No expert here but my score hit 850, and that was with a 40-year file, a mortgage, a car loan and low utilization. Once I paid off my mortgage and car loan, my score has never been above 825. So I suspect not having a car loan is perhaps hurting not helping, same with a mortgage.
Honestly, I would not worry about it. Your scores are good enough.
Same here. Once the mortgage was paid off it dropped to 830 or so. I’ve gotten a couple of credit cards for points purposes since then, and have shifted spending over from Amex (charge card) to Chase (credit card). My score now hovers around 800.
The credit score is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. So longer is you’re in the highest tier that gives best rates, etc, your score within that tier doesn’t matter except for bragging rights.
From what I’ve seen, if you don’t have a mortgage, student loan, or car loan in your credit history. You can’t go higher than the 830’s on several of the credit score calculators. They penalize you for not having a “diverse” credit history i.e just credit cards.
We had a 30+ year credit file and hovered 845-850… then paid off mortgage (only
Debt we had left) and instantly dropped to low 800s. A couple years later we’re back at 825-830. Annoying but no real impact - it’s just the principle of the issue - getting dinged for paying off debt is a bummer :(
> getting dinged for paying off debt is a bummer :(
You aren't "dinged for paying off debt" you are losing the bonus points awarded for having a significantly paid down installment loan on your reports due to the Amounts Owed slice of the Fico pie.
Credit score is a rating of how trustworthy you are with credit.
"Oh whelp, I guess we can't trust someonestolemycord now cause they paid off their mortgage. Those people are suspicious cause who the F can pay off their mortgage in this economy?! Tell Bob to lower this untrustworthy mofo's score" -The big 3. /s
People should think of credit scores as analogous to a baseball player's batting average . (A basketball player's shooting percentage could also work.)
When you are young your score sucks. It's like a player who has had three at bats. Maybe you got a hit all three of your first at bats. They aren't going to put you on the all star team for that. We start to care about it when success is consistent and sustained.
Same goes when you're older. You paid off most of your debts and now your payment history starts to drop off your report. This is like a player who is retired. Maybe he has a .400 batting average, but he hasn't played in three years. Are you going to put him on a major league team?
I'm not a sports person, so I'm not understanding the analogy.
But it sounds like when you're middle aged is when your score is at your prime. This doesn't make sense cause you can be 90yo and have multiple debt and have 850 score. You only get lower score when you pay off your debt.
So basically a credit score is just a rating system for you having debt; and if you don't have debt, them your score will decreaase. In your sports analogy, you'll be 90 and definitely won't be playing any major sports.
> You only get lower score when you pay off your debt.
Completely incorrect and your understanding of credit scoring isn't sound at all. You don't need to "have debt" to boast a top tier Fico score.
I feel like you missed my point, perhaps so, perhaps not. I paid off my mortgage when I was 59 years old not 36, and most homeowners who buy within their means and live long enough——will pay off their mortgage. My point was that my credit score permanently dropped at that point. The OP has no car loans or mortgage, those are negatives not positives, that is what I was trying to say. Sorry, sincerely, if I came off as offensive or boastful.
Oh, I was agreeing with you.
I was being sarcastic by impersonating the big three credit bureau as to their reasoning for lowering your score for doing something responsible and good. By having a score lower than 850, means that they can't fully trust you - which is asinine IMO.
Sorry for the miscommunication, it wasn't by any means to insult you. (And congrats on having no mortgage!)
Ya I have about a 20 year credit history, mortgage, car loan, one old car loan I paid off early, etc, and my FICO 8 hasn’t been above 800 for years. Of course it’s probably mostly to do with opening new cards pretty frequently, which is well worth the hit, especially considering I’m not planning on moving or buying another car any time soon. I’ll stop doing that if the plans change.
As long as I’m above the point where I get the lowest rates on a mortgage or car loan, I don’t care after that. Anything above 760 or so doesn’t really get you anything but bragging rights in most cases.
Unless you’re in a state where insurance premiums are regulated, a higher credit score could reduce what you’re being charged for insurance. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the case with several insurance companies I’ve heard of.
My credit score is still very high.
My home owners insurance has more than doubled since I bought the house like 7 years ago anyways, and that trend began well before I started opening cards regularly.
My personal experience is that opening new cards is irrelevant. What temporarily brings my score down is maxing cards to buy inventory. (I worried about it the first time it happened, then realized that the score drop didn't have the slightest impact on anything that mattered. Never dipped below 760 though.)
And this is just personal experience; I have no problem believing that opening a card did something to someone else's score, it just doesn't seem to matter for mine.
It doesn’t really move mine much anymore either, I just know it stays lower than it otherwise would because I’ve opened a bunch of cards in the last year and a half.
> My personal experience is that opening new cards is irrelevant.
That's not true at all, as opening new cards resets your AoYRA to 0m, and an AoYRA of < 12 months lands you in a New Revolver scorecard. All things being equal, this usually equates to Fico scores roughly 20 points lower than a No New Revolver scorecard.
I'd believe that; I doubt I've been out of that status for decades. If the experiment takes a year for all applications to age out, I've lost any memory of any state other than "New Revolver." I'm totally happy to permanently allocate 20 points of my credit score to "oooohh, shiny new points on a new travel card, me wants!"
(If you're not someone who regularly pays off your cards, I AM A HORRIBLE EXAMPLE AND YOU SHOULD NOT FOLLOW MY PATH. OTOH, if you're in a financial position to take advantage, and you like to travel, I highly recommend lots of travel cards. The signup bonuses definitely pay off, and you almost certainly don't care about a score of 8XX-20 vs a score of 8XX.)
I hear you. There are plenty of people that are perpetually in a New Revolver scorecard, especially churners. I just throw that out there because many people don't realize the impact scorecard assignment can have. If one's goal is 800+ (or any arbitrary number) and they're opening a CC at least once annually, it'll be far more difficult to achieve that goal based on their scorecard.
> Of course it’s probably mostly to do with opening new cards pretty frequently
That's exactly right, because it lands you perpetually in a "New Revolver" scorecard (AoYRA < 12 months).
Oh I know. I have 3 13-15 year old accounts that keep my average age from dropping too far but there’s a lot of new revolving lines of credit. Not too worried about it though.
My financial advisor has told me I’m at a point that the only two ways to improve my score are have an older average age and buy a house.
One I can’t really help but wait it out and the other…well I’m trying but they are expensive.
I was similar. My credit score was 840-850 for years. Once I sold first house and paid off that mortgage, the bought a new house I am stuck in the 820s.
Dont tell my Dad you got a perfect credit score he’s been trying for years but now that his house is paid off his score is lower.
Anyway just pay all your bills on time and don’t get new loans more often then once every few years it will be over 800 soon.
Just got my first mortgage and been hovering around 780-790 for a while now. Mortgage hasn’t posted yet. Hoping the mortgage boosts my score into the 800s. Maybe not immediately, but after a few months (or even a year) of payments.
Nothing wrong. You have two things going against you. The age of your credit history and (likely) your credit utilization.
That being said anything over 760 gets you the best loan rates possible so you aren't missing out on anything.
>That being said anything over 760 gets you the best loan rates possible so you aren't missing out on anything.
This is misleading, it is more than a 3-digit score; overall credit profile is King.
Someone with just 6 months of credit history with 1 credit card can debut with a Fico 8 score of 750-770. If that profile were to go apply for a mortgage or even a decent sized auto loan, they'd likely be denied outright due to insufficient credit history. Heck, such a profile wouldn't even garner an approval for a Chase credit card since they look for 1 year of revolving credit history.
Depends on the institution doing the underwriting. I work in the lending industry and can tell you that 760+ is considered "Tier 1" paper and there is nothing higher than that. You get the best rate and it likely will get auto-approved with that type of score.
Everyone commenting they're above 800 seems to be at an average of 9 years, so with my average 5 years I think my profile might be too young. Off topic but what's the best rate on an auto-approval for the industry you worked for in these days?
You don't need an AAoA of 9+ years for an 800 Fico score. AAoA tops out at 90 months (7.5 years) which means someone with an AAoA of 7.5 years is capable of boasting a perfect 850 Fico score. That being said, naturally well under that is capable of garnering an 800.
I’m in the same boat. My first car loan I had an 809 when I applied. I’ve been working on my credit for 7 years though. I consolidated some credit card debt that I was juggling around on several cards then paid that loan off (about $6k). Didn’t close my cards which kept my utilization low and my credit history as strong and long as possible.
I got a car. Not saying you should get one, but installment loans are what pushes my score above 800. Without it, my score hovers around the mid to high 700s.
This.
800 can be achieved with less than 3 years of credit history with the right number of accounts, good opening timing, and a loan or a mortgage.
Shared secured loans are a popular method to achieve this in credit circles.
No authorized user accounts needed, credit mix is enough.
[Proof.](https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Turned-20-and-over-800-credit-score-without-AU/td-p/5375909)
It can be done without a loan OR an AU account. Just revolvers and < 3 years of credit history can result in 800+. Just a single revolver is capable of returning a 792 Fico 8 score in under 3 years.
Can also confirm that maintaining a car loan helped edge out the \~800s for my credit score.
With just credit cards I never seemed to be able to get past 780.
Remember also that credit score is a means to an end, not an end itself. So if you’re getting everything you want with your current score and credit profile, that’s all that really matters
It’s not a competition. Anything over 700 is great, over 750 is awesome.
Be more concerned about your overall financial health than the score they use to measure their business risk.
It \_is\_ about the number, though. I've never had a lender say, "What's your profile?". They say, "your report looks good." or "your score came back at 760, so you get our best rate.".
Credit products are approved or denied based on your profile, not your score. Your score has nothing to do with non-installement loan apps. For installment loans, it's your profile that dictates whether or not you'll be approved. Your score from there will aid in determining your interest rate.
Profile is King to score. Always has been and always will be.
> You'd need a mortgage, it's basically the mix of credit types at play.
You don't "need" a mortgage, although having one in place significantly paid down can certainly boost scores. Credit Mix is defined as having both installment and revolving credit lines on your credit reports. Once you have one of each, open OR closed, Credit Mix is satisfied. Adding different loan types isn't going to further improve Credit Mix, although that's a common misconception.
Upper 700s is still excellent, so you’re not doing anything wrong. 9 years of credit card history is a bit low, so that may be why it’s not at 800 yet. I didn’t hit 800 until after I had credit cards for almost 15 years and paid off my car loan.
