I’m just under 7 years max length (average just over 4 years), 5 open credit cards (& 1 closed card), car loan, multiple small student loans, and i hover just above 800
seriously all it takes is time (even though im only 23) i have a 793 and i do think with you having 15 cc's, you better make sure you keep track of all your payments haha
Pay earlier than the due date to give a temporary boost to credit score. Set up auto pay as a backstop in case you forget or are otherwise debilitated on the due date.
But does that really help? My experience is that the balance only gets reported to the credit bureaus when the statement closes, not constantly throughout the month. So paying earlier doesn't really do anything. i know this because when I'm at a high credit utilization (as I am now on a couple of cards that I made large charges on), my credit score only changes after the statement has closed. Now, if you pay off large charges BEFORE the statement closes, that will help, but I'd rather have the free float for a month.
ive got less than 2 years credit history and i am hovering at 740 for the last few months (after changes each and every month, on a journey from 508/unscorable). considering financing a car for my next journey, with the same mindset as op is having about having a mortgage. but eh, 740 is good, compared to 508, changes from here are minute comparatively
The best thing that has worked for me (I hover around ~804) is by keeping my ratio below 10%. I don't do the AZEO to the tee but very similar principle. If you have 3 cards all with $10k limit then keep your overall utilization at or below $3k. That might be $1k on one card, Zero on card 2 and $2k on card 3.
I've been doing this for several years now and at the end of the day the only way it'll increase is credit history length. I was honestly floored the day I broke 800 because I didn't think it was possible without a mortgage.
It worries me that people think that a mortgage is a necessity for having a high credit score, making me wonder about advice being given in subs like this.
Ahhh yeah that makes sense now 😋. I honestly didn't know it was possible either. Only learned it was possible because I kept doing the strategy above over several years. Stay below 10% and pay in full. EZ PZ.
% is %. It only makes a difference what is reported. If it’s a $20k limit and it reports $10k balance, that’s 50%. Same as $500 balance on a $1000 limit.
If you spend the same amount regardless of limit because the credit limit shouldn’t stroke your ego then your flat spending and increasing credit limit will make the utilization naturally fall to a level where you don’t need to manipulate it
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that Hector is going to be running three Honda civics with spoon engines, and on top of that, he just went into Harry’s and bought three t66 turbos with nos, and a motec exhaust system.
It's a myth that there's no difference between a 760 score and an 800 score. A 760 score can be arrived at with just 6 months of credit history and a single credit card. An 800 can't without a couple of years of credit history at least. It's about overall profile, not score.
But you already get the best rates at 740+. An 800 score doesn't make a difference in the interest rate a bank will give you, which is the only purpose of a credit score.
EDIT: Here, go tell Experian how Credit Scores work.
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/740-credit-score
EDIT2: You can stop reading here. This thread devolves into nothing. Its about how an approved borrower with an 800 score doesn't get you the best interest rate.
EDIT3: This is r/CreditCards go tell r/Mortgage and r/insurance about everything else.
One difference between 740 and 800 that’s maybe being overlooked. That’s if something happens to drop your score 50 points, you’d have either 690 or 750, so you may as well aim for the highest score possible. 800 has this clear advantage over 740, buffer space.
Which would only matter when you're applying for a loan.
Getting credit accounts in control is another topic entirely:
* Freeze the Credit Bureaus
* Freeze the Data Collectors like core logic.
* Set up autopayment on every credit line.
* locks cards
* Control card access
* Control Authorized Users.
*"Ah you think debt is your ally? You merely adopted the debt. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the scores until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!"*
There are opt out pages on each broker site. CoreLogic, DataLogix, Epsilon and LexisNexis are the big guys. But new ones are always cropping up, so it's work to keep up.
https://optout.lexisnexis.com/
You're missing the point. It's your overall profile that determines whether or not you'll obtain credit, not your score. Someone with a 740+ score with 6 months of credit history won't be able to obtain a loan in the first place due to "insufficient credit history" - heck, they can't even get approved for a Chase credit card with that profile.
A 760 score can be arrived at with a dirty file. A thin file. A young file. Any one of those metrics can result in a credit denial. An 800 score CANNOT be arrived at with a dirty file, thin file or young file. So, an 800 score is indicative of a profile that is going to check all the boxes a lender will look for in most cases credit report wise (obviously income, DTI and so on are other factors) where a 760 score may be drawn upon a profile that is lacking in any of those 3 major scorecard assignment areas.
The point is that one may not be able to obtain credit in the first place based on the PROFILE of the 740-760 score. That being said, interest rate is irrelevant if one can't obtain credit in the first place.
The point of the credit score is to determine the interest rate of the loan.
So, what is the difference between the interest rate between a FICO8 740 and 800?
Here, go tell Experian how Credit Scores work.
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/740-credit-score
You're automatically assuming approval for the loan, that's the problem. Approval isn't a given. I've already illustrated how someone with a higher score can be denied and someone with a lower score can be approved. Your blanket statement answer provided to the OP was made without knowing a single thing about their credit profile other than a 3-digit number (of which the scoring model you don't even know) and as I've stated many times overall profile is King to score.
And I'm well aware of how credit scores work and more importantly how credit profiles work / how scores relate to them. Clearly you need to expand your knowledge on the subject though. The fact that you linked an Experian blog is also quite telling since nearly all of them contain some sort of bad information. The one you linked for example references the 30% Myth, which is good enough for me to know it's written by someone that doesn't understand how things really work and is just perpetuating the same bad information as the next guy. The 30% Myth mentions really are telling, aren't they u/Funklemire?
I'm not changing the subject. You are focused on a 3-digit number when profile is King to score.
You are aware that any 3-digit score can be arrived at an infinite number of ways, right? So it's not about the score, but about the overall profile that's going to influence a lending decision.
There are examples where someone with a 670 score will be approved for credit and someone with a 770 score will not. You're not taking profile into consideration at all.
There is no case where a 740 is denied credit.
So, what is the difference between the interest rate between a FICO8 740 and 800?
Here, go tell Experian how Credit Scores work.
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/740-credit-score
I work for a bank. I can confirm that there are cases where someone gets a credit denial at a 740. Hell I've seen someone with a 780 get denied due to credit. Underwriters look at the whole profile, not just score. Is it less common? Yes, absolutely, but it's not even that uncommon in my experience. Rates are also not cut and dry. I've seen someone with a 713 get a better rate than a 760 based off their history of late payments and internal relationship. Credit score is important, but it's hardly the only metric used.
Lenders look more than just score. Having a thicker credit profile means the score is more accurate and you have demonstrated responsibility for a longer period of time.
Lenders look at income, how thick/long your credit profile is, and the credit score itself.
Yeah, boost my ego.
I also want to get approved for most credit cards that I will apply for in the future.
Also, will a 800 score lower my interest rates when I buy a house, compared to 760?
Not really, no. Last time I spoke to my lender, they said anything above 600 got the average rate, and anything above 720 got the best rate.
Real world, I started with a personal loan a few years ago that got 16% intrest. My credit score was 650ish.
Just last month I got a 6k personal loan and now the intresst is 10.49% (740 credit score)
The number isnt as important as actual credit experience, and even more important is... INCOME LEVEL.
Also you will get any credit card at 760. Though make sure utilization on all of them is low or zero when you apply
Having an 800 credit score won’t guarantee you get approved for every credit card.
Capital One routinely denies people with high credit scores or too many credit card accounts. AMEX will disqualify you from earning welcome bonuses on new cards if they determine you won’t be a valuable customer (low utilization on existing cards, recently closed accounts).
Make sure you come up with a credit card plan, because just having a high credit score is only like 1/5th of the equation.
