re: Credit score ranges: Can someone give me a definitive answer to this?

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The best thing is just to monitor your report at least once/year to prevent fraud and inaccuracies. If you do that, while keeping your balance-to-limit ratios low and paying notes on time, then your score will fall where it needs to be.

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This. The purpose of a credit score (whoever issues it) is to figure out how likely you are to default. That is the number that actually matters - not the score itself.

But you should be able to have a reasonably good sense of where you stand just by looking over your report (not the score). If you have no 30 day lates at all and a credit history of 5+ years, you're in decent shape at least and the exact score isn't all that important.

Don't worry overly much about things like how much you have borrowed, how many times you've made an inquiry, etc. They are minor. It's pretty simple - if you have a record of being late 30 days more than once then your score is in the shitter. If that has never happened then to varying degrees you're okay.