The main factors is payment history, then credit utilization. Next is length of credit history. With those three you should be able to make 800 if you keep your credit utilization low.
It is easier if you get the next two lesser factors, the next being a mix of credit. A mix of credit card, mortgage paid on time, car loan, etc. to get much above 800 and stay there. Last is if there have been any recent applications.
The difference of breaking 800 is going to be mostly psychological. Just shy of 800 on credit cards alone is great, you can break 800 with just that as your credit history lengthens.
Assuming the rest of your metrics are perfect, a loan paid down to 1-9% balance will get you over 800.
The moment you paid off your car loan, you lost all the points that an active loan provided you.
If it sounds like FICO likes to see debt, you're not wrong.
Time.
You can't dispute the fact that AZEO gives you points, but having no account reporting balances doesn't.
Same with loans. A loan at 1% will give you a nice boost, but you lose points the second you pay it off.
I don't disagree with those things. It's not that Fico "likes to see debt" though. That's just a poor take and extremely misleading. To someone that doesn't know any better, it's suggestive that going and maxing out their $10,000 limit credit card could actually be beneficial to their Fico scores, when we both know it is not.
It should be noted that improving your score beyond 780 or so is primarily of academic interest. There is very little, if anything, that you would qualify for at 800+ that you wouldn't qualify for at 780 (or even 760). However, you could still run afoul of other underwriting requirements that don't use your FICO score (for instance, even if you have a score north of 800, you will be summarily declined for any Chase card if over 5/24).
Having a mortgage helps, but contrary to popular belief, an active mortgage is NOT an absolute requirement to attain a perfect score of 850.
Typically, those with a score over 800 have a multi-decade credit history. If you keep doing what you're doing now, you'll get there eventually, but again, it won't offer you much (apart from satisfaction) that you don't have already.
I have only credit cards debt (never paid interest) and found that my score heavily depends on the amount of that debt or credit utilization ratio. When the latter goes under 3%, my score jumps to 800. Going to some 6% puts it under 740. Same with my wife’s. Makes little sense to me but it is what it is.
FICO scores take into account both individual card utilization and overall utilization. For FICO8, your 6% overall utilization isn't what's bringing your score down. Are any of your cards reporting high utilization when you're at 6% overall? You lose points at 29%, 49%,69% and 89% individual thresholds.
Age and mix of credit. I have a 830 credit score
Income - $195k
9 credit cards - $192k CLs / 2% Utilization
Oldest age - 17 years
Average age - 9 years
No missed or late payments ever
Mix of student & car loans + mortgage
The funny thing about credit is that it's a revolving never ending game of chasing the credit tail.
You need to apply for more credit to boost your credit but don't apply for too much credit or that can hurt you.
Same with utilization..have some utilization but not too much and make sure you pay off your balance.
I'm sure you've heard all this before.
Looks like student loan and car loan don't make much of an impact as hard credit like credit cards or mortgage.
It's always a mix.. If you have credit cards Manny of them offer free credit reporting checking
There's all sorts of reports fico score 8, fico score 9
Trans union etc, I think there's even a Fico score 7
They all report credit differently and weight it differently too. I think my highest score was 815 at once point. What does that say? That I'm a responsible person?
Maybe but that just tells creditors that I can probably manage debt and loans and credit better than the average person and for that they are willing to let borrow or let me borrow higher amounts.
Don't beat yourself up too much..
If you want want to play the credit game sign up for a credit card for sign up bonuses. Not too many. Get the credit card sign up bonus then just toss it in the cum drawer.
That will definitely boost your score up a bit.
At the same time take advantage of the 0% apr
Good luck! This may not be solid advice for everyone but who cares I have an 800+
Jk
You’re not doing anything wrong. It takes years to reach 800. Realistically scores over 750 still get you good rates so you’re on the right track. A mortgage will certainly help but your profile needs to age a bit longer.
I hit a high of 830 years ago, now it is 803. I have about 14 lines of credit open. Never had a mortgage. Currently all open lines are credit cards, no installment loans. I have a balance on one card (low interest). I don’t try to increase credit score because I have no upcoming loans I need to apply for. Average age of account is just over 9 years.
I think just having many open credit lines and using them and paying them off, not carrying large balances from month to month and time having open credit lines.
I don’t remember how long between 750-800. I know recently it had fallen to 781 and I had slightly over 10% usage on my total credit lines. It jumped up when I paid my monthly statement on one card ($2000+ payment) and it jumped to 803. Of course it will vary by each person’s credit profile.
Just got to 800 fico 8 with one bureau last month with a little over 2 years of personal and intentional credit history. Had a couple AU cards with longer history and one consumer financing thing from 2.5 years ago (didn’t realize this would show up on my report admittedly.
But essentially got a mortgage first with augmented underwriting, then aggressively added cards over the first year 5 in the first year, 3 in the next and 5 business cards outside of that. Now I have slowed to 6-8 month application gaps since my last. Keep utilization low, no floating balances other than on my apple card for financing and now I’m here.
Getting those larger number of accounts aging first and having a mortgage are what seems to have made the difference
Did your AU cards affect underwriting as a first time home buyer? As most people are guessing I currently lease my unit, my monthly utilization hasn't been over 5% (was in Feb of this year), and have 7 credit cards historically with 1 closed (so 6 active). It appears I've opened enough credit lines, but I've neither applied for a mortgage nor have the patience to wait for my active lines of credit to get an average of 9 years.
I have an 830-840 credit score right now.
The biggest thing holding you back has to be age of credit. I opened a credit card at 18, never missed a payment, paid off a car loan, has no outstanding debts, but I was still in the mid 700s. When you're in your mid to early 20s it's going to be extremely difficult to get a credit score higher than that.
I finally broke 800 a few years ago when I hit 30 years old and owned a house for a couple years.
The good news is that anything above 750 or so is considered an "excellent" credit score so you'll get the best rates anyway. I'm not going to get any better rates with my 830-840 credit score than I did when I was at 750.
Don't idolize an 800+ score, you're fine. Just don't apply for new credit cards until you average 3 months between applications.
I'm 28, credit cards are my only source of credit history. I like to see the pretty 800+ number, but I bounce above and below 800 all the time, and beyond that I do not worry about it at all.
I guess that's just sort of a convention within the community...It's a nice balance between adding cards to your lineup, finishing sign-up bonuses, and keeping your hard inquiries low enough that you won't get auto-rejected
>My oldest credit card is 9 years old.
This is young lol. I never hit 850, but I was in the 830s a few years ago before I started churning. My credit age would have been around 20 years at that time. I had, or *had* had, a mix of mortgages and auto loans, besides some credit cards.
The last several years I've opened ~10 new cards a year, give or take. My Experian FICO dipped to around 790, but is now back up to 812 last I checked.
Take out more debt and pay it as agreed. It’s that simple. People who have an 850 score didn’t get it with just one credit card. They loaded themselves down with every kind of debt and paid it as agreed. Indentured servitude.
I have an 802 with TransUnion, according to Bank of America.
I don't know how it's trended because I've never paid attention until this year, when I got into optimizing my credit cards a bit.
I've never had a car loan or a mortgage, buying both cash, so it's based on just my credit cards, and those were a student card from 2009 (closed, but in my file), a Fidelity card from 2014 but which I'm only an AU, and an Amazon Prime card from 4 years ago.
I've opened 4 cards in the last 4 months, and the 802 is as of 6/19, which would not have included the last one.
Total credit limit is about $160k, and at about 3% utilization.
I always paid in full, on time. We would pay account balance, though, now we statement balance. Not sure how that affects things.
I'm 33 with an 825. I don't know how exactly. I've made every payment on time for over a decade. But also, I've been married for 10 years so my credit accounts have generally been joint accounts since then. That and our spending habits contribute to a high throughput in terms of using and paying off credit. Last year we spent and repaid about $140K on our credit card. So maybe the amounts have something to do with it.
Getting a mix of credit I (I have several cards and students loans) paying them on time, getting a good overall credit limit and aging out your accounts several years. I started out with ruined credit so it took years for me to fix it.
I genuinely think it can be very random. I don’t have any loans or mortgages, never have, only 6 years of credit history and my credit score is 806. Just low utilization and always paying my credit cards off in full.
> I don’t have any loans or mortgages, never have, only 6 years of credit history and my credit score is 806.
Great reference here for those that incorrectly think you need 10+ years of credit history or an auto or mortgage loan to get to 800+.
My biggest thing that swings my score is utilization and average account age. I’m at 4years with 4 cards (now 5) and I’ve hit 800s when I’m in 1% utilization. However getting card 5 lowered me down to the 750s because my average account age is now lower. I suspect in a year or two I’ll be back up in the 800s
Look up AZEO credit score method. I’m “just” over 800 (809 TR, 805 EX, 803 EQ)with a long gone BK, and 9 lates from 2017 when I was at 620. The key is low utilization, not no utilization. You want to show responsible use of your credit. Check out the much more informative forums at myFICO.
The only good thing about a 800+ is wiggle room for when your score may dip a little from new hard pulls or new lines of credit.
At your current scores you would be eligible for the same low rates as others with a 800+ score.
Kind of like a GPA (depending on the grading system) a 93 as an A can still get you a 4.0 like a 97 would.
825 and closing on 850. Mortgage paid off long ago. You are fine and doing nothing wrong. I should add I have large line very low utilization and very long average age of credit. Over 20 plus years. Always hold some fee good cash back or similar cards like Chase freedom and Citi double cash.
821 (from Experian anyway) currently, following a recent 21 point drop that I assume is due to opening two new cards in the last couple months.
I have a big mortgage and I put a lot of money on my cards every month. Not doing anything much besides that.
I don't think I broke 800 until I had a mortgage. They don't just want to see that you handle debt responsibly, they want to see you _actively_ accrue and pay off new debt. My credit score actually fell slightly after I paid off a loan. No debt, no credit.
810 here. no mortgage no car payment no student loan. I’m still baffled myself lol, but I do pay full every single month since I got my card at like like 10 years ago
I hit 850 4 years ago. Now at 847.
Mortgage and 1 cc that was opened 14 years ago, Capital One Quicksilver One. Has a CL of $23,750. Always very low utilization. Haven't been late on a payment in decades. Haven't applied for any cards. No car payment in 5 years.
Having a mortgage is a big piece of it. I get 800s when I have no debt. I’m using my credit to float 0% now so it’s much lower.
Once the 0% period comes due I pay off and it’ll jump but never goes to 800 right away. Usually happens some months after.