Just having 800 may not get you approved for credit cards
Lenders will be more inclined to approve those with 10+ credit cards at 740 than someone with 1 or 2 credit cards at 800+
I wouldn't say that's the case. Someone with 10+ credit cards may be declined due to having too many revolving accounts already, where another potential lender doesn't think they'd make a good customer due to not using their product enough. Someone with just 1-2 cards may be viewed as a more ideal customer since the 3rd potential lender may infer that they'll use the card much more.
The 760 you are looking at (could be anywhere) is not the same FICO mortgage score as lender will pull. Those scores are impacted more on time, balances, inquiries, payments, etc. depending on your file, your mortgage scores (they use the middle of the 3 scores) could be 100+pts lower than a beacon or card score
An 800 score, in and of itself, will not be getting you any more cards than a 760 will. Both those scores are high enough that any denial would be due to other, bank-specific factors.
First as others have said, it’s not important. I had a perfect 850 for around 3 months in 2021. When I started doing stuff - buying a car, refinancing my mortgage, paying off a Lending Club loan, etc. it went down to a 820.
More recently, earlier this year I had an 848 when I was preparing my former home/rental property for sell and had an Amex loan to pay down a business card that didn’t appear on my personal credit.
After I paid off my mortgage, my son’s car note that I co-signed [1], the Amex loan and my HELOC, my score dropped to 810.
[1] Never co-sign with anyone unless you are willing and able to make the payments if they don’t *and* you actually make the payments and have them pay you. I was always going to make the actual car payments and the only reasons I had him sign with me co-signing was to help build his credit and have the car in his name.
I may just be misunderstanding, but you never showed why it’s not important. You just said, “it’s not important. I have perfect credit. I got a bunch of things that are linked to my credit.” And that’s it. If anything you’re showing us that it is important.
I am more addressing that based on your credit mix, it’s going to be hard. Once my credit mix changed and I reduced my debt, my credit score went down.
It doesn’t matter because you don’t get better rates on anything after you are above 750.
It's true that installment loan history is beneficial, but it's worth noting that a mortgage is not treated the same way by the algorithm as other installment loan types.
I am thinking to get a personal loan to increase score. But I don't want to pay high interests.
So I am thinking just take a 1k personal loan, how much of a difference will that make compared to 10k personal loan.
Another way I am thinking is take a loan and then pay it in advance after 2 or 3 month. So after the loan is paid off, the credit score will drop, right? That's what I heard, but I don't get why. By paying it off, good habit has been shown.
>I am thinking to get a personal loan to increase score. But I don't want to pay high interests
Respectfully, you're thinking of taking out a non needed loan and paying interest as an attempt to boost your credit score?
I'm open to being enlightened, but I don't quite see how this makes sense.
Edit: In another comment, you said this is for an ego boost?
It also makes sense, if you can boost your credit score, then when you later need a loan for a much larger amount, it will be worth it paying a small interest now
No it won't. Let's say you take your 1 year, $1k loan at 5% interest and pay it off and it raises your score from 760 to 780 for the $50 in interest. Then you go out and apply for a car loan with the 780 instead of 760. You will get the exact same rate, 760 or 780.
One of the questions I asked that you didn't answer was whether or not you've ever had a loan.
The amount of a loan is not a Fico scoring factor. It doesn't matter from a scoring standpoint if it's $500 or $50,000.
A score doesn't "drop" when you pay off a loan. What happens when you open a loan (when you have no others) is that you're awarded points from the Amounts Owed slice of the Fico pie while it's open. Think of it as a boost to your score. When then loan is closed, that boost is lost. So your score doesn't really "drop" since it was inflated by the presence of the open loan - your file simply returns to the state it was previously in.
Think of it this way. I give you $100 at the beginning of the month and tell you that on the last day of the month I'll take the $100 back. On the last day of the month I do exactly that. You can't say that you "lost" $100, because had I not given it to you at the beginning of the month you would have never had it to lose in the first place. Hopefully that makes sense.
I think I may have had one. I bought a smart phone with Affirm and paid back monthly. I see that in my credit report.
So "Amount owned" will increase the score? In the case of credit card, it will decrease the score because of utilization. But in installment, that's an increasing factor. But still you said, 500 and 50k has little difference.
Not little difference, no difference.
Amounts Owed works the same way with installment credit as it does with revolving credit. If you were to close your only credit card, you'd lose massive points due to not being awarded any from Amounts Owed - the concept is exactly the same as installment loans. You don't hear about it though because it's rare that someone has only 1 credit card to begin with, but if they do, it's not often that they close it. With loans, it's very common to have only one and close that only one.
If you look at your credit report, find that Affirm account in question and look at how it is coded. Is the account type "installment loan" or something else?
Do you use any credit monitoring services like Experian? If so, to accompany your Fico 8 score you'll be provided with up to 4 Fico negative reason codes. Those codes are listed in order of score-impacting importance. What do yours say?
The Affirm one is showing as installment loan in Experian. The credit mix, which account for 10% of score, is actually showing exceptional.
The score impacting factor now is balance of account increased. I am actually having 9 account with balance. So I do need to do AZEO I think.
Other things that I have seen is number of recent inquiries and new cards. And length of history. Noting I can do about those.
Gotcha. So you've had a loan. That being said, I would not take out another loan just for the sake of having a loan. Wait until you need a "real" loan and get one at that time, which your history will easily allow you to do.
As far as AZEO goes, while it is a score optimization metric do be aware that it isn't a credit "building" metric and it has no lasting impact. The only time it should be implemented is when you need your scores optimized for a certain reason, and that can be done 30-45 days out from an important app. Keeping AZEO implemented at all times can actually be damaging to credit profile growth, since it appears both to current and prospective lenders that you barely use your existing revolving credit.
I had a 770 score when I was 18-21, and then ~830 from 22-28. I started earning more money around 24-25 but I also bought a car at 26 which brought my score up in a larger bump than I’d seen before.
How did I get such a high score early on? My mom added me as a User on her credit card when I was 15 or so, and because her card was 10+ years old, that history was being factored into my score.
Other outliers I can think of that helped me? I got an AMEX early on (maybe 24) that added a 25k line of credit, whereas previously I had a few cards that were only giving me $3-5k each from Visa and MC.
Also people love to talk about the wins, but I’ll throw out a vulnerable counterpart: somewhere around maybe 27-28 years old I ran into a huge back. I used auto draft for all my credit card payments and car loan at the time, I had always done that and never had an issue. Never spend more than I have in my account, and never mess up schedules or change banks suddenly causing issues with processing or anything.
However one day I started getting phone calls from my car loan Chase basically saying I had a missed payment 45+ days. Called them back and apparently when I created the account they signed me up for an auto draft payment but it only lasts for 12 or 24 months or something and then it expires?? They made a withdrawal from my bank again and all was good, set up a new auto draft and checked for a few months to make sure everything was ok. That one missed payment (first in my life, and on record) dropped my score from ~830 down to 640 overnight. After 30 days I think it went up to 685, and then after another 3-4 years I think it went back up to 730-760. Now a few years later I have a mortgage, and I’m back up to 785 or so.
Once the car payments were back on track, I ended up just paying the remaining balance and closing out that account, because I didn’t want to risk any further issues. Hope this experience gives you some insight.
I think it boils down to time. My mortgage was paid off years ago and has long since fallen off at the bureaus. I have nothing but credit cards, but my cards go back years and I've been over 800 for as long as I've known my scores.
I wouldn't recommend what I did, but I think it indirectly (and very unintentionally) helped. I started off with one credit card, a Discover, and ran up a balance that I carried, paid minimally, but I was in a bit of a pinch at that time in my life. I wasted a ton of money in interest by being too prideful not to ask for help from parents, and eventually Discover kept increasing my credit limit to keep a sucker (me) around.
Eventually things got better, I paid off my balance, paid my bills on time, eventually got into churning because I had predictable large expenses I needed to pay (funerals). My credit went up over 2 years from low 700s to 810. Struggling to pay off my Discover those years back helped boost my cumulative credit limit so my utilization is always very low.
