With the crisis in the nation's financial industry, lenders are getting much more stingy with extending credit to applicants. One thing you'll probably see: a higher credit score is now needed to qualify for the best deals, interests rates, etc. The consensus among lenders, credit card companies and others seems to now be:

Credit score of:
720-850       Very good
620-720       Good
620 or less   Bad (subprime)

These numbers are about 20-40 points higher than they used to be. In other words, in the past if you had a credit score of 620, you were considered "good." Now, that would put you in the "subprime" category, which means a lot of lenders would either turn you down or give you less favorable terms for your credit.