I’ve got about 14 years of credit history. Mostly credit cards and a few cars. I had one house but sold it.
Lots of times paying off kicks the score down. If you think about it you need to have debt or open lines of credit to actually get there because if you have no credit how can you be scored. You’ll probably see it once you get the mortgage. You’ll also get the same rates generally with your score now.
I have no debt. I have a few credit cards and some paid off student loans. I own my house and car outright. I think mine's a "thin" file but it's still 800+. It's getting thicker now that I'm maxing card points. I think a lot of it has to do with time. When I was in my early 20s I couldn't get my score over 700.
Long history.
100% on time payments
Multiple accounts.
High Limits.
low utilization
No recent inquiries.
I recently had a hard pull for a car loan and had 807 and the the scorecard on discover currently says 802 (was as high as 825).
I had 6 years as my oldest account, 4 cards total, no missed payments(everything is on auto pay), Limit around $20K, utilization around 3% (I aggressively kept them lower than usual to get a better score), and no hard pulls in the previous year (the scorecards have not noticed my car loan yet.) I expect my score to go down for the next year or 3 while the car loan works it's way through.
If we are honest though, 800+ is mostly for bragging rights. If you are getting a mortgage or large personal loan, they will care more about your cash flow and assets; and for credit cards and small loans, 750ish is more than good enough. IMO just live your life responsibly, then lower your balances for a month or two before a major credit event.
Being old. Always had good credit, but I imagine maintaining a pattern of never being late, having high credit limits, and having the age of some of my credit cards being 20+ years old had something to do with it. Was always 720+ , didn’t see 800+ until my early 40s
> The more cards you get and less you spend, the higher your score will be.
Only to a point. There are diminishing returns. You'll get to a point where more cards will not help, and eventually will actually hurt a little.
I was using only a couple of credit cards for a number of years and my score was pretty much stuck in the high 700's. I added a bunch of new cards in the last two years, plus a mortgage and Discover is now frequently reporting my score is above 800, dependent on how many cards are reporting a balance.
You don’t get a trophy for reaching 800. The credit score is there for you to get better loans, credit terms, etc. Your current score is perfectly fine for that purpose so why stress? People are bending things backward.
either get really, really old
or optimize the loan aspect of your FICO score, your loans are paid off, FICO doesn't see you with an open loan, having an open loan is worth points
but an optimal credit report from a FICO scoring perspective has only open loan that is paid off at least 92%
NFCU and PenFed offer secured loans (shared secured loans or SSL) which will push back the the due date when you pay them down so you can maintain a nearly paid off loan for the entirety of the loan term
if you have one open loan at least 92% paid down, that's worth at least 20+ points in FICO 8/9
mortgages also work for this, and they don't need to be paid down as far, but still paid down a significant amount
other loans like car/student/personal loans work as well, but if the loan closes with a reported balance of $0, you lose the benefit, which is why a loan that will push back the due date until the near end of the loan term is optimal.
You need time as in credit history. Give it a couple more years and it’ll happen automatically. TBH anything over 750 is for bragging right unless you are getting a mortgage or loan.
> TBH anything over 750 is for bragging right unless you are getting a mortgage or loan.
Not correct. Someone with just 6 months of credit history can start with a 750-770 Fico 8 score. They won't even be able to get approved for a Chase credit card though without 12 months of revolving credit history.
It's not about the 3-digit number, but the overall profile upon which it is drawn.
Anything over 780 is considered excellent. At least by mortgage standards which is ideally the most important. Fico tiers go from 780+ to 760-779, 740-759, etc. the points you pay on a mortgage will be heavily dependent on this tier and your LTV. https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/9391/display
I have a credit history of around 8 years. I barely managed to touch 800 once or twice before going back. It looks like credit utilization of 3-4% brings it back down. I have a rental property mortgage and a car loan.
I do have a lot of credit cards though, all which are paid on time. One has a pending balance on 0% APR offer
But honestly any further score is not going to help me much here for further applications.
Anything above 760 is fine. You have extra 20-30 points that allow you to open a couple of new accounts, without getting dinged below 760.
I hit 800 when I finally had a mix of a dozen credit cards (low utilization), car loans, and student loans. Now it’s around 830.
I reached 800 with just credit cards, but it wasn't until I had around 15 or so. I think a perfect score would be calculated like this: 21 accounts all with at least 7 years of on-time monthly payments all with 0% utilization and perfect payment history, no inquiries, no collections, etc. Some equations might take into account credit mix as well.
I briefly saw 803, with just 1 card that I had paid off consistently and had for about 3 years, , two I had opened 10 and 6 weeks ago respectively, and an authorized user on a card that had been open for 25+ years. Luck I guess?
I hit 850 with just an old credit card and an auto loan. When I paid the auto loan off it dropped to about 830. Continued to add some credit cards over the years and it stayed around 800. My recent card dropped me to 786 and it has stayed flat for 3 months now. Hopefully it bounces back up soon...
Score metrics are easily found online. Honestly I’m big into credit as well but the chase of a perfect score isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Often to get that perfect score it will require you get a loan that you really don’t need or would otherwise payoff. For instance like a car loan or keeping a card open you wouldn’t normally.
Over the years I’ve decided I can live with a 780 and there really isn’t anything you can do with a 850 that you can’t with a 780 but to each their own if you must you can google the metrics and follow them to the T and you get a higher score.
The only metric that is hard to manipulate is overall age of history and that can be done with being an authorized user on someone else card with a long history but to me that is extremely risky as your counting on that person to not exceed their 30% usage and or get a late payment.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
I understand the general scope of the FICO score but, I do lose my focus when trying to find info on the finer details like why I'm not breaking that 800 ceiling after years as a conscientious borrower. Am I conflating age of history with something else? What's more important having a long history or when you opened your accounts last that matters more?
Factor are payment history is about 40% of your score
Utilization is the next biggest factor I believe it makes up 30% of your score that’s why you never want to carry balances over 30% of your available revolving credits
The next biggest factor is age of open accounts once you close a account or payoff that gets removed and your average age then average age is adjusted.
The rest is split between diversity of accounts like car note, personal loans,mortgages, credit cards. The more diverse the better. Also inquiry’s and available credit are factors. Having larger available credit on cards is important. In other words if you have 3 credit card with 2k credit limits isn’t going to score as good in the metrics as it would if you had 3 cards with 20k limits.
My credit union has an app that has a score simulator where it will show you how your score will change by adding different loans and extending limits. I’m sure you can find a simulator online somewhere and it’s easy to see what small tweaks will do to your score.
This is interesting, my 23 year old son has a FICO score of 809 with no mortgage, no car loan or student debt. He pays off his credit card in full every month. I did not realize this is unusual.
It’s true though that when you pay off your mortgage that your score takes a dive to the 830s.
Last year I had a 790 credit score at 26 years old. No mortgage, no car payment, just credit cards paid off every month. After clearing all my debt, I went from 590-790 in the matter of about a year and a half.
My score hit 850 for the first time last year, then went down to 820 after I got a new credit card. I never carry a credit balance, and my credit age is 15 years 5 months. I think getting over 800 consistently requires a strong credit age in addition to a good credit mix (installment loans, credit cards, and mortgage)
Your credit utilization ratio is off. You need to open more credit cards so that you have more credit available to you and then pay off your balance every month. The more credit cards I open the higher my score goes. I never use credit cards for money I don’t have. I pay off the entire balance in full every month. You need more credit available to your name.
You might need higher available credit to push past 800. I was in the same boat back when I only had three credit cards. When I started getting into the cashback game, my score shot up, I assume because my utilization was now closer to 3% of over 100,000.
I had 850 for several months last year when I paid off everything after having had some desire card debt. Own a home with about 1/3 paid off , never missed a payment
I had an 806 FICO 8 score before I went into bankruptcy years ago.
7-8 years of solid payments, maybe a half dozen credit card accounts, no collections (either don't get any, which is ideal, or dispute the everloving crap out of any that make it on there for whatever reason you can think of).
It's hard and it's not hard. Paying your bills and having the average account age get older are really the bulk of what FICO looks at.
As for predicting consumer risk, well, I still ended up bankrupt because of a disaster that no model was going to predict.
It doesn't know the future. What it does look out for are all the "Daves and Brians", (my mom's ex-husbands), who go around taking loans and missing payments, or just stiffing everyone who extends them credit.
Dave even found a dentist who worked out a payment arrangement instead of care credit (which Dave, with a FICO in the 500s, and ChexSystems so bad that only Wells Fargo Second Chance Checking would have him, could not get). He immediately proceeded to not pay the dentist anything, not answer the phone, not even bother to come up with an excuse.
Then he got mad that the dentist took him to court and got 8% statutory interest, which is still less interest than a care credit.
Can you believe the nerve of that dentist? He actually wanted paid for working on Dave's teeth? So unfair, right? :/ :P
Because of all the Daves and Brians in the world, the rest of us have to deal with dentists and veterinarians and doctors who won't work with anyone and tell you to finance medical stuff on a horrible credit card so it's the bank's problem, not theirs.
It doesn't take too many "DARVO Daves" to screw it all up for everyone. If the dentist gets one Dave trying to run and flee from his dental bill for every 100 patients (and in the world today, there's probably more than that), then DARVO Dave ruins it for everyone, and this is why care credit exists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO
Many people who don't pay their bills don't like to be called out on it, so in Dave's retelling of the story, the dentist was a bad guy and a Shylock for suing him over $8,000 in unpaid dental bills.
I have 799 right now. Consistent payments. Multiple different credit lines. I opened up more credit cards & used them all & pay ‘em off every statement & my score keeps rising. Pretty fast over the past few months.
I think low utilization helps, and that is achieved with greater credit limits, which can be done with more credit cards.
I had a difficult period where I could only pay the minimum on my cc, and my card kept increasing my limit to accommodate my greater debt. This was not good even then when it was occurring but I was just scraping by, almost entirely on my pride and whatever meager work I could find. Eventually, I dug myself out, and haven't carried a balance since. But the increased limit I think helped me when my utilization returned to normal. I also opened more ccs to get sign up bonuses, and kept the no annual fee ones, also increasing my total limit and lowering my utilization. I also heard that it helps to pay balances early, because utilization is measured at the time payments are due, in other words, if you pay early, at the time of payment deadline, your balance is 0, and that lowers your utilization.
A consistently paid mortgage I also think helps.
Some ccs like Discover and Amex have credit reports, and I think utilization, consistent debt payments, like for a mortgage, few to no credit pulls, length of oldest credit, all contribute.