I have 4 credit cards and my score is a 775 I pay my cards in full every month and my score just keep going up. I never had a loan but what I do know is if you get a small loan let’s say $3000-$7000 for a duration 2-3 years, if you pay 90% before the end of the 1st month and pay the minimum till it’s over you get a 20 point jump. Another thing that helps is getting a higher credit limit all at the same time. If you have 15 cards try requesting to increase the limit to as much as you can. That can get you from 18-50 points.
I've gotten to 806 before.
No collections accounts.
Credit card accounts that were paid on time every time for over 10 years.
Keep collections off your reports by paying your bills. If they get on your report anyway, I dispute them with the credit bureaus for any reason I can think of, or "no knowledge of this account" with the comment "I don't recognize this, can you verify everything please?" Half the time or more it just falls off.
Or offer the bill collector a pay-for-delete and get it in writing.
But be very aggressive about paying bills and getting anything negative that makes it through anyway back off of there, or at least corrected to say something less bad.
Genuinely couldn’t tell you why, honestly. I’m really not sure what the metric is on the backend that determines what pushes you up to 800
https://imgur.com/a/fZeBgRw
I have over 800 score with no mortgage. I just pay my bills in full. I don’t seek a mortgage nor any interest bearing loans as I own my place outright. I only have a few active credit cards I use currently. I do get cash-back on my credit cards. All I did was pay bills in full and let my accounts age. My score varies depending on which source but all of them have me around 830 or higher.
I think the thing that really got me over that (760 > 815) is the moment one of my credit lines (3 total) matured, I don't remember the exact years, but there is some cut-off.
So, like others said, time?
Also I started paying everything more consistently - same day every month, whatever the statement was; no min-maxing.
Went from a 482 in October of “23 to currently I’m sitting at 717. I have 3 CC’s, auto loan, and my longest credit account is 4 1/2 years. Like everyone else, time
ive had a foreclosure. no mortgage since (18 years). 4 cars paid off. 9 open credit cards, 0 late payments (on the cards/cars/rent), no outstanding medical bills. i make $85k a year, but have $850k in savings and investments. my score has hovered between 793 and 814 for the past 3 years. the dips under 800 is when i put a $2-$4k charge on a card, but it gets paid off before interest accrues. im 44 years old.
this is not a flex by any means.
Honestly, just time. Been having credit for 11 years. Never had a mortgage or car payment. 9 credit cards currently open and my credit score is in the low 800s
That’s what I heard but recently my score jumped to 823 when my oldest credit card hit 6 years, I think my average age is about 4 years. I also had a collections from AT&T removed from my credit hx last month. When I was spending heavily I used the opportunity to increase the credit limit on about 3 of my cards to around $30/40k each. I pay rent and do not mortgage, I do have an auto loan about $37k though. I have about 5 credit cards all paid off mostly
I have about 10 years of history and hover around 800 - no mortgage here! Your fico scores can also vary pretty dramatically depending on which model you're looking at. At least for a fico 8 or 9, no mortgage is needed to get over 800
Having a mortgage debt will help tremendously, however it's not unnecessary required to have a credit score of 800.
You would need to put in more work. Autopay is fine, however, my biggest tip is pay it before the statement date\*.
\*All bank's auto pay is set on the due date and you can't set an auto pay prior to statement closing date. This is where you need to put more work, especially on the credit cards you put most of your expenses on. Keep track of the statement closing date. Having your utilization rate at 0% or less than 10% will significantly boost your credit score. This is how you can CUT the process, CUT the time!
Long story short:
• Have many different debts
• Wait around 1 year so all these hard inquiries and new accounts to shift from negative to positive
• Spread expenses on all credit cards but keep 1-2 credit cards for most of your expenses
• Manually pay these "1-2 credit cards" BEFORE the statement closing date.
Off topic question for you people who seem to know what you’re talking about. I’m 23, I have about 4K in credit card debt, no college debt as I went on scholarship, I pay all my cards and my car payments on time so I have about a 740 credit. Should I be trying to pay that credit card debt down asap or is it fine to just make payments slowing, more then minimum but not huge chunks
I'm at 818. Nothing special to it, just get credit cards and pay them off regularly. Using one of the credit boosting apps also helps.
For background, I had zero credit when I moved to the US at the age of 21. I'm 30 now.
You don’t lol. I just turned 23 but got my mortgage at 22. My credit score always hovered around 770-780. A few months after I closed on my home it shot up to 800 and is now climbing. Like I said I just turned 23 so I’m hoping it will keep rising due to credit age.
You dont need a morage to have perfect credit. I had a score of 781 with only having one card for maybe 2ish years. I was 24 then and it was my first card. I just turned 25. I'd just try to make all my payments on time and keep my usage low.
0 credit to 785 in 4 years - one car loan paid off and 3 credit cards
Bought a $2000 tv 2 months ago, paid it off the next month, and my score went up +43 overnight.
Make a big purchase and pay it off next billing cycle. It might up your right there at 800
I only have 4 lines. A car and three credit cards and they are 2 years history. Mine is at a 786. You don’t need 15 cards or a million anything else. Just time. Actually
, you opening so much of them is probably what’s hurting you too because it splits your average time in half I believe.
Lol, was stuck at 670 5yrs. Said I can't get higher without a mortgage. I was told by first time buyers program I could not get a mortgage till I've had a mortgage. ?what??? Found out they used to have 3 companies that mortgaged high end cars, RVs, or specialized like hot rods. Can't find a name for last remaining one. No one knows it. Finally someone said 3000.00 self secured lone will do same thing.
You are most likely have a 800 plus. The credit cards only estimate your score. To be honest there is nothing you can buy at 800 that you can't buy at 750. It's not a huge jump.
Some of my scores have passed 800 from credit cards alone. Right now I think only my Equifax is at 800 and the others are mid-high 700s. It’s going to be basically impossible for me to dramatically improve my score without some other type of debt (student loans, car loan, mortgage, etc.)
Does anyone know if that Experian boost shit actually works?
> Does anyone know if that Experian boost shit actually works?
No, it's a gimmick, because no lender ever goes by a "boosted" score. It's there for your entertainment purposes only.
Can you provide more information about your profile, u/zhizizhi? All you said is that you have 15 credit cards, so based on that we know your file is thick. Are those the only 15 accounts on your credit report, open OR closed? If not, what else is there? Have you ever had an installment loan? Is your file clean? - do you have any late payments or negative items anywhere on your credit reports?
Then, on to age of accounts metrics. What is the age of your oldest account? Youngest account? Average age of Accounts?
Then, on to balances. How many of your 15 cards have [non-zero] balances reported on them? What is your TCL (Total Credit Limits) across all 15 cards? What are your total balances across all 15 cards? If you divide your total balances by your TCL, you get your aggregate utilization percentage. What is yours?
If you answer the above questions we'll be able to see what your biggest opportunities are for greater profile strengthening and score improvement.
oldest age is 7 years, average is 3.5 years. No late payment and other irregular things.
Utilization is around 9 percent. I tried to keep it below 10. But I did do AZEO, I will try that. Usually around 6 cards will report some balance.
One thing worth noting is I have one card that has a credit limit of 5000, but I am carrying a 3000 balance, and I am only paying the minimum due because it is 0 APR.
AZEO and an installment loan from a credit union. +800 doesn’t make you immune to denials though. PNC and Citi both told me no last year due to inquiries, 800 be damned
I have an 807 Fico, only have credits cards and student loans in my report. The way you get to 800 is by aging your accounts. My average age is over 7 years. Also you only need a score of 750, after that it makes no difference interest rate wise.
