He may be the richest person in the world, but Warren Buffet’s credit score won’t get him the best interest rates. According to Fortune, when Buffet pulled his credit report recently, he learned his score is 718, two points lower than the cutoff for the best interest rates.
To be clear, 718 is a good score, but it isn’t great. On a $300,000 home loan, the difference between a 718 credit score and a 720 credit score could be as much as $8,640. Buffet will probably survive—he’s worth $62 billion dollars—but he serves a good lesson: salary and net worth have nothing to do with a credit score.
Your credit score is a sign of your financial reputation. Regardless of whether you make $10,000 a year or $1 million a year, your credit score will determine the interest you pay on your home loan, car loan, or credit card. In fact, I recently processed two loans at the same time: one was for a CEO, the other for her assistant. The CEO’s assistant, who made one-tenth of his boss’s salary, had a much higher credit score than his millionaire boss.
The article goes on to say Buffet’s subpar score is a result of identity theft. Even someone as famous, protected, and well advised as Buffet can become a victim of fraud, yet another reason to regularly pull and monitor your credit report.