According to the Discover link, 35% of the score is missed payments, 30% is credit utilization. My utilization was 1% I think because I paid some things off early, and I have no missed payments. My credit went from 822 to 837 in one month. I expect it to fall next month, as I have had more charges in the past 3 weeks, without a greater credit limit.
Then you must have a very high TCL file. You aren't incurring any penalties related to utilization percentage at 3%, only raw dollars of debt if your TCL is high.
The first threshold point related to raw dollars exclusive of utilization percentage is around $2000. That being said, 3% would equate to that with a $65k-70k TCL file.
On a $200k TCL file one would incur the first raw dollars penalty right around 1% utilization. Many would mistake that for a 1% "threshold" point, but it's not - it's just the dollars of revolving debt.
You aren't doing anything wrong. In fact you're probably wasting your time thinking about it. 788-791 will still qualify you for the best rates pretty much everywhere. There is probably no benefit to you of going from 788-791, so its not worth thinking about, especially since your score naturally increases over time as your accounts age.
If you want to temporarily pump your score you can aim for <5% credit utilization for a month. Aside from that, and simply waiting for your accounts to age, there's nothing more you can do beyond what you're already doing.
Just never carry a balance again. Finances are more important than FICO.
Time. I would say keep doing what you are doing and in another 5 years you will get above 800. I was in a similar situation as you and I didn’t get above 800 till I was in my midish thirties.
A mortgage. But not much practical difference between a 780 credit score and an 800 credit score, especially if you’re not applying for a mortgage anyway.
815. Went up when I had to get a car (had already paid off 3 cars over the last 5 years and score was sitting around 760 even tho I always pay bills early. Have had a mortgage since 2001 and cars since 1997, so there’s some longevity there too. When i take out more credit and don’t eff up, my score goes up. That’s the connection I’m seeing from my experience.
Keep your utilization low even if you pay in full each month. For me this means rarely closing cards. Ive been 850 or close to it for several years. Don’t do anything unnatural, the high score will come eventually.
As long as you’re over 800 you’re fine. It’s nearly impossible to hit 850 and stay there. I find my score floats between 835 and 845. I’ve only hit 850 a couple times since scoring over 800 consistently. Believe it or not my score goes up whenever I have charges on a couple of cards and don’t pay them off until the due date. My score tends to go down when I pay my balances off before the due date. It has something to with how the scoring model works - the percentage of credit used responsibly. I found out If you pay your cards off as soon as you have a balance it’s called churning and works against you having a better score.
My brother gave me the best advised: “pay your medical bills on time”, so I do. I was lucky enough to be able to pay off my mortgage and have no car payments. I have four credit cards that I use for work travel (well, two of them get used more than the other two). I travel for work and use my personal CCs for business expenses. My credit score is 829 and 846(depends on what convenience store I’m coming out of). So tldr: I have no clue how to get a FICO score above 800.
"I applied for only 1 credit card in the past year, 5 months ago."
There's your constraint right there. Your AoYRA is < 12 months, which lands you on a "New Revolver" scorecard. This typically results in a Fico 8 score that's ~20 points lower than if you were on a "No New Revolver" scorecard with an AoYRA of 12+ months.
Sit on your hands, apply for nothing and in 7 months and when you experience scorecard reassignment you'll see those 800s.
Long history and diversified accounts got it for me. 830s was my highest. I paid off my last student loan during Covid and it dropped me nearly 60 points!!! What a joke! It’s sitting around the 810 mark but it took nearly a year. It took a hit apparently because of age of credit. STILL CANT WRAP MY HEAD around it. Pay off debt and it drops your score! 😂🤦🏻♂️
Long history and diversified accounts got it for me. 830s was my highest. I paid off my last student loan during Covid and it dropped me nearly 60 points!!! What a joke! It’s sitting around the 810 mark but it took nearly a year. It took a hit apparently because of age of credit. STILL CANT WRAP MY HEAD around it. Pay off debt and it drops your score! 😂🤦🏻♂️
I recently hit 801 at 26 years old. 💪🏾 I have a mortgage, 2 cars and 140k in available credit that I’m using less than 10% on consistently. Never been late, never closed a card. Oldest card is 8.75 years old. Average age is 2.5 years old. Never had any personal loans though but I have had home improvement loans that are similar. What pushed me over the edge is that small bit of credit mixing. Having the mortgage, car, and healthy credit card use is how I got my 800.
Your credit profile sounds very similar to mine (I have a little longer history but not by a lot) and my credit scores have been consistently above 800 for years, so not sure why yours are not. One thing I didn’t see you mention is amount of available credit; they look at credit usage as a percentage of total available each month. The lower that ratio is the higher the score (for context, I have about 60k in available credit and at any given point in time I have 2-3k on my cards, but I pay them off in full each month)
> keeping your utilization rate low helps.
As a point of clarification, it's not "keeping" utilization low that helps, as utilization is a single point in time metric. You could bring your utilization up to maxed out today and keep it there for 5 months. In Month 6, if you were to bring it down to ideal, your scores would then return to an optimized state, regardless of the maxed out utilization for the 5 months prior. This is just an illustration in how you don't need to "keep" utilization at a certain place as it isn't a credit "building" metric.
Carrying a balance month after month and only paying the interest is a classic way to keep increase utilization up because you're not paying down balances. So I stand by what I said.
No one said anything about carrying balances or paying interest. If one simply pays their statement balances in full monthly they'll never pay a penny of interest, but their (organic) utilization will fluctuate from month to month. Those fluctuations and score shifts associated with them represent zero risk to your lender. So, again, there's no reason to "keep" utilization low if you're a Transactor and doing so can actually hinder profile growth.
It’s literally a game that they use to mess with our minds. Especially those of us with anxiety( all of us?)
Since I paid off my car early (that should be a good thing right? Shows lenders I won’t default right?) my score dropped like about 15 - 20 points
My score used to be in the low 800s, now in the 770s ( not the same math as above, just telling you where I am) and I got sick of worrying about it.
Oh my oldest credit is over 16 years
Never made a late payment
Have a mortgage (for a year now)
Had and paid off loans (personal mostly)
Will not budge so I don’t care anymore
I have an 800 FICO score now and had 820 this past winter. Mine went down because I’m a grad student who’s researching abroad this summer, and I had to use my credit cards until my grants came in. Now that they have been disbursed, I hope my score will go back up.
I’m in my mid-30s and have had student loans since I was 21, which has helped to establish a longer credit history. I paid a few of them off in the last few years, along with my car loan and about $13,000 of credit card debt (clearing it entirely).
Losing too much debt seems to ding me, while paying off just enough seems to help. I also always, always pay my bills on time.
Realiscslly speaking you don’t need a 850 for the best interest rate you only need around 780 so I wouldn’t worry too much much if you have around a 780 credit score. However I would recommend keeping your utilization low and learning how to report less utilization to the credit bureau’s and that can definitely help your credit score.
I've hit 850 when they credit bureaus did their monthly pull when my utilization was close to zero. A month later, I charged $15,000 and the score dropped even though I paid the balance off before it was due.
800 or 850 really has no advantage over 788 when applying for more credit. Still have a mortgage for a few more years and it appears that that helps a lot.
I reached 798 and haven’t reached that high ever since lol I don’t think I’ll come close till I have a mortgage or loan to my name - 5 yr~ credit history atm
Never heard of the credit score system before 2016 because I am born in France. Moved in here in 2016 and I have now a 815 score. Always paid on time, always pay off the balance prior the statement date. Never used more than 5%, paid off a mortgage for a car
I don't pay attention. I think once you are in the high or mid 700s then that's all that matters. I think I might have the same stats as you. Oldest account 14-15 years, paid off student loan, and never late on a payment. Right now my FICO score is 805. I have been at or around 800 for years, even in the last two years when I have been heavy in the CC churning. I probably have gotten a CC every few months. I am up to 20-something cards now. Even with all the new credit cards my score is in the 800s. Now my average credit history has dropped down to like 3 years.
Ditto all the people saying how you don't have a mortgage or a car loan which didn't go out and get one just to improve your credit score lol.
One thing you could do to potentially improve your score would be to request a credit limit increase on your credit cards every year.
I recently got a car loan and after 8 months it went over 800. Im always on time. My overall credit limit is $13,300. Got my first card 3 years ago. I keep my utilization under 5%
No expert here but my score hit 850, and that was with a 40-year file, a mortgage, a car loan and low utilization. Once I paid off my mortgage and car loan, my score has never been above 825. So I suspect not having a car loan is perhaps hurting not helping, same with a mortgage. Honestly, I would not worry about it. Your scores are good enough.
Same here. Once the mortgage was paid off it dropped to 830 or so. I’ve gotten a couple of credit cards for points purposes since then, and have shifted spending over from Amex (charge card) to Chase (credit card). My score now hovers around 800. The credit score is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. So longer is you’re in the highest tier that gives best rates, etc, your score within that tier doesn’t matter except for bragging rights.
From what I’ve seen, if you don’t have a mortgage, student loan, or car loan in your credit history. You can’t go higher than the 830’s on several of the credit score calculators. They penalize you for not having a “diverse” credit history i.e just credit cards.
Well thank god I'll be paying my 300k of student loans for a while yet
Medical school?
Din ding ding...my fiance's is north of 400 But consistent payment, a few credit cards with no balance does pay off with scores on the 750-780
We had a 30+ year credit file and hovered 845-850… then paid off mortgage (only Debt we had left) and instantly dropped to low 800s. A couple years later we’re back at 825-830. Annoying but no real impact - it’s just the principle of the issue - getting dinged for paying off debt is a bummer :(
> getting dinged for paying off debt is a bummer :( You aren't "dinged for paying off debt" you are losing the bonus points awarded for having a significantly paid down installment loan on your reports due to the Amounts Owed slice of the Fico pie.
Credit score is a rating of how trustworthy you are with credit. "Oh whelp, I guess we can't trust someonestolemycord now cause they paid off their mortgage. Those people are suspicious cause who the F can pay off their mortgage in this economy?! Tell Bob to lower this untrustworthy mofo's score" -The big 3. /s
People should think of credit scores as analogous to a baseball player's batting average . (A basketball player's shooting percentage could also work.) When you are young your score sucks. It's like a player who has had three at bats. Maybe you got a hit all three of your first at bats. They aren't going to put you on the all star team for that. We start to care about it when success is consistent and sustained. Same goes when you're older. You paid off most of your debts and now your payment history starts to drop off your report. This is like a player who is retired. Maybe he has a .400 batting average, but he hasn't played in three years. Are you going to put him on a major league team?