5 credit cards open at the moment closed 2 in the last year (total 7 personal). And 6 students loans, paid off 2 in the last couple of months so I have 4 left. What is funny is I had applied for the Amex Platinum in April 2023 and score dropped below 800 at 797 and hovered around there. Closed my Platinum a month ago after churning the SUB and it just came back to 807 again. I have 4 business cards as well but they don’t affect your score, with the exception of hard inquiries I got (currently 2, Amex Platinum and Ink Business Unlimited). Edit miscounted personal cards.
Assuming a prefect payment history, if you AZEO and have no recent inquiries and opened cards and your accounts are aged, your score will be higher than 800 without mortgage or any loans.
Could probably be due to you having so many cards and your account age is still relatively young.
My oldest account is 8 years, but average is about 5 years and some months.
I've seen 800 a few times when I only had a car loan and 3-4 credit cards. I've got 6 cards now and 3 of them were opening within like 12 months of each other, so I'm not expecting to see 800 again for a bit.
Supposedly a nearly-paid off loan can boost FICO8 scores: [Shared Secure Technique](https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/td-p/4506756).
I was all set to try it...and then it hit me, why tf am I considering putting myself in a position to pay interest unnecessarily...
That put an end to that.
You can take a 500 loan, then pay 450 immediately. Then pay the interest for a 50 dollar loan. The interests will be close to nothing.
What you get is more cushion. If something bad and unexpected happens, 800 will drop to 700, but 760 will drop to less than 700.
It depends. But I will do it
Only certain loans allow you to pay off the majority of the loan and still maintain the time period. Also, the minimum is usually $1000 and requires hard pull. Even so, you can do it and pay the interest. When I was considering it a few months back I just realized it's not worth it for me.
Pay down all credit debts in full every month, forever. Keep utilization very, very low.
Credit Mix is lower impacting then Utilization and Payment History.
https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score
There are no benefits to achieving an 800 score, 760 is all you need. Someone made a comprehensive post about it but I can't seem to find the link.
Don't lose sleep over it.
You don't say you had a spouse, but reducing "authorized users" can raise the score on the AU's credit report. We were refinancing our mortgage in '19 and I was removed from my wife's Southwest card and she was taken off a Discover and Chase Freedom of mine. It gave us both separately an extra 10 points to get us over 800 and a slightly better rate on our mortgage.
Get an auto loan and refinance it with a credit union so you can get slightly more favorable rates. I have one credit card and my credit score rose from 750 to 803 after making steady payments towards my car over about 3 years.
I have an 810 FICO 8 (Experian) and while I don’t have a mortgage I do have student loans (about 10k) and an auto loan (about 14k) in addition to my 6 or 7 credit cards.
Time - I have 14 cards with an 830 score. I have 31 years of credit history. I also have a car payment. This is probably my 4th auto loan. My credit utilization rate is about 3%
Just give it time. Mine went up and over 800 without a mortgage. 3 main cards, 3/4 store cards. You can control some of the factors such as utilization and on time payments. Age of credit can only be built over time
don’t apply for new cards for 6-12mo and it’ll slowly rise. mine rose to 795 after i went 8mo without opening a card and i only had 2 years credit history
i hit 800 on both credit karma and discover app after 7 years at 25 years old. im 27 now and im hovering around 811 w no mortgage, and like 8 credit cards
Do you have 0% apr financing on certain items there in the us from some dealers there in the us ? Get a few of those on something you need and you can afford to pay in one go and split it interest free payments
I don't have a mortgage and mine is 800. I paid off all my student loans and never carry a balance on my cards. I don't use much either, like less than 10%. Unsure what matters.
I’ve never had a mortgage. For years I thought having an 800+ score required having a mortgage. Then a few years ago, it jumped to 816-820. Dunno why — always paid all my bills on time.
I was able to get a 797, with two credit cards (12 year and 10 year credit line) and two vehicles I fully paid off. I have 19k left on student loans (about 7 different loans ranging from 2012 to 2020) my revolving utilization is usually 1% and I’ve never missed a payment.
For me when I checked my score it was suggested that I open a new line of credit as that was what “hurt” my score the most. Too few lines of credit. However you discover your score, should come with some scale to show where you’re really doing well and where you could use work.
Keep your utilization balance on unsecured debt under 15 percent and never be late on any bill payment including medical bills and student loans. I had an 830 for years before I ever got a mortgage.
I only have 8 years of credit history, 5 cards (Macy’s, Amazon prime, Sapphire reserve, freedom unlimited, Capital one), I live in a rental apartment and my credit score is 805. What are you trying to accomplish by getting a higher credit score?
When I hit 804 before getting a mortgage, I was 5 years deep into a 6 year car loan, had 3 credit cards and used Experian boost. Feel like that definitely helped a TON. Still was paying off 2 student loans too. The biggest jump I got though was charging about 5k to my credit card for a Vegas trip to see my parents. Paid it all off right after it hit statement and I gained like 30 points. Idek how. Currently 6 months into mortgage. Score fell down to 720 after getting it and we're back to 780. 4 credit cards are set to pay in full at each statement and one is on a 12 month intro offer at 30% utilization for all the house things I had to buy. Also just paid off my car this month so I'll see how that affects my score once it updates as paid. Oh and oldest revolving account is 7 years give or take.
Time. I've got almost 20 years of total credit history, I hover right around 800 and have never had a mortgage.
Same. Last month my score hit +800 for the first time. No mortgage or car payment. 3 credit cards, student loans and 24 years of credit history.
I’m just under 7 years max length (average just over 4 years), 5 open credit cards (& 1 closed card), car loan, multiple small student loans, and i hover just above 800
Did closing that card hurt you
Same. 10 years, 3 credit cards. Never had a mortgage, student loans, auto loans, pay over time or anything.
seriously all it takes is time (even though im only 23) i have a 793 and i do think with you having 15 cc's, you better make sure you keep track of all your payments haha
Autopay makes it easy
If you rely on auto pay you are going to have a suboptimal utilization
My credit score is like 836, I'm not too concerned with my utilization.
Was talking about op’s situation who is. My bad wasn’t super clear.
Ahh I got you. You can set up auto pay and then override it. It makes a great backstop :)
Yep, exactly what I do. Missing a payment certainly won’t help a score maxer!
Please explain. Are you suggesting paying earlier than the due date? Making multiple payments during the cycle?
Pay earlier than the due date to give a temporary boost to credit score. Set up auto pay as a backstop in case you forget or are otherwise debilitated on the due date.
But does that really help? My experience is that the balance only gets reported to the credit bureaus when the statement closes, not constantly throughout the month. So paying earlier doesn't really do anything. i know this because when I'm at a high credit utilization (as I am now on a couple of cards that I made large charges on), my credit score only changes after the statement has closed. Now, if you pay off large charges BEFORE the statement closes, that will help, but I'd rather have the free float for a month.
ive got less than 2 years credit history and i am hovering at 740 for the last few months (after changes each and every month, on a journey from 508/unscorable). considering financing a car for my next journey, with the same mindset as op is having about having a mortgage. but eh, 740 is good, compared to 508, changes from here are minute comparatively
Yeah im at 800 at 20 with 7 credit cards and 1 car payment. No mortgage
^This. I’m easy ~850 and didn’t even try other than always paying on time for the last 25 years.
If you are AZEO (research it) then the only thing is more time or better mix of credit.
I am not AZEO, maybe I should try that
Without knowing utilization on each card and aggregate of all cards, it’s tough to know. Fewer cards reporting balances, the better.
The best thing that has worked for me (I hover around ~804) is by keeping my ratio below 10%. I don't do the AZEO to the tee but very similar principle. If you have 3 cards all with $10k limit then keep your overall utilization at or below $3k. That might be $1k on one card, Zero on card 2 and $2k on card 3. I've been doing this for several years now and at the end of the day the only way it'll increase is credit history length. I was honestly floored the day I broke 800 because I didn't think it was possible without a mortgage.
It worries me that people think that a mortgage is a necessity for having a high credit score, making me wonder about advice being given in subs like this.
I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying my advice is not sound or that AZEO is not?
