Examples of the Elusive Theoretical 850 FICO score and Fair Isaac Algarithom.

[MidnightVoice]

Or we could ask some nice kind Board Admin to merge them 

[MidnightVoice]

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MidnightVoice wrote:

Or we could ask some nice kind Board Admin to merge them 

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Failing that:

Of course, we need to understand that FICO measure the likelyhood of someone not paying on time.  As anything can happen in real life, the only way there is ZERO chance of someone defaulting is if they have no loans that they are paying.  So the only way ot get a perfect score is not to have any loans out.  But you also need creit cards to get a perfect score, and if you have no balances to pay back, you lose points for not using the credit cards......

Catch 22 anyone? 

[Anonymous]

Actually, not having any loans makes you more of a credit risk. People that have low balances are able to show that they are on top of things every month. No balances and they can't track you any more. Sorta like stealth mode. They don't like that. You also loose points too if you go to long with out new credit I believe, not sure.

[Anonymous]

My aunt has a score of 835.  Her mortgage was paid off 15 years ago.  She has only had one credit card ever and it is over 10 years old.  She accidentally missed one payment on the card and that was 6 years ago.  She has several paid auto loans.  She has had 3-4 old personal loans.  Currently she has only her CC and an auto loan which is all she has had for the last 4 years.  She's always paid more than the minimum on everything including her auto loans, most of the time doubling her payments.  She rarely applies for new credit - only when truly needed but she knows she can get pretty much anything she wants, anytime she wants and at the best rates.   (MUST BE NICE!)

She's never known about "scores" (until I brought it to her attention) much less pursued the perfect score.  She really could care less about them now.  The only reason she knows her score is because she considered trading in her vehicle and they told her her credit was perfect.  I pressured her to call back and get her score from them.  She's old school and simply concentrates on keeping her reputation perfect with creditors by paying on time all the time with everything.  I think that alone goes a long way, especially long-term. 

I think an absolute current mix of this and that and you must have X number of CC's is bologna.  For the short term fix, maybe, but I think time is what matters most of all when it comes to the perfect score - based on her experience.

[Anonymous]

This was a super post. Thanks. It totally blows the theories about many credit cards, even 20, 30 cards as some people thought. But an 835 with 1 credit card. That's very big news. All the FICO calculators state that you need a minimum of 6 credit cards to spark the 830 score. Yet, here is one, an 835 with just 1 credit card. Very big indeed.

This profile you described does have things in common with the other profiles. Variety of accounts. Maybe it is true, variety and age. The average age of this credit card account is greater than 10 years. Only 1 card, so really no avg. All Fico scores over 830 had a minimum of 3 different types of credit. The mortgage being so old would not be recorded any more so not a factor.

If I am correct, all other scores over 830 had a very high credit line on the credit card. Am I correct to say this. Probably over $60,000.

Thank you very much for this post.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that she's in her mid-50's and heck no her CC limit is not $60k.  I'm not sure what the exact limit is but I'd be willing to bet my life it's not that high - she works at Wal-Mart for goodness sake.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with working at Wal-Mart, that's definitely not what I meant, but I doubt she'd have a limit that well exceeded her income.  She's just managed the credit she's had responsibly for the last 30-something years.

[Anonymous]

That information is even better. So $ volume is not even a factor. I have a copy from a friend that has an a 15 year average with credit cards with a total of $8000 CL combined, a current mortgage 50% paid, car loan 80% paid, 0 bal on credit cards, 2 closed mortgages, 4 closed installments. His score was 754. His oldest card is 39 years old, never late. This score should be much higher. Unless the car loan is pulling him down. Just when you think you had it all figured out. Before I thought it was $ volume for the high scores. That would explain why my friends score is only 754 for low $ credit lines. But now, this changes things and confuses me even more. So confused. It is easy to get a high credit line over many years. They don't check income. It is automatic over time, $500 here, $1000 there. After time it might add up to $20k, 30k, maybe even $60k maybe?? Is there any way to check credit limit on that card? You may be surprised to see it way up there. And I could be very wrong. This would be interesting to know. Her score was Fico right? Some lenders use other scoring models. Just so confusing. This throws me off completely.

[jandj]

I saw my mom (she has the 820) and clarified with her this weekend....she has 3 cc's (1 is just a gas card) and 1 car loan.  I'll find out what her credit limits are although I'm very positive they aren't extremely high.  She, like the other person's aunt, is old school and just keeps her name as clean as possible.  She will use her cc's but only for things that she knows she will be able to pay off within the next month.  She only makes about $40000/year so her income is not very high although she has over 1/2 million in retirement & savings accounts.  She's just been smart with her money over the years and I hope to follow in her footsteps!

[Anonymous]

With all of those positive lines and a card 39 years old, his score is only 754???  On one of my reports, my oldest account (an old co-signer deal - not even my account) is 9 years old, my average 3 years old (with my new credit) and my score is now 699.  The other two are mid 600's.  At that rate, I'll be on Medicare before I reach a score of 754.

[Anonymous]

The Equifax summery says no neg history. I imagine his cards are dormant; big gaps where their should be reports of paid on time. Instead it shows n/a or blanks. May just be that this engine isn't fully running. He has installments, age, but no activity in the revolving credit area and an auto loan that far far exceeds total credit lines.

WAIT.... 20 minutes later,

And when I just thought I was done typing, I found errors on his Exuifax credit report when comparing them to Trans and Experian. I looked at all of them but never compared them all together at the same time. He is missing account info on his Equifax credit report. His credit lines are not being reported and a very Active Old account is missing with a very High Credit Limit. I bet when I get that corrected for him it jumps in to the 800's. With so much excitement I just phoned to tell him about the missing information.

I will post new scores after corrections show up on CR in 45-90 days. It will be interesting to see the score difference. Since we already know this 854 is pretty much done with installments, now we can see what happens when we add in a very active credit card that is very old. :-)

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 05-21-2007 10:25 AM