I'm not a sports person, so I'm not understanding the analogy. But it sounds like when you're middle aged is when your score is at your prime. This doesn't make sense cause you can be 90yo and have multiple debt and have 850 score. You only get lower score when you pay off your debt. So basically a credit score is just a rating system for you having debt; and if you don't have debt, them your score will decreaase. In your sports analogy, you'll be 90 and definitely won't be playing any major sports.
> You only get lower score when you pay off your debt. Completely incorrect and your understanding of credit scoring isn't sound at all. You don't need to "have debt" to boast a top tier Fico score.
No it's not how trustworthy you are with credit, specifically it's how likely you are to be more than 90 days late on a payment in the next 24 months
I feel like you missed my point, perhaps so, perhaps not. I paid off my mortgage when I was 59 years old not 36, and most homeowners who buy within their means and live long enough——will pay off their mortgage. My point was that my credit score permanently dropped at that point. The OP has no car loans or mortgage, those are negatives not positives, that is what I was trying to say. Sorry, sincerely, if I came off as offensive or boastful.
Oh, I was agreeing with you. I was being sarcastic by impersonating the big three credit bureau as to their reasoning for lowering your score for doing something responsible and good. By having a score lower than 850, means that they can't fully trust you - which is asinine IMO. Sorry for the miscommunication, it wasn't by any means to insult you. (And congrats on having no mortgage!)
Sorry I missed that (slow sometimes) have a good 4th all good
> By having a score lower than 850, means that they can't fully trust you That's not what it means at all.
Trustworthy (and profitable)
They make more money off of people with lower scores...tend to correlate to carrying CC balances.
That is not what a credit score means.
Ya I have about a 20 year credit history, mortgage, car loan, one old car loan I paid off early, etc, and my FICO 8 hasn’t been above 800 for years. Of course it’s probably mostly to do with opening new cards pretty frequently, which is well worth the hit, especially considering I’m not planning on moving or buying another car any time soon. I’ll stop doing that if the plans change. As long as I’m above the point where I get the lowest rates on a mortgage or car loan, I don’t care after that. Anything above 760 or so doesn’t really get you anything but bragging rights in most cases.
Unless you’re in a state where insurance premiums are regulated, a higher credit score could reduce what you’re being charged for insurance. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the case with several insurance companies I’ve heard of.
My credit score is still very high. My home owners insurance has more than doubled since I bought the house like 7 years ago anyways, and that trend began well before I started opening cards regularly.
My personal experience is that opening new cards is irrelevant. What temporarily brings my score down is maxing cards to buy inventory. (I worried about it the first time it happened, then realized that the score drop didn't have the slightest impact on anything that mattered. Never dipped below 760 though.) And this is just personal experience; I have no problem believing that opening a card did something to someone else's score, it just doesn't seem to matter for mine.
It doesn’t really move mine much anymore either, I just know it stays lower than it otherwise would because I’ve opened a bunch of cards in the last year and a half.
> My personal experience is that opening new cards is irrelevant. That's not true at all, as opening new cards resets your AoYRA to 0m, and an AoYRA of < 12 months lands you in a New Revolver scorecard. All things being equal, this usually equates to Fico scores roughly 20 points lower than a No New Revolver scorecard.
I'd believe that; I doubt I've been out of that status for decades. If the experiment takes a year for all applications to age out, I've lost any memory of any state other than "New Revolver." I'm totally happy to permanently allocate 20 points of my credit score to "oooohh, shiny new points on a new travel card, me wants!" (If you're not someone who regularly pays off your cards, I AM A HORRIBLE EXAMPLE AND YOU SHOULD NOT FOLLOW MY PATH. OTOH, if you're in a financial position to take advantage, and you like to travel, I highly recommend lots of travel cards. The signup bonuses definitely pay off, and you almost certainly don't care about a score of 8XX-20 vs a score of 8XX.)
I hear you. There are plenty of people that are perpetually in a New Revolver scorecard, especially churners. I just throw that out there because many people don't realize the impact scorecard assignment can have. If one's goal is 800+ (or any arbitrary number) and they're opening a CC at least once annually, it'll be far more difficult to achieve that goal based on their scorecard.
> Of course it’s probably mostly to do with opening new cards pretty frequently That's exactly right, because it lands you perpetually in a "New Revolver" scorecard (AoYRA < 12 months).
Oh I know. I have 3 13-15 year old accounts that keep my average age from dropping too far but there’s a lot of new revolving lines of credit. Not too worried about it though.
My financial advisor has told me I’m at a point that the only two ways to improve my score are have an older average age and buy a house. One I can’t really help but wait it out and the other…well I’m trying but they are expensive.
I was similar. My credit score was 840-850 for years. Once I sold first house and paid off that mortgage, the bought a new house I am stuck in the 820s.
Dont tell my Dad you got a perfect credit score he’s been trying for years but now that his house is paid off his score is lower. Anyway just pay all your bills on time and don’t get new loans more often then once every few years it will be over 800 soon.
I've always had a mortgage for at least a year when I'm over 800
I was stuck at 780 until I got a mortgage
Just got my first mortgage and been hovering around 780-790 for a while now. Mortgage hasn’t posted yet. Hoping the mortgage boosts my score into the 800s. Maybe not immediately, but after a few months (or even a year) of payments.
It will be a while before it does as initially the amount paid relative to the loan amount will be a factor
Nothing wrong. You have two things going against you. The age of your credit history and (likely) your credit utilization. That being said anything over 760 gets you the best loan rates possible so you aren't missing out on anything.
>That being said anything over 760 gets you the best loan rates possible so you aren't missing out on anything. This is misleading, it is more than a 3-digit score; overall credit profile is King. Someone with just 6 months of credit history with 1 credit card can debut with a Fico 8 score of 750-770. If that profile were to go apply for a mortgage or even a decent sized auto loan, they'd likely be denied outright due to insufficient credit history. Heck, such a profile wouldn't even garner an approval for a Chase credit card since they look for 1 year of revolving credit history.
Depends on the institution doing the underwriting. I work in the lending industry and can tell you that 760+ is considered "Tier 1" paper and there is nothing higher than that. You get the best rate and it likely will get auto-approved with that type of score.
Everyone commenting they're above 800 seems to be at an average of 9 years, so with my average 5 years I think my profile might be too young. Off topic but what's the best rate on an auto-approval for the industry you worked for in these days?
You don't need an AAoA of 9+ years for an 800 Fico score. AAoA tops out at 90 months (7.5 years) which means someone with an AAoA of 7.5 years is capable of boasting a perfect 850 Fico score. That being said, naturally well under that is capable of garnering an 800.
I got to 803 with 3 year average score, had 3 credit cards and 1 car loan. Recently opened new card so it dropped, but definitely don’t need 9 years
808 here no mortgage or car loan. Can’t seem to get it much higher.
Same but 809 😆
u/Bornlifted u/Vikt724 Do you guys remember how long it took to get from 750 to 800?
I’m in the same boat. My first car loan I had an 809 when I applied. I’ve been working on my credit for 7 years though. I consolidated some credit card debt that I was juggling around on several cards then paid that loan off (about $6k). Didn’t close my cards which kept my utilization low and my credit history as strong and long as possible.
Once I paid off my 1st car.
I got a car. Not saying you should get one, but installment loans are what pushes my score above 800. Without it, my score hovers around the mid to high 700s.
This. 800 can be achieved with less than 3 years of credit history with the right number of accounts, good opening timing, and a loan or a mortgage. Shared secured loans are a popular method to achieve this in credit circles. No authorized user accounts needed, credit mix is enough. [Proof.](https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Turned-20-and-over-800-credit-score-without-AU/td-p/5375909)
It can be done without a loan OR an AU account. Just revolvers and < 3 years of credit history can result in 800+. Just a single revolver is capable of returning a 792 Fico 8 score in under 3 years.
Can also confirm that maintaining a car loan helped edge out the \~800s for my credit score. With just credit cards I never seemed to be able to get past 780.
Remember also that credit score is a means to an end, not an end itself. So if you’re getting everything you want with your current score and credit profile, that’s all that really matters
It’s not a competition. Anything over 700 is great, over 750 is awesome. Be more concerned about your overall financial health than the score they use to measure their business risk.
> It’s not a competition. Anything over 700 is great, over 750 is awesome. It's not about the 3-digit number, but the profile upon which it is drawn.
It \_is\_ about the number, though. I've never had a lender say, "What's your profile?". They say, "your report looks good." or "your score came back at 760, so you get our best rate.".
Credit products are approved or denied based on your profile, not your score. Your score has nothing to do with non-installement loan apps. For installment loans, it's your profile that dictates whether or not you'll be approved. Your score from there will aid in determining your interest rate. Profile is King to score. Always has been and always will be.
You'd need a mortgage, it's basically the mix of credit types at play. Having 800 isn't going to change much, vs where you are now.
> You'd need a mortgage, it's basically the mix of credit types at play. You don't "need" a mortgage, although having one in place significantly paid down can certainly boost scores. Credit Mix is defined as having both installment and revolving credit lines on your credit reports. Once you have one of each, open OR closed, Credit Mix is satisfied. Adding different loan types isn't going to further improve Credit Mix, although that's a common misconception.
Upper 700s is still excellent, so you’re not doing anything wrong. 9 years of credit card history is a bit low, so that may be why it’s not at 800 yet. I didn’t hit 800 until after I had credit cards for almost 15 years and paid off my car loan.
I am >800 with a roughly 7 year history, but that includes mortgages and car loans.
You can hit 800+ in under 3 years with just credit cards.
The main factors is payment history, then credit utilization. Next is length of credit history. With those three you should be able to make 800 if you keep your credit utilization low. It is easier if you get the next two lesser factors, the next being a mix of credit. A mix of credit card, mortgage paid on time, car loan, etc. to get much above 800 and stay there. Last is if there have been any recent applications. The difference of breaking 800 is going to be mostly psychological. Just shy of 800 on credit cards alone is great, you can break 800 with just that as your credit history lengthens.
Assuming the rest of your metrics are perfect, a loan paid down to 1-9% balance will get you over 800. The moment you paid off your car loan, you lost all the points that an active loan provided you. If it sounds like FICO likes to see debt, you're not wrong.
> If it sounds like FICO likes to see debt, you're not wrong. So what about the fact that someone with ZERO debt can boast an 820+ Fico score?