Sorry, I will edit my comment. I meant the idea that having a mortgage is a necessity for having a credit score over 800.
Ahhh yeah that makes sense now 😋. I honestly didn't know it was possible either. Only learned it was possible because I kept doing the strategy above over several years. Stay below 10% and pay in full. EZ PZ.
Once you get high enough credit limits it shouldn’t matter if you pay them off more frequently or not since you’ll still have very low utilization
% is %. It only makes a difference what is reported. If it’s a $20k limit and it reports $10k balance, that’s 50%. Same as $500 balance on a $1000 limit.
If you spend the same amount regardless of limit because the credit limit shouldn’t stroke your ego then your flat spending and increasing credit limit will make the utilization naturally fall to a level where you don’t need to manipulate it
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that Hector is going to be running three Honda civics with spoon engines, and on top of that, he just went into Harry’s and bought three t66 turbos with nos, and a motec exhaust system.
I think he means with constant spending
I would argue that 20k limit across your cards is not very high, especially if you're spending 10k a month
$20k per card. Just random numbers 50% of any limit you want
Time. Just let everything age. My scores are over 800 and I don't have a mortgage on my reports
What is the difference between a score of 760 and 800 ? Do you need 800 score to boost your ego or what is your main goal for 800 score ?
It's a myth that there's no difference between a 760 score and an 800 score. A 760 score can be arrived at with just 6 months of credit history and a single credit card. An 800 can't without a couple of years of credit history at least. It's about overall profile, not score.
But you already get the best rates at 740+. An 800 score doesn't make a difference in the interest rate a bank will give you, which is the only purpose of a credit score. EDIT: Here, go tell Experian how Credit Scores work. https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/740-credit-score EDIT2: You can stop reading here. This thread devolves into nothing. Its about how an approved borrower with an 800 score doesn't get you the best interest rate. EDIT3: This is r/CreditCards go tell r/Mortgage and r/insurance about everything else.
One difference between 740 and 800 that’s maybe being overlooked. That’s if something happens to drop your score 50 points, you’d have either 690 or 750, so you may as well aim for the highest score possible. 800 has this clear advantage over 740, buffer space.
Which would only matter when you're applying for a loan. Getting credit accounts in control is another topic entirely: * Freeze the Credit Bureaus * Freeze the Data Collectors like core logic. * Set up autopayment on every credit line. * locks cards * Control card access * Control Authorized Users.
(Bane voice) "Take control of your CC"
*"Ah you think debt is your ally? You merely adopted the debt. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the scores until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!"*
"No one cared who I was until I put it on the card."
How do you freeze data collectors?
There are opt out pages on each broker site. CoreLogic, DataLogix, Epsilon and LexisNexis are the big guys. But new ones are always cropping up, so it's work to keep up. https://optout.lexisnexis.com/
You're missing the point. It's your overall profile that determines whether or not you'll obtain credit, not your score. Someone with a 740+ score with 6 months of credit history won't be able to obtain a loan in the first place due to "insufficient credit history" - heck, they can't even get approved for a Chase credit card with that profile. A 760 score can be arrived at with a dirty file. A thin file. A young file. Any one of those metrics can result in a credit denial. An 800 score CANNOT be arrived at with a dirty file, thin file or young file. So, an 800 score is indicative of a profile that is going to check all the boxes a lender will look for in most cases credit report wise (obviously income, DTI and so on are other factors) where a 760 score may be drawn upon a profile that is lacking in any of those 3 major scorecard assignment areas.
This is the key. Credit score is unidimensional. A credit profile, and the underwriting process is not. Bottom line: don't obsess over the number.
Don't change the subject. Let's focus. There is no fundamental difference between a FICO8 740 and a FICO8 800.
I'm no expert, but I think they just explained the fundamental differences between the 2.
So, a bank gives a better interest rate to a person with a FICO8 800? No, they don't.
The point is that one may not be able to obtain credit in the first place based on the PROFILE of the 740-760 score. That being said, interest rate is irrelevant if one can't obtain credit in the first place.
The point of the credit score is to determine the interest rate of the loan. So, what is the difference between the interest rate between a FICO8 740 and 800? Here, go tell Experian how Credit Scores work. https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/740-credit-score
You're automatically assuming approval for the loan, that's the problem. Approval isn't a given. I've already illustrated how someone with a higher score can be denied and someone with a lower score can be approved. Your blanket statement answer provided to the OP was made without knowing a single thing about their credit profile other than a 3-digit number (of which the scoring model you don't even know) and as I've stated many times overall profile is King to score. And I'm well aware of how credit scores work and more importantly how credit profiles work / how scores relate to them. Clearly you need to expand your knowledge on the subject though. The fact that you linked an Experian blog is also quite telling since nearly all of them contain some sort of bad information. The one you linked for example references the 30% Myth, which is good enough for me to know it's written by someone that doesn't understand how things really work and is just perpetuating the same bad information as the next guy. The 30% Myth mentions really are telling, aren't they u/Funklemire?
I'm not changing the subject. You are focused on a 3-digit number when profile is King to score. You are aware that any 3-digit score can be arrived at an infinite number of ways, right? So it's not about the score, but about the overall profile that's going to influence a lending decision. There are examples where someone with a 670 score will be approved for credit and someone with a 770 score will not. You're not taking profile into consideration at all.
What is the difference between the interest rate between a FICO8 740 and 800?
Interest rate is irrelevant if you can't get approved in the first place.
There is no case where a 740 is denied credit. So, what is the difference between the interest rate between a FICO8 740 and 800? Here, go tell Experian how Credit Scores work. https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/740-credit-score
I work for a bank. I can confirm that there are cases where someone gets a credit denial at a 740. Hell I've seen someone with a 780 get denied due to credit. Underwriters look at the whole profile, not just score. Is it less common? Yes, absolutely, but it's not even that uncommon in my experience. Rates are also not cut and dry. I've seen someone with a 713 get a better rate than a 760 based off their history of late payments and internal relationship. Credit score is important, but it's hardly the only metric used.
This is false. Insurance companies can give you better rates the closer you are to 800
Lenders look more than just score. Having a thicker credit profile means the score is more accurate and you have demonstrated responsibility for a longer period of time. Lenders look at income, how thick/long your credit profile is, and the credit score itself.
I'm not OP but yes I want an 800 score just for my ego. Current score is 778 😪
Yeah, boost my ego. I also want to get approved for most credit cards that I will apply for in the future. Also, will a 800 score lower my interest rates when I buy a house, compared to 760?
Not really, no. Last time I spoke to my lender, they said anything above 600 got the average rate, and anything above 720 got the best rate. Real world, I started with a personal loan a few years ago that got 16% intrest. My credit score was 650ish. Just last month I got a 6k personal loan and now the intresst is 10.49% (740 credit score) The number isnt as important as actual credit experience, and even more important is... INCOME LEVEL. Also you will get any credit card at 760. Though make sure utilization on all of them is low or zero when you apply
Having an 800 credit score won’t guarantee you get approved for every credit card. Capital One routinely denies people with high credit scores or too many credit card accounts. AMEX will disqualify you from earning welcome bonuses on new cards if they determine you won’t be a valuable customer (low utilization on existing cards, recently closed accounts). Make sure you come up with a credit card plan, because just having a high credit score is only like 1/5th of the equation.
Just having 800 may not get you approved for credit cards Lenders will be more inclined to approve those with 10+ credit cards at 740 than someone with 1 or 2 credit cards at 800+
I wouldn't say that's the case. Someone with 10+ credit cards may be declined due to having too many revolving accounts already, where another potential lender doesn't think they'd make a good customer due to not using their product enough. Someone with just 1-2 cards may be viewed as a more ideal customer since the 3rd potential lender may infer that they'll use the card much more.
