

The distinction matters because the scale is not linear in how lenders read it. The difference between 640 and 700 is the difference between a specialist lender and a bank. The difference between 700 and 760 is the difference between a bank's standard rate and its best one. Both gaps are sixty points; only one of them changes who will lend to you.

Look up your own score

If you searched for a score other than 700, this is the table you want. The good, very good and excellent boundaries are the ones Equifax Canada publishes; lenders draw their own lines near these but rarely far from them.

Score	Band	What it generally means
300 to 559	Poor	Specialist lenders, higher rates, security or a co-signer often required
560 to 659	Fair	Approval likely at online lenders, some banks with conditions, rates above standard
660 to 724	Good	Mainstream approval at standard rates. A 700 sits here
725 to 759	Very good	Standard approval, better than standard pricing, higher limits
760 to 900	Excellent	Best advertised rates, highest limits, negotiating position

So a 706 or a 720 is the same band as 700 and gets treated the same way. A 732 has crossed into very good, which is where pricing starts to improve. A 754 is one step from the top band. The table answers the question for any score; the sections below explain what the good band actually buys.

What 700 gets you approved for

Personal loans from banks and credit unions, at standard rather than promotional rates. You are past the point where a bank needs a reason to say yes.
Most credit cards, including rewards cards. The premium cards with the highest limits and lowest rates typically want 760 and up.
A mortgage with an A-lender, subject to income and the stress test, which are the real constraints at this score. Covered below.
Car financing at dealer rates, usually without the subprime markup.
A line of credit, though limits and rates improve noticeably in the next band.

What 700 does not get you

Honest answers here save applications. At 700 you are approved for most products, but you are not offered the best version of them.

The lowest advertised rate. "Rates from" figures are priced for 760 and above. At 700 expect the middle of a lender's range, not the bottom.
The highest limits. Card and line-of-credit limits scale with the band. A 700 file gets a solid limit; a 780 file gets a larger one for the same income.
Premium cards. The travel and cashback cards with the richest terms usually set their floor around 760.
Negotiating room. A bank will lend to a 700. It will negotiate with a 780. That is a real difference at mortgage renewal.

None of this is a reason to wait. It is a reason to compare offers within your band rather than applying for the product advertised at a band above it.

What borrowers at 700 actually request

A score changes not just what you can borrow but what you ask for. Across Smarter Loans personal loan applications from August 2025 to July 2026, the average amount requested for debt consolidation rose sharply with the borrower's TransUnion score band:

How much people ask for to consolidate debt, by credit score band

View as table

Under 560	$5,529
560 to 659	$6,866
660 to 724	$10,227
725 and above	n/a

Source: Smarter Loans personal loan applications, August 2025 to July 2026.

n/a marks fewer than 100 applications.

Applicants in the good band, where 700 sits, requested an average of $10,227 in Smarter Loans personal loan applications from August 2025 to July 2026, against $6,866 one band down. That gap is not appetite. Better credit opens larger loans at rates that make consolidating more of a debt load worthwhile, so borrowers at 700 use the score to clear more. If you are at 700 and consolidating, a request in that range is what lenders see from files like yours every day.

What one band is worth, in dollars

$10,000 over 36 months: good band against fair band

Route	Monthly payment	Months to clear	Total interest
Good band (660 to 724)	$332.10 a month	36 months	$1,955.43 interest (11.99%)
Fair band (560 to 659)	$387.05 a month	36 months	$3,933.62 interest (22.99%)

The same loan costs roughly twice as much one band down, which is what the sixty points between 640 and 700 are actually worth and why crossing into the good band matters more than any step above it.

Illustrative example, not quoted offers: $10,000 over 36 months at an illustrative 11.99% APR in the good band and 22.99% APR in the fair band, fixed payments, no fees.

To price your own borrowing at your own score band, the personal loan calculator takes any amount, rate and term.

A mortgage at 700

At 700 the score is not what decides your mortgage. Lenders generally want 650 or better for a conventional mortgage with an A-lender, and 700 clears that with room. What decides it from here is income against the payment under the stress test, your down payment, and your other debts. A 700 borrower with a clean debt-to-income ratio is a straightforward file; a 780 borrower carrying too much other debt is not. Our guide to which lender is best for your mortgage covers how the lender types treat different files.

Getting past 700

If you are just under 700 and want to cross it, or at 700 and want the next band, the levers are the same ones that built the score: utilisation below a third of your limits, every payment on time, no new applications in a cluster, and time. The step from 700 to 760 is mostly patience with a clean file. Our guide to how to rebuild credit in Canada covers the order to work through, including how long each stage tends to take.

At 700 you qualify for the mainstream market. One application compares what lenders offer a file like yours.