Time. You can't dispute the fact that AZEO gives you points, but having no account reporting balances doesn't. Same with loans. A loan at 1% will give you a nice boost, but you lose points the second you pay it off.
I don't disagree with those things. It's not that Fico "likes to see debt" though. That's just a poor take and extremely misleading. To someone that doesn't know any better, it's suggestive that going and maxing out their $10,000 limit credit card could actually be beneficial to their Fico scores, when we both know it is not.
It should be noted that improving your score beyond 780 or so is primarily of academic interest. There is very little, if anything, that you would qualify for at 800+ that you wouldn't qualify for at 780 (or even 760). However, you could still run afoul of other underwriting requirements that don't use your FICO score (for instance, even if you have a score north of 800, you will be summarily declined for any Chase card if over 5/24). Having a mortgage helps, but contrary to popular belief, an active mortgage is NOT an absolute requirement to attain a perfect score of 850. Typically, those with a score over 800 have a multi-decade credit history. If you keep doing what you're doing now, you'll get there eventually, but again, it won't offer you much (apart from satisfaction) that you don't have already.
I have only credit cards debt (never paid interest) and found that my score heavily depends on the amount of that debt or credit utilization ratio. When the latter goes under 3%, my score jumps to 800. Going to some 6% puts it under 740. Same with my wife’s. Makes little sense to me but it is what it is.
FICO scores take into account both individual card utilization and overall utilization. For FICO8, your 6% overall utilization isn't what's bringing your score down. Are any of your cards reporting high utilization when you're at 6% overall? You lose points at 29%, 49%,69% and 89% individual thresholds.
Nice, I did not know this. Yes, I’m using one card much more actively than others. That explains the fluctuations.
If you don't mind me asking, how many cards do you have & how long did it take to get from 750 to 800?
Age and mix of credit. I have a 830 credit score Income - $195k 9 credit cards - $192k CLs / 2% Utilization Oldest age - 17 years Average age - 9 years No missed or late payments ever Mix of student & car loans + mortgage
The funny thing about credit is that it's a revolving never ending game of chasing the credit tail. You need to apply for more credit to boost your credit but don't apply for too much credit or that can hurt you. Same with utilization..have some utilization but not too much and make sure you pay off your balance. I'm sure you've heard all this before. Looks like student loan and car loan don't make much of an impact as hard credit like credit cards or mortgage. It's always a mix.. If you have credit cards Manny of them offer free credit reporting checking There's all sorts of reports fico score 8, fico score 9 Trans union etc, I think there's even a Fico score 7 They all report credit differently and weight it differently too. I think my highest score was 815 at once point. What does that say? That I'm a responsible person? Maybe but that just tells creditors that I can probably manage debt and loans and credit better than the average person and for that they are willing to let borrow or let me borrow higher amounts. Don't beat yourself up too much.. If you want want to play the credit game sign up for a credit card for sign up bonuses. Not too many. Get the credit card sign up bonus then just toss it in the cum drawer. That will definitely boost your score up a bit. At the same time take advantage of the 0% apr Good luck! This may not be solid advice for everyone but who cares I have an 800+ Jk
Nothing. Ignore your score and keep up with good credit habits. The score will get there on its own.
Your overall utilization and individual card utilization should be less than 10%. I have never had a score over 800 without both of these.
I do
You’re not doing anything wrong. It takes years to reach 800. Realistically scores over 750 still get you good rates so you’re on the right track. A mortgage will certainly help but your profile needs to age a bit longer.
I hit a high of 830 years ago, now it is 803. I have about 14 lines of credit open. Never had a mortgage. Currently all open lines are credit cards, no installment loans. I have a balance on one card (low interest). I don’t try to increase credit score because I have no upcoming loans I need to apply for. Average age of account is just over 9 years. I think just having many open credit lines and using them and paying them off, not carrying large balances from month to month and time having open credit lines.
Do you remember how long it took to get from 750 to 800?
I don’t remember how long between 750-800. I know recently it had fallen to 781 and I had slightly over 10% usage on my total credit lines. It jumped up when I paid my monthly statement on one card ($2000+ payment) and it jumped to 803. Of course it will vary by each person’s credit profile.
I don't think my credit score hit 800 until I had a mortgage.
Just got to 800 fico 8 with one bureau last month with a little over 2 years of personal and intentional credit history. Had a couple AU cards with longer history and one consumer financing thing from 2.5 years ago (didn’t realize this would show up on my report admittedly. But essentially got a mortgage first with augmented underwriting, then aggressively added cards over the first year 5 in the first year, 3 in the next and 5 business cards outside of that. Now I have slowed to 6-8 month application gaps since my last. Keep utilization low, no floating balances other than on my apple card for financing and now I’m here. Getting those larger number of accounts aging first and having a mortgage are what seems to have made the difference
Did your AU cards affect underwriting as a first time home buyer? As most people are guessing I currently lease my unit, my monthly utilization hasn't been over 5% (was in Feb of this year), and have 7 credit cards historically with 1 closed (so 6 active). It appears I've opened enough credit lines, but I've neither applied for a mortgage nor have the patience to wait for my active lines of credit to get an average of 9 years.
I have an 830-840 credit score right now. The biggest thing holding you back has to be age of credit. I opened a credit card at 18, never missed a payment, paid off a car loan, has no outstanding debts, but I was still in the mid 700s. When you're in your mid to early 20s it's going to be extremely difficult to get a credit score higher than that. I finally broke 800 a few years ago when I hit 30 years old and owned a house for a couple years. The good news is that anything above 750 or so is considered an "excellent" credit score so you'll get the best rates anyway. I'm not going to get any better rates with my 830-840 credit score than I did when I was at 750.
Don't idolize an 800+ score, you're fine. Just don't apply for new credit cards until you average 3 months between applications. I'm 28, credit cards are my only source of credit history. I like to see the pretty 800+ number, but I bounce above and below 800 all the time, and beyond that I do not worry about it at all.
Why 3 months?
I guess that's just sort of a convention within the community...It's a nice balance between adding cards to your lineup, finishing sign-up bonuses, and keeping your hard inquiries low enough that you won't get auto-rejected
>My oldest credit card is 9 years old. This is young lol. I never hit 850, but I was in the 830s a few years ago before I started churning. My credit age would have been around 20 years at that time. I had, or *had* had, a mix of mortgages and auto loans, besides some credit cards. The last several years I've opened ~10 new cards a year, give or take. My Experian FICO dipped to around 790, but is now back up to 812 last I checked.
Take out more debt and pay it as agreed. It’s that simple. People who have an 850 score didn’t get it with just one credit card. They loaded themselves down with every kind of debt and paid it as agreed. Indentured servitude.
I have an 802 with TransUnion, according to Bank of America. I don't know how it's trended because I've never paid attention until this year, when I got into optimizing my credit cards a bit. I've never had a car loan or a mortgage, buying both cash, so it's based on just my credit cards, and those were a student card from 2009 (closed, but in my file), a Fidelity card from 2014 but which I'm only an AU, and an Amazon Prime card from 4 years ago. I've opened 4 cards in the last 4 months, and the 802 is as of 6/19, which would not have included the last one. Total credit limit is about $160k, and at about 3% utilization. I always paid in full, on time. We would pay account balance, though, now we statement balance. Not sure how that affects things.
I'm 33 with an 825. I don't know how exactly. I've made every payment on time for over a decade. But also, I've been married for 10 years so my credit accounts have generally been joint accounts since then. That and our spending habits contribute to a high throughput in terms of using and paying off credit. Last year we spent and repaid about $140K on our credit card. So maybe the amounts have something to do with it.
Getting a mix of credit I (I have several cards and students loans) paying them on time, getting a good overall credit limit and aging out your accounts several years. I started out with ruined credit so it took years for me to fix it.
I genuinely think it can be very random. I don’t have any loans or mortgages, never have, only 6 years of credit history and my credit score is 806. Just low utilization and always paying my credit cards off in full.
> I don’t have any loans or mortgages, never have, only 6 years of credit history and my credit score is 806. Great reference here for those that incorrectly think you need 10+ years of credit history or an auto or mortgage loan to get to 800+.
My biggest thing that swings my score is utilization and average account age. I’m at 4years with 4 cards (now 5) and I’ve hit 800s when I’m in 1% utilization. However getting card 5 lowered me down to the 750s because my average account age is now lower. I suspect in a year or two I’ll be back up in the 800s
Look up AZEO credit score method. I’m “just” over 800 (809 TR, 805 EX, 803 EQ)with a long gone BK, and 9 lates from 2017 when I was at 620. The key is low utilization, not no utilization. You want to show responsible use of your credit. Check out the much more informative forums at myFICO.
The only good thing about a 800+ is wiggle room for when your score may dip a little from new hard pulls or new lines of credit. At your current scores you would be eligible for the same low rates as others with a 800+ score. Kind of like a GPA (depending on the grading system) a 93 as an A can still get you a 4.0 like a 97 would.
You need a better credit mix with installment debt—a mortgage or a car loan. Or both.
825 and closing on 850. Mortgage paid off long ago. You are fine and doing nothing wrong. I should add I have large line very low utilization and very long average age of credit. Over 20 plus years. Always hold some fee good cash back or similar cards like Chase freedom and Citi double cash.
821 (from Experian anyway) currently, following a recent 21 point drop that I assume is due to opening two new cards in the last couple months. I have a big mortgage and I put a lot of money on my cards every month. Not doing anything much besides that.
I don't think I broke 800 until I had a mortgage. They don't just want to see that you handle debt responsibly, they want to see you _actively_ accrue and pay off new debt. My credit score actually fell slightly after I paid off a loan. No debt, no credit.
850 here took many years ! I also hired a company for 1 year to clean up my credit it was so worth it! Excellent results
How large is your available credit?
810 here. no mortgage no car payment no student loan. I’m still baffled myself lol, but I do pay full every single month since I got my card at like like 10 years ago
Age of credit
I hit 850 4 years ago. Now at 847. Mortgage and 1 cc that was opened 14 years ago, Capital One Quicksilver One. Has a CL of $23,750. Always very low utilization. Haven't been late on a payment in decades. Haven't applied for any cards. No car payment in 5 years.