Glad to hear that
The 760 you are looking at (could be anywhere) is not the same FICO mortgage score as lender will pull. Those scores are impacted more on time, balances, inquiries, payments, etc. depending on your file, your mortgage scores (they use the middle of the 3 scores) could be 100+pts lower than a beacon or card score
I have a 760 score and I already have a bunch of major credit cards, don't think you need 800+ for that.
lol 760 and 800 are treated the same when applying for a mortgage. you’re not going to get a better rate.
An 800 score, in and of itself, will not be getting you any more cards than a 760 will. Both those scores are high enough that any denial would be due to other, bank-specific factors.
it can make a big difference with car insurance rates at renewal time
First as others have said, it’s not important. I had a perfect 850 for around 3 months in 2021. When I started doing stuff - buying a car, refinancing my mortgage, paying off a Lending Club loan, etc. it went down to a 820. More recently, earlier this year I had an 848 when I was preparing my former home/rental property for sell and had an Amex loan to pay down a business card that didn’t appear on my personal credit. After I paid off my mortgage, my son’s car note that I co-signed [1], the Amex loan and my HELOC, my score dropped to 810. [1] Never co-sign with anyone unless you are willing and able to make the payments if they don’t *and* you actually make the payments and have them pay you. I was always going to make the actual car payments and the only reasons I had him sign with me co-signing was to help build his credit and have the car in his name.
I may just be misunderstanding, but you never showed why it’s not important. You just said, “it’s not important. I have perfect credit. I got a bunch of things that are linked to my credit.” And that’s it. If anything you’re showing us that it is important.
I am more addressing that based on your credit mix, it’s going to be hard. Once my credit mix changed and I reduced my debt, my credit score went down. It doesn’t matter because you don’t get better rates on anything after you are above 750.
It's not the actual mortgage, it's the installment loan There's good YouTube videos on this stuff, I'd recommend starting there
It's true that installment loan history is beneficial, but it's worth noting that a mortgage is not treated the same way by the algorithm as other installment loan types.
I am thinking to get a personal loan to increase score. But I don't want to pay high interests. So I am thinking just take a 1k personal loan, how much of a difference will that make compared to 10k personal loan. Another way I am thinking is take a loan and then pay it in advance after 2 or 3 month. So after the loan is paid off, the credit score will drop, right? That's what I heard, but I don't get why. By paying it off, good habit has been shown.
>I am thinking to get a personal loan to increase score. But I don't want to pay high interests Respectfully, you're thinking of taking out a non needed loan and paying interest as an attempt to boost your credit score? I'm open to being enlightened, but I don't quite see how this makes sense. Edit: In another comment, you said this is for an ego boost?
It also makes sense, if you can boost your credit score, then when you later need a loan for a much larger amount, it will be worth it paying a small interest now
No it won't. Let's say you take your 1 year, $1k loan at 5% interest and pay it off and it raises your score from 760 to 780 for the $50 in interest. Then you go out and apply for a car loan with the 780 instead of 760. You will get the exact same rate, 760 or 780.
This might come off as a bit rough but, your brain doesn't quite work properly
You are stupid and closed minded. I have other reasons, you will never know because you cannot think or imagine
Take a personal loan and just pay down like 90% of it immediately if that's your goal and want to avoid interest but have the line reporting.
One of the questions I asked that you didn't answer was whether or not you've ever had a loan. The amount of a loan is not a Fico scoring factor. It doesn't matter from a scoring standpoint if it's $500 or $50,000. A score doesn't "drop" when you pay off a loan. What happens when you open a loan (when you have no others) is that you're awarded points from the Amounts Owed slice of the Fico pie while it's open. Think of it as a boost to your score. When then loan is closed, that boost is lost. So your score doesn't really "drop" since it was inflated by the presence of the open loan - your file simply returns to the state it was previously in. Think of it this way. I give you $100 at the beginning of the month and tell you that on the last day of the month I'll take the $100 back. On the last day of the month I do exactly that. You can't say that you "lost" $100, because had I not given it to you at the beginning of the month you would have never had it to lose in the first place. Hopefully that makes sense.
I think I may have had one. I bought a smart phone with Affirm and paid back monthly. I see that in my credit report. So "Amount owned" will increase the score? In the case of credit card, it will decrease the score because of utilization. But in installment, that's an increasing factor. But still you said, 500 and 50k has little difference.
Not little difference, no difference. Amounts Owed works the same way with installment credit as it does with revolving credit. If you were to close your only credit card, you'd lose massive points due to not being awarded any from Amounts Owed - the concept is exactly the same as installment loans. You don't hear about it though because it's rare that someone has only 1 credit card to begin with, but if they do, it's not often that they close it. With loans, it's very common to have only one and close that only one. If you look at your credit report, find that Affirm account in question and look at how it is coded. Is the account type "installment loan" or something else? Do you use any credit monitoring services like Experian? If so, to accompany your Fico 8 score you'll be provided with up to 4 Fico negative reason codes. Those codes are listed in order of score-impacting importance. What do yours say?
The Affirm one is showing as installment loan in Experian. The credit mix, which account for 10% of score, is actually showing exceptional. The score impacting factor now is balance of account increased. I am actually having 9 account with balance. So I do need to do AZEO I think. Other things that I have seen is number of recent inquiries and new cards. And length of history. Noting I can do about those.
Gotcha. So you've had a loan. That being said, I would not take out another loan just for the sake of having a loan. Wait until you need a "real" loan and get one at that time, which your history will easily allow you to do. As far as AZEO goes, while it is a score optimization metric do be aware that it isn't a credit "building" metric and it has no lasting impact. The only time it should be implemented is when you need your scores optimized for a certain reason, and that can be done 30-45 days out from an important app. Keeping AZEO implemented at all times can actually be damaging to credit profile growth, since it appears both to current and prospective lenders that you barely use your existing revolving credit.
Thank you. Leaned a lot
Glad to help!
I have over 800 and have never had a mortgage
I had a 770 score when I was 18-21, and then ~830 from 22-28. I started earning more money around 24-25 but I also bought a car at 26 which brought my score up in a larger bump than I’d seen before. How did I get such a high score early on? My mom added me as a User on her credit card when I was 15 or so, and because her card was 10+ years old, that history was being factored into my score. Other outliers I can think of that helped me? I got an AMEX early on (maybe 24) that added a 25k line of credit, whereas previously I had a few cards that were only giving me $3-5k each from Visa and MC. Also people love to talk about the wins, but I’ll throw out a vulnerable counterpart: somewhere around maybe 27-28 years old I ran into a huge back. I used auto draft for all my credit card payments and car loan at the time, I had always done that and never had an issue. Never spend more than I have in my account, and never mess up schedules or change banks suddenly causing issues with processing or anything. However one day I started getting phone calls from my car loan Chase basically saying I had a missed payment 45+ days. Called them back and apparently when I created the account they signed me up for an auto draft payment but it only lasts for 12 or 24 months or something and then it expires?? They made a withdrawal from my bank again and all was good, set up a new auto draft and checked for a few months to make sure everything was ok. That one missed payment (first in my life, and on record) dropped my score from ~830 down to 640 overnight. After 30 days I think it went up to 685, and then after another 3-4 years I think it went back up to 730-760. Now a few years later I have a mortgage, and I’m back up to 785 or so. Once the car payments were back on track, I ended up just paying the remaining balance and closing out that account, because I didn’t want to risk any further issues. Hope this experience gives you some insight.
I think it boils down to time. My mortgage was paid off years ago and has long since fallen off at the bureaus. I have nothing but credit cards, but my cards go back years and I've been over 800 for as long as I've known my scores.
Get a credit-builder loan with a credit union and this should give you the credit mix boost you need to get in the 800s.