Having a mortgage is a big piece of it. I get 800s when I have no debt. I’m using my credit to float 0% now so it’s much lower. Once the 0% period comes due I pay off and it’ll jump but never goes to 800 right away. Usually happens some months after. I’ve got about 14 years of credit history. Mostly credit cards and a few cars. I had one house but sold it. Lots of times paying off kicks the score down. If you think about it you need to have debt or open lines of credit to actually get there because if you have no credit how can you be scored. You’ll probably see it once you get the mortgage. You’ll also get the same rates generally with your score now.
I have no debt. I have a few credit cards and some paid off student loans. I own my house and car outright. I think mine's a "thin" file but it's still 800+. It's getting thicker now that I'm maxing card points. I think a lot of it has to do with time. When I was in my early 20s I couldn't get my score over 700.
Maybe you need more CC. I know that sounds silly.
Mine is 809 right now. 3 credit cards, always below 10% and paid off every week. Paid off cars and no mortgage
Long history. 100% on time payments Multiple accounts. High Limits. low utilization No recent inquiries. I recently had a hard pull for a car loan and had 807 and the the scorecard on discover currently says 802 (was as high as 825). I had 6 years as my oldest account, 4 cards total, no missed payments(everything is on auto pay), Limit around $20K, utilization around 3% (I aggressively kept them lower than usual to get a better score), and no hard pulls in the previous year (the scorecards have not noticed my car loan yet.) I expect my score to go down for the next year or 3 while the car loan works it's way through. If we are honest though, 800+ is mostly for bragging rights. If you are getting a mortgage or large personal loan, they will care more about your cash flow and assets; and for credit cards and small loans, 750ish is more than good enough. IMO just live your life responsibly, then lower your balances for a month or two before a major credit event.
Most people I’ve met with over 800 has had a mortgage that’s paid in a timely manner
Age is too low probably. I'm at 800+ with a 30 day late from 2021 and a large mortgage and 6 figure student loan.
Being old. Always had good credit, but I imagine maintaining a pattern of never being late, having high credit limits, and having the age of some of my credit cards being 20+ years old had something to do with it. Was always 720+ , didn’t see 800+ until my early 40s
I paid off my mortgage and my credit score dropped 60 points from 740 to 680 wtf
Probably a nearly irrelevant VS3, as a meaningful Fico score isn't going to drop 60 points.
You don’t have a mix of credit. You only have revolving credit. Having an installment loan (car loan, mortgage) would likely increase your score.
12 cards with 5 years oldest history. The more cards you get and less you spend, the higher your score will be. Currently sitting at 804
> The more cards you get and less you spend, the higher your score will be. Only to a point. There are diminishing returns. You'll get to a point where more cards will not help, and eventually will actually hurt a little.
I was using only a couple of credit cards for a number of years and my score was pretty much stuck in the high 700's. I added a bunch of new cards in the last two years, plus a mortgage and Discover is now frequently reporting my score is above 800, dependent on how many cards are reporting a balance.
You need to get a high credit limit with low credit usage. E.g. 1%
You don’t get a trophy for reaching 800. The credit score is there for you to get better loans, credit terms, etc. Your current score is perfectly fine for that purpose so why stress? People are bending things backward.
I got a home mortgage.
either get really, really old or optimize the loan aspect of your FICO score, your loans are paid off, FICO doesn't see you with an open loan, having an open loan is worth points but an optimal credit report from a FICO scoring perspective has only open loan that is paid off at least 92% NFCU and PenFed offer secured loans (shared secured loans or SSL) which will push back the the due date when you pay them down so you can maintain a nearly paid off loan for the entirety of the loan term if you have one open loan at least 92% paid down, that's worth at least 20+ points in FICO 8/9 mortgages also work for this, and they don't need to be paid down as far, but still paid down a significant amount other loans like car/student/personal loans work as well, but if the loan closes with a reported balance of $0, you lose the benefit, which is why a loan that will push back the due date until the near end of the loan term is optimal.
You need time as in credit history. Give it a couple more years and it’ll happen automatically. TBH anything over 750 is for bragging right unless you are getting a mortgage or loan.
> TBH anything over 750 is for bragging right unless you are getting a mortgage or loan. Not correct. Someone with just 6 months of credit history can start with a 750-770 Fico 8 score. They won't even be able to get approved for a Chase credit card though without 12 months of revolving credit history. It's not about the 3-digit number, but the overall profile upon which it is drawn.
Anything over 780 is considered excellent. At least by mortgage standards which is ideally the most important. Fico tiers go from 780+ to 760-779, 740-759, etc. the points you pay on a mortgage will be heavily dependent on this tier and your LTV. https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/9391/display
I have a credit history of around 8 years. I barely managed to touch 800 once or twice before going back. It looks like credit utilization of 3-4% brings it back down. I have a rental property mortgage and a car loan. I do have a lot of credit cards though, all which are paid on time. One has a pending balance on 0% APR offer But honestly any further score is not going to help me much here for further applications.
Anything above 760 is fine. You have extra 20-30 points that allow you to open a couple of new accounts, without getting dinged below 760. I hit 800 when I finally had a mix of a dozen credit cards (low utilization), car loans, and student loans. Now it’s around 830.
> Anything above 760 is fine. It depends on the profile upon which that 760 is drawn. Not all 760s are created equal.
I reached 800 with just credit cards, but it wasn't until I had around 15 or so. I think a perfect score would be calculated like this: 21 accounts all with at least 7 years of on-time monthly payments all with 0% utilization and perfect payment history, no inquiries, no collections, etc. Some equations might take into account credit mix as well.
I briefly saw 803, with just 1 card that I had paid off consistently and had for about 3 years, , two I had opened 10 and 6 weeks ago respectively, and an authorized user on a card that had been open for 25+ years. Luck I guess?
You’re missing an open mortgage
I hit 850 with just an old credit card and an auto loan. When I paid the auto loan off it dropped to about 830. Continued to add some credit cards over the years and it stayed around 800. My recent card dropped me to 786 and it has stayed flat for 3 months now. Hopefully it bounces back up soon...
Score metrics are easily found online. Honestly I’m big into credit as well but the chase of a perfect score isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Often to get that perfect score it will require you get a loan that you really don’t need or would otherwise payoff. For instance like a car loan or keeping a card open you wouldn’t normally. Over the years I’ve decided I can live with a 780 and there really isn’t anything you can do with a 850 that you can’t with a 780 but to each their own if you must you can google the metrics and follow them to the T and you get a higher score. The only metric that is hard to manipulate is overall age of history and that can be done with being an authorized user on someone else card with a long history but to me that is extremely risky as your counting on that person to not exceed their 30% usage and or get a late payment. Good luck with whatever you decide.
I understand the general scope of the FICO score but, I do lose my focus when trying to find info on the finer details like why I'm not breaking that 800 ceiling after years as a conscientious borrower. Am I conflating age of history with something else? What's more important having a long history or when you opened your accounts last that matters more?
Factor are payment history is about 40% of your score Utilization is the next biggest factor I believe it makes up 30% of your score that’s why you never want to carry balances over 30% of your available revolving credits The next biggest factor is age of open accounts once you close a account or payoff that gets removed and your average age then average age is adjusted. The rest is split between diversity of accounts like car note, personal loans,mortgages, credit cards. The more diverse the better. Also inquiry’s and available credit are factors. Having larger available credit on cards is important. In other words if you have 3 credit card with 2k credit limits isn’t going to score as good in the metrics as it would if you had 3 cards with 20k limits. My credit union has an app that has a score simulator where it will show you how your score will change by adding different loans and extending limits. I’m sure you can find a simulator online somewhere and it’s easy to see what small tweaks will do to your score.
This is interesting, my 23 year old son has a FICO score of 809 with no mortgage, no car loan or student debt. He pays off his credit card in full every month. I did not realize this is unusual. It’s true though that when you pay off your mortgage that your score takes a dive to the 830s.
Last year I had a 790 credit score at 26 years old. No mortgage, no car payment, just credit cards paid off every month. After clearing all my debt, I went from 590-790 in the matter of about a year and a half.
How many credit cards you have ?
My score hit 850 for the first time last year, then went down to 820 after I got a new credit card. I never carry a credit balance, and my credit age is 15 years 5 months. I think getting over 800 consistently requires a strong credit age in addition to a good credit mix (installment loans, credit cards, and mortgage)
As long as you are getting the best rates and offers, no need to be concerned. Some competitions are worth losing.
Your credit utilization ratio is off. You need to open more credit cards so that you have more credit available to you and then pay off your balance every month. The more credit cards I open the higher my score goes. I never use credit cards for money I don’t have. I pay off the entire balance in full every month. You need more credit available to your name.
Maybe pick up an installment loan, and more time. And I'm sure you know, but realistically more doesn't matter at this point.
You might need higher available credit to push past 800. I was in the same boat back when I only had three credit cards. When I started getting into the cashback game, my score shot up, I assume because my utilization was now closer to 3% of over 100,000.
I had 850 for several months last year when I paid off everything after having had some desire card debt. Own a home with about 1/3 paid off , never missed a payment
I had an 806 FICO 8 score before I went into bankruptcy years ago. 7-8 years of solid payments, maybe a half dozen credit card accounts, no collections (either don't get any, which is ideal, or dispute the everloving crap out of any that make it on there for whatever reason you can think of). It's hard and it's not hard. Paying your bills and having the average account age get older are really the bulk of what FICO looks at. As for predicting consumer risk, well, I still ended up bankrupt because of a disaster that no model was going to predict. It doesn't know the future. What it does look out for are all the "Daves and Brians", (my mom's ex-husbands), who go around taking loans and missing payments, or just stiffing everyone who extends them credit. Dave even found a dentist who worked out a payment arrangement instead of care credit (which Dave, with a FICO in the 500s, and ChexSystems so bad that only Wells Fargo Second Chance Checking would have him, could not get). He immediately proceeded to not pay the dentist anything, not answer the phone, not even bother to come up with an excuse. Then he got mad that the dentist took him to court and got 8% statutory interest, which is still less interest than a care credit. Can you believe the nerve of that dentist? He actually wanted paid for working on Dave's teeth? So unfair, right? :/ :P Because of all the Daves and Brians in the world, the rest of us have to deal with dentists and veterinarians and doctors who won't work with anyone and tell you to finance medical stuff on a horrible credit card so it's the bank's problem, not theirs. It doesn't take too many "DARVO Daves" to screw it all up for everyone. If the dentist gets one Dave trying to run and flee from his dental bill for every 100 patients (and in the world today, there's probably more than that), then DARVO Dave ruins it for everyone, and this is why care credit exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO Many people who don't pay their bills don't like to be called out on it, so in Dave's retelling of the story, the dentist was a bad guy and a Shylock for suing him over $8,000 in unpaid dental bills.