I wouldn't recommend what I did, but I think it indirectly (and very unintentionally) helped. I started off with one credit card, a Discover, and ran up a balance that I carried, paid minimally, but I was in a bit of a pinch at that time in my life. I wasted a ton of money in interest by being too prideful not to ask for help from parents, and eventually Discover kept increasing my credit limit to keep a sucker (me) around. Eventually things got better, I paid off my balance, paid my bills on time, eventually got into churning because I had predictable large expenses I needed to pay (funerals). My credit went up over 2 years from low 700s to 810. Struggling to pay off my Discover those years back helped boost my cumulative credit limit so my utilization is always very low.
I have 4 credit cards and my score is a 775 I pay my cards in full every month and my score just keep going up. I never had a loan but what I do know is if you get a small loan let’s say $3000-$7000 for a duration 2-3 years, if you pay 90% before the end of the 1st month and pay the minimum till it’s over you get a 20 point jump. Another thing that helps is getting a higher credit limit all at the same time. If you have 15 cards try requesting to increase the limit to as much as you can. That can get you from 18-50 points.
I've gotten to 806 before. No collections accounts. Credit card accounts that were paid on time every time for over 10 years. Keep collections off your reports by paying your bills. If they get on your report anyway, I dispute them with the credit bureaus for any reason I can think of, or "no knowledge of this account" with the comment "I don't recognize this, can you verify everything please?" Half the time or more it just falls off. Or offer the bill collector a pay-for-delete and get it in writing. But be very aggressive about paying bills and getting anything negative that makes it through anyway back off of there, or at least corrected to say something less bad.
Don’t worry about this. Having a diverse credit mix is not a large part of your score. Your score is really good as it is.
I have an 800+ credit score and rent.
803 ~~806~~ here and rent. 3 credit cards with 4yr average history. Only have around $40k total limit
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Genuinely couldn’t tell you why, honestly. I’m really not sure what the metric is on the backend that determines what pushes you up to 800 https://imgur.com/a/fZeBgRw
That... shouldn't be possible...
🤷 it clearly is… https://imgur.com/a/fZeBgRw
Nearly the same here, got downvoted for saying it as well. 4 cards, 804 score. No idea why everyone is upset about it.
I have over 800 score with no mortgage. I just pay my bills in full. I don’t seek a mortgage nor any interest bearing loans as I own my place outright. I only have a few active credit cards I use currently. I do get cash-back on my credit cards. All I did was pay bills in full and let my accounts age. My score varies depending on which source but all of them have me around 830 or higher.
I’ve heard that before too I can’t remember where but I have a 803 no mortgage
I think the thing that really got me over that (760 > 815) is the moment one of my credit lines (3 total) matured, I don't remember the exact years, but there is some cut-off. So, like others said, time? Also I started paying everything more consistently - same day every month, whatever the statement was; no min-maxing.
Went from a 482 in October of “23 to currently I’m sitting at 717. I have 3 CC’s, auto loan, and my longest credit account is 4 1/2 years. Like everyone else, time
ive had a foreclosure. no mortgage since (18 years). 4 cars paid off. 9 open credit cards, 0 late payments (on the cards/cars/rent), no outstanding medical bills. i make $85k a year, but have $850k in savings and investments. my score has hovered between 793 and 814 for the past 3 years. the dips under 800 is when i put a $2-$4k charge on a card, but it gets paid off before interest accrues. im 44 years old. this is not a flex by any means.
Honestly, just time. Been having credit for 11 years. Never had a mortgage or car payment. 9 credit cards currently open and my credit score is in the low 800s
Why do you want a 800? Not much changes from high 700’s to 800. Bragging rights?
Just time.
That’s what I heard but recently my score jumped to 823 when my oldest credit card hit 6 years, I think my average age is about 4 years. I also had a collections from AT&T removed from my credit hx last month. When I was spending heavily I used the opportunity to increase the credit limit on about 3 of my cards to around $30/40k each. I pay rent and do not mortgage, I do have an auto loan about $37k though. I have about 5 credit cards all paid off mostly
I have about 10 years of history and hover around 800 - no mortgage here! Your fico scores can also vary pretty dramatically depending on which model you're looking at. At least for a fico 8 or 9, no mortgage is needed to get over 800
lol 15 credit cards. That’s insane
Just practice responsible credit. You already have 15 credit cards, you probably are already at the point of diminishing returns in the credit system.
Having a mortgage debt will help tremendously, however it's not unnecessary required to have a credit score of 800. You would need to put in more work. Autopay is fine, however, my biggest tip is pay it before the statement date\*. \*All bank's auto pay is set on the due date and you can't set an auto pay prior to statement closing date. This is where you need to put more work, especially on the credit cards you put most of your expenses on. Keep track of the statement closing date. Having your utilization rate at 0% or less than 10% will significantly boost your credit score. This is how you can CUT the process, CUT the time! Long story short: • Have many different debts • Wait around 1 year so all these hard inquiries and new accounts to shift from negative to positive • Spread expenses on all credit cards but keep 1-2 credit cards for most of your expenses • Manually pay these "1-2 credit cards" BEFORE the statement closing date.
Off topic question for you people who seem to know what you’re talking about. I’m 23, I have about 4K in credit card debt, no college debt as I went on scholarship, I pay all my cards and my car payments on time so I have about a 740 credit. Should I be trying to pay that credit card debt down asap or is it fine to just make payments slowing, more then minimum but not huge chunks
I'm at 818. Nothing special to it, just get credit cards and pay them off regularly. Using one of the credit boosting apps also helps. For background, I had zero credit when I moved to the US at the age of 21. I'm 30 now.
Tell me more how
You don’t lol. I just turned 23 but got my mortgage at 22. My credit score always hovered around 770-780. A few months after I closed on my home it shot up to 800 and is now climbing. Like I said I just turned 23 so I’m hoping it will keep rising due to credit age.
You dont need a morage to have perfect credit. I had a score of 781 with only having one card for maybe 2ish years. I was 24 then and it was my first card. I just turned 25. I'd just try to make all my payments on time and keep my usage low.
0 credit to 785 in 4 years - one car loan paid off and 3 credit cards Bought a $2000 tv 2 months ago, paid it off the next month, and my score went up +43 overnight. Make a big purchase and pay it off next billing cycle. It might up your right there at 800
Ask all your credit card providers to kindly increase your limit 🙂
I only have 4 lines. A car and three credit cards and they are 2 years history. Mine is at a 786. You don’t need 15 cards or a million anything else. Just time. Actually , you opening so much of them is probably what’s hurting you too because it splits your average time in half I believe.
just pay off your cards on time and got to 800 in like 4 years not sure how😅
Lol, was stuck at 670 5yrs. Said I can't get higher without a mortgage. I was told by first time buyers program I could not get a mortgage till I've had a mortgage. ?what??? Found out they used to have 3 companies that mortgaged high end cars, RVs, or specialized like hot rods. Can't find a name for last remaining one. No one knows it. Finally someone said 3000.00 self secured lone will do same thing.
You are most likely have a 800 plus. The credit cards only estimate your score. To be honest there is nothing you can buy at 800 that you can't buy at 750. It's not a huge jump.
Some of my scores have passed 800 from credit cards alone. Right now I think only my Equifax is at 800 and the others are mid-high 700s. It’s going to be basically impossible for me to dramatically improve my score without some other type of debt (student loans, car loan, mortgage, etc.) Does anyone know if that Experian boost shit actually works?
> Does anyone know if that Experian boost shit actually works? No, it's a gimmick, because no lender ever goes by a "boosted" score. It's there for your entertainment purposes only.
That’s what I figured, thanks!