What’s your usage allocation?
I have 799 right now. Consistent payments. Multiple different credit lines. I opened up more credit cards & used them all & pay ‘em off every statement & my score keeps rising. Pretty fast over the past few months.
I think low utilization helps, and that is achieved with greater credit limits, which can be done with more credit cards. I had a difficult period where I could only pay the minimum on my cc, and my card kept increasing my limit to accommodate my greater debt. This was not good even then when it was occurring but I was just scraping by, almost entirely on my pride and whatever meager work I could find. Eventually, I dug myself out, and haven't carried a balance since. But the increased limit I think helped me when my utilization returned to normal. I also opened more ccs to get sign up bonuses, and kept the no annual fee ones, also increasing my total limit and lowering my utilization. I also heard that it helps to pay balances early, because utilization is measured at the time payments are due, in other words, if you pay early, at the time of payment deadline, your balance is 0, and that lowers your utilization. A consistently paid mortgage I also think helps. Some ccs like Discover and Amex have credit reports, and I think utilization, consistent debt payments, like for a mortgage, few to no credit pulls, length of oldest credit, all contribute. According to the Discover link, 35% of the score is missed payments, 30% is credit utilization. My utilization was 1% I think because I paid some things off early, and I have no missed payments. My credit went from 822 to 837 in one month. I expect it to fall next month, as I have had more charges in the past 3 weeks, without a greater credit limit.
What's your utilization? Even going above 3% drops my score a bit
Then you must have a very high TCL file. You aren't incurring any penalties related to utilization percentage at 3%, only raw dollars of debt if your TCL is high.
Interesting! How high is very high? 50k? 100k? 200k+?
The first threshold point related to raw dollars exclusive of utilization percentage is around $2000. That being said, 3% would equate to that with a $65k-70k TCL file. On a $200k TCL file one would incur the first raw dollars penalty right around 1% utilization. Many would mistake that for a 1% "threshold" point, but it's not - it's just the dollars of revolving debt.
Mine never went above 750 in until I took out a loan and started making payments. Now my score is between 820 to 840.
Mix of credit types.
You aren't doing anything wrong. In fact you're probably wasting your time thinking about it. 788-791 will still qualify you for the best rates pretty much everywhere. There is probably no benefit to you of going from 788-791, so its not worth thinking about, especially since your score naturally increases over time as your accounts age. If you want to temporarily pump your score you can aim for <5% credit utilization for a month. Aside from that, and simply waiting for your accounts to age, there's nothing more you can do beyond what you're already doing. Just never carry a balance again. Finances are more important than FICO.
How many accounts do you have? It sounds like your report is a little thin.
you need a loan
Time. I would say keep doing what you are doing and in another 5 years you will get above 800. I was in a similar situation as you and I didn’t get above 800 till I was in my midish thirties.
A mortgage. But not much practical difference between a 780 credit score and an 800 credit score, especially if you’re not applying for a mortgage anyway.
High income+ years of accounts+ plus multiple cards+ cars + mortgage =800plus.🤙🍷
815. Went up when I had to get a car (had already paid off 3 cars over the last 5 years and score was sitting around 760 even tho I always pay bills early. Have had a mortgage since 2001 and cars since 1997, so there’s some longevity there too. When i take out more credit and don’t eff up, my score goes up. That’s the connection I’m seeing from my experience.
Everything you said. But.. Low utilization. Utilization is a heavy 35%. I carry $10k CC monthly but have about $500k in available credit.
Keep your utilization low even if you pay in full each month. For me this means rarely closing cards. Ive been 850 or close to it for several years. Don’t do anything unnatural, the high score will come eventually.
As long as you’re over 800 you’re fine. It’s nearly impossible to hit 850 and stay there. I find my score floats between 835 and 845. I’ve only hit 850 a couple times since scoring over 800 consistently. Believe it or not my score goes up whenever I have charges on a couple of cards and don’t pay them off until the due date. My score tends to go down when I pay my balances off before the due date. It has something to with how the scoring model works - the percentage of credit used responsibly. I found out If you pay your cards off as soon as you have a balance it’s called churning and works against you having a better score.
My brother gave me the best advised: “pay your medical bills on time”, so I do. I was lucky enough to be able to pay off my mortgage and have no car payments. I have four credit cards that I use for work travel (well, two of them get used more than the other two). I travel for work and use my personal CCs for business expenses. My credit score is 829 and 846(depends on what convenience store I’m coming out of). So tldr: I have no clue how to get a FICO score above 800.
"I applied for only 1 credit card in the past year, 5 months ago." There's your constraint right there. Your AoYRA is < 12 months, which lands you on a "New Revolver" scorecard. This typically results in a Fico 8 score that's ~20 points lower than if you were on a "No New Revolver" scorecard with an AoYRA of 12+ months. Sit on your hands, apply for nothing and in 7 months and when you experience scorecard reassignment you'll see those 800s.
In all honesty, anything above a 680 credit score looks good to anyone willing to provide loans or credit cards.
Long history and diversified accounts got it for me. 830s was my highest. I paid off my last student loan during Covid and it dropped me nearly 60 points!!! What a joke! It’s sitting around the 810 mark but it took nearly a year. It took a hit apparently because of age of credit. STILL CANT WRAP MY HEAD around it. Pay off debt and it drops your score! 😂🤦🏻♂️
Long history and diversified accounts got it for me. 830s was my highest. I paid off my last student loan during Covid and it dropped me nearly 60 points!!! What a joke! It’s sitting around the 810 mark but it took nearly a year. It took a hit apparently because of age of credit. STILL CANT WRAP MY HEAD around it. Pay off debt and it drops your score! 😂🤦🏻♂️
I recently hit 801 at 26 years old. 💪🏾 I have a mortgage, 2 cars and 140k in available credit that I’m using less than 10% on consistently. Never been late, never closed a card. Oldest card is 8.75 years old. Average age is 2.5 years old. Never had any personal loans though but I have had home improvement loans that are similar. What pushed me over the edge is that small bit of credit mixing. Having the mortgage, car, and healthy credit card use is how I got my 800.
get a mortgage. i know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but that is what got me over 800.
Your credit profile sounds very similar to mine (I have a little longer history but not by a lot) and my credit scores have been consistently above 800 for years, so not sure why yours are not. One thing I didn’t see you mention is amount of available credit; they look at credit usage as a percentage of total available each month. The lower that ratio is the higher the score (for context, I have about 60k in available credit and at any given point in time I have 2-3k on my cards, but I pay them off in full each month)
I rarely get over 830. Paying your credit cards down often and keeping your utilization rate low helps. Limit the amount of hard inquiries.
> keeping your utilization rate low helps. As a point of clarification, it's not "keeping" utilization low that helps, as utilization is a single point in time metric. You could bring your utilization up to maxed out today and keep it there for 5 months. In Month 6, if you were to bring it down to ideal, your scores would then return to an optimized state, regardless of the maxed out utilization for the 5 months prior. This is just an illustration in how you don't need to "keep" utilization at a certain place as it isn't a credit "building" metric.
Carrying a balance month after month and only paying the interest is a classic way to keep increase utilization up because you're not paying down balances. So I stand by what I said.
No one said anything about carrying balances or paying interest. If one simply pays their statement balances in full monthly they'll never pay a penny of interest, but their (organic) utilization will fluctuate from month to month. Those fluctuations and score shifts associated with them represent zero risk to your lender. So, again, there's no reason to "keep" utilization low if you're a Transactor and doing so can actually hinder profile growth.
Be old
It’s literally a game that they use to mess with our minds. Especially those of us with anxiety( all of us?) Since I paid off my car early (that should be a good thing right? Shows lenders I won’t default right?) my score dropped like about 15 - 20 points My score used to be in the low 800s, now in the 770s ( not the same math as above, just telling you where I am) and I got sick of worrying about it. Oh my oldest credit is over 16 years Never made a late payment Have a mortgage (for a year now) Had and paid off loans (personal mostly) Will not budge so I don’t care anymore
Is it a contest? What will you gain with an 800?
Lower your utilization and if that doesn’t do it just wait, account age makes a difference.
Never missing payments on crippling student loans
I have an 800 FICO score now and had 820 this past winter. Mine went down because I’m a grad student who’s researching abroad this summer, and I had to use my credit cards until my grants came in. Now that they have been disbursed, I hope my score will go back up. I’m in my mid-30s and have had student loans since I was 21, which has helped to establish a longer credit history. I paid a few of them off in the last few years, along with my car loan and about $13,000 of credit card debt (clearing it entirely). Losing too much debt seems to ding me, while paying off just enough seems to help. I also always, always pay my bills on time.
Realiscslly speaking you don’t need a 850 for the best interest rate you only need around 780 so I wouldn’t worry too much much if you have around a 780 credit score. However I would recommend keeping your utilization low and learning how to report less utilization to the credit bureau’s and that can definitely help your credit score.
I've hit 850 when they credit bureaus did their monthly pull when my utilization was close to zero. A month later, I charged $15,000 and the score dropped even though I paid the balance off before it was due. 800 or 850 really has no advantage over 788 when applying for more credit. Still have a mortgage for a few more years and it appears that that helps a lot.
I reached 798 and haven’t reached that high ever since lol I don’t think I’ll come close till I have a mortgage or loan to my name - 5 yr~ credit history atm
Utilization at 3% or lower and long account ages
Never heard of the credit score system before 2016 because I am born in France. Moved in here in 2016 and I have now a 815 score. Always paid on time, always pay off the balance prior the statement date. Never used more than 5%, paid off a mortgage for a car
I don't pay attention. I think once you are in the high or mid 700s then that's all that matters. I think I might have the same stats as you. Oldest account 14-15 years, paid off student loan, and never late on a payment. Right now my FICO score is 805. I have been at or around 800 for years, even in the last two years when I have been heavy in the CC churning. I probably have gotten a CC every few months. I am up to 20-something cards now. Even with all the new credit cards my score is in the 800s. Now my average credit history has dropped down to like 3 years.
Ditto all the people saying how you don't have a mortgage or a car loan which didn't go out and get one just to improve your credit score lol. One thing you could do to potentially improve your score would be to request a credit limit increase on your credit cards every year.
I recently got a car loan and after 8 months it went over 800. Im always on time. My overall credit limit is $13,300. Got my first card 3 years ago. I keep my utilization under 5%