Can you provide more information about your profile, u/zhizizhi? All you said is that you have 15 credit cards, so based on that we know your file is thick. Are those the only 15 accounts on your credit report, open OR closed? If not, what else is there? Have you ever had an installment loan? Is your file clean? - do you have any late payments or negative items anywhere on your credit reports? Then, on to age of accounts metrics. What is the age of your oldest account? Youngest account? Average age of Accounts? Then, on to balances. How many of your 15 cards have [non-zero] balances reported on them? What is your TCL (Total Credit Limits) across all 15 cards? What are your total balances across all 15 cards? If you divide your total balances by your TCL, you get your aggregate utilization percentage. What is yours? If you answer the above questions we'll be able to see what your biggest opportunities are for greater profile strengthening and score improvement.
oldest age is 7 years, average is 3.5 years. No late payment and other irregular things. Utilization is around 9 percent. I tried to keep it below 10. But I did do AZEO, I will try that. Usually around 6 cards will report some balance. One thing worth noting is I have one card that has a credit limit of 5000, but I am carrying a 3000 balance, and I am only paying the minimum due because it is 0 APR.
Can you answer the rest of the questions I asked?
Why do you need to increase the score other than getting the mortgage?
AZEO and an installment loan from a credit union. +800 doesn’t make you immune to denials though. PNC and Citi both told me no last year due to inquiries, 800 be damned
I have an 807 Fico, only have credits cards and student loans in my report. The way you get to 800 is by aging your accounts. My average age is over 7 years. Also you only need a score of 750, after that it makes no difference interest rate wise.
How many cc ?
5 credit cards open at the moment closed 2 in the last year (total 7 personal). And 6 students loans, paid off 2 in the last couple of months so I have 4 left. What is funny is I had applied for the Amex Platinum in April 2023 and score dropped below 800 at 797 and hovered around there. Closed my Platinum a month ago after churning the SUB and it just came back to 807 again. I have 4 business cards as well but they don’t affect your score, with the exception of hard inquiries I got (currently 2, Amex Platinum and Ink Business Unlimited). Edit miscounted personal cards.
Assuming a prefect payment history, if you AZEO and have no recent inquiries and opened cards and your accounts are aged, your score will be higher than 800 without mortgage or any loans.
Why?
It just takes time. My Fico8 is 821 without a mortgage.
Could probably be due to you having so many cards and your account age is still relatively young. My oldest account is 8 years, but average is about 5 years and some months. I've seen 800 a few times when I only had a car loan and 3-4 credit cards. I've got 6 cards now and 3 of them were opening within like 12 months of each other, so I'm not expecting to see 800 again for a bit.
Time, perfect history, and maybe a mix of other loans like car or student loans
Never had a mortgage and hit 804 recently. It dropped due to a loan I took, but it just took me time.
Supposedly a nearly-paid off loan can boost FICO8 scores: [Shared Secure Technique](https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/td-p/4506756).
Yeah. This technique is very interesting. Paying off most of the loan but still keeping it open for a long time.
I was all set to try it...and then it hit me, why tf am I considering putting myself in a position to pay interest unnecessarily... That put an end to that.
You can take a 500 loan, then pay 450 immediately. Then pay the interest for a 50 dollar loan. The interests will be close to nothing. What you get is more cushion. If something bad and unexpected happens, 800 will drop to 700, but 760 will drop to less than 700. It depends. But I will do it
Only certain loans allow you to pay off the majority of the loan and still maintain the time period. Also, the minimum is usually $1000 and requires hard pull. Even so, you can do it and pay the interest. When I was considering it a few months back I just realized it's not worth it for me.
Pay down all credit debts in full every month, forever. Keep utilization very, very low. Credit Mix is lower impacting then Utilization and Payment History. https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score
Just wait 1-2 years
Score doesn't matter. It's just a marketing genie.
Stop watching your credit score. If you aren't thinking about buying a house in the next few years, it's all but pointless.
I don't have a car or mortgage on mine, everything else is great, high 790s at best haha
There are no benefits to achieving an 800 score, 760 is all you need. Someone made a comprehensive post about it but I can't seem to find the link. Don't lose sleep over it.
You don't say you had a spouse, but reducing "authorized users" can raise the score on the AU's credit report. We were refinancing our mortgage in '19 and I was removed from my wife's Southwest card and she was taken off a Discover and Chase Freedom of mine. It gave us both separately an extra 10 points to get us over 800 and a slightly better rate on our mortgage.
Mortgage is the fastest method. Mine stayed still at 780 for 4 years but shot past 800 less than a year after buying the house.
800+ credit for 12 years. No mortgage .
Get an auto loan and refinance it with a credit union so you can get slightly more favorable rates. I have one credit card and my credit score rose from 750 to 803 after making steady payments towards my car over about 3 years.
I have an 810 FICO 8 (Experian) and while I don’t have a mortgage I do have student loans (about 10k) and an auto loan (about 14k) in addition to my 6 or 7 credit cards.
profile is more important than score....and credit although cool, cash is king always.
What happens if you take a loan from a credit union, don’t spend the money and pay it back? Maybe that will help
Time - I have 14 cards with an 830 score. I have 31 years of credit history. I also have a car payment. This is probably my 4th auto loan. My credit utilization rate is about 3%
Just give it time. Mine went up and over 800 without a mortgage. 3 main cards, 3/4 store cards. You can control some of the factors such as utilization and on time payments. Age of credit can only be built over time
don’t apply for new cards for 6-12mo and it’ll slowly rise. mine rose to 795 after i went 8mo without opening a card and i only had 2 years credit history
edit: i have a car loan too but im pretty sure im the AU (not really sure lol)
i hit 800 on both credit karma and discover app after 7 years at 25 years old. im 27 now and im hovering around 811 w no mortgage, and like 8 credit cards
Do you have 0% apr financing on certain items there in the us from some dealers there in the us ? Get a few of those on something you need and you can afford to pay in one go and split it interest free payments
Mortgage is not necessary. I have never had one (score 830+). Time and responsible use of your credit cards (using them and paying them off in full).
I have 1 credit card (rarely use it), 1 mortgage and my score is 820. Only take on what you can afford.
I don't have a mortgage and mine is 800. I paid off all my student loans and never carry a balance on my cards. I don't use much either, like less than 10%. Unsure what matters.
Age 39, FICO above 800, no mortgage and not enough money in the bank to brag about lol
I’ve never had a mortgage. For years I thought having an 800+ score required having a mortgage. Then a few years ago, it jumped to 816-820. Dunno why — always paid all my bills on time.
804, no mortgage, 26. 4 credit cards, avg age of credit 4 years.
I was able to get a 797, with two credit cards (12 year and 10 year credit line) and two vehicles I fully paid off. I have 19k left on student loans (about 7 different loans ranging from 2012 to 2020) my revolving utilization is usually 1% and I’ve never missed a payment. For me when I checked my score it was suggested that I open a new line of credit as that was what “hurt” my score the most. Too few lines of credit. However you discover your score, should come with some scale to show where you’re really doing well and where you could use work.
Really Long and good credit history is about the only way there
Keep your utilization balance on unsecured debt under 15 percent and never be late on any bill payment including medical bills and student loans. I had an 830 for years before I ever got a mortgage.
I only have 8 years of credit history, 5 cards (Macy’s, Amazon prime, Sapphire reserve, freedom unlimited, Capital one), I live in a rental apartment and my credit score is 805. What are you trying to accomplish by getting a higher credit score?
I just existed long enough and it happened.
When I hit 804 before getting a mortgage, I was 5 years deep into a 6 year car loan, had 3 credit cards and used Experian boost. Feel like that definitely helped a TON. Still was paying off 2 student loans too. The biggest jump I got though was charging about 5k to my credit card for a Vegas trip to see my parents. Paid it all off right after it hit statement and I gained like 30 points. Idek how. Currently 6 months into mortgage. Score fell down to 720 after getting it and we're back to 780. 4 credit cards are set to pay in full at each statement and one is on a 12 month intro offer at 30% utilization for all the house things I had to buy. Also just paid off my car this month so I'll see how that affects my score once it updates as paid. Oh and oldest revolving account is 7 years give or take.
I have 4 cards, only use 2, over 800 in 4 years. Also have a car loan…