FICO scores 760 and above

[wmweeza]

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@HiLine wrote:

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@wmweeza wrote:

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I must be some freaky fico anomaly. My AAoA is 1yr 3 months, I screwed up my credit and about 10 years ago (maybe a bit more) we set about fixing it, my score was right around 600 then. We paid every debt from my youth off and then I just ignored my credit. I opened a bank account and debit card but didn't add a credit card until 2011. My oldest account is 3 years 3 months...yet go figure, I have fabulous scores?

I have a balance of maybe $30 on one card currently and $20 on another, but I really don't track my statement dates and just pay everything early. I guess I'm doing something FICO likes for my score to be higher then many people with 20 year histories. BTW I got my first card when I was 19, that was closed about 3 years after I got it as were others, I was terribly irresponsible in my youth, but now that I'm in my 40's, I PIF and haven't had even one late payment, not on my cards or my personal bills.

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Are you sure you don't have one of your older credit accounts still reporting? 

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I am sure. I had a Mastercard and 2 store cards way back when , none of which have shown up on any credit report since 2001 when I started monitoring . It was 17 years ago that I saw my last of those cards. If I got any credit help from utilities etc from late 90's till 2001 maybe but as far as I know I had no credit from 95-2010

[Anonymous]

I just applied for a Amex Everyday last week.  I had had no inquiries in 2 years and my last inquiry dropped off last month.  

Currently a 796 from Experian after looking at the FICO score AMEX showed when I got the card. 

AAoA is around 5.2 years, it will likley increase more since I just got the backdating to 2010 on this card.

Everything is paid off every month on around 3 actively used cards, balances report before payments post on most of them. Overall util is probably around 2% on a given month.  Previously 65k credit across cards avaliable, now its 85k with the AMEX.

About 6 years ago it was around 600 due to my lack of understanding anything about credit when I was 19.  I wanted to purchase a fancy BMW at 19 and went to a site that would pull my credit and give me the best loan rates.  Turns out it triggered like 12 hard inquiries.  After I started reading up about PF, I got alot wiser and now will crack 800 likley after this new account for AMEX posts.  The backdating along with the 20k increase in credit should push me over and offset the 1 inquiry it cost for it IMO.

I honestly have no reason for a credit score at the moment, not planning on buying a house and will only pay cash for cars.  Its more of a game at this point to me personally.  My parents were always greatly into debt and I saw the pain they went through always stuggling with money and having to pay off debt and moving constantly so they could pay it off.  It put some fear in me of getting to that point, so I've done the opposite of never getting into debt and racking up a large savings.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

  My parents were always greatly into debt and I saw the pain they went through always stuggling with money and having to pay off debt and moving constantly so they could pay it off.  It put some fear in me of getting to that point, so I've done the opposite of never getting into debt and racking up a large savings.  

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I watched my mother struggle with debt my entire life. I was terrified of credit and debt, they ment the same thing to me. I'm really glad I found this site, it's not only helpped educate but also been a therapy of sorts reading posts daily from so many highly credit savy folks. I charge everything now, and PIF letting 1% post. I don't plan on changing this methodology and living out of my means except emergencies. But I'm becoming big on saving too. So I don't see that happening either.

[rpf41978]

Started in the 560ish range February 2013, was up to 760 range (AAoA 1.8 years, 4-5 inquiries) before I added my two American Express cards. 

First, I went to my credit union and turned $2,000 in savings into a CD.  I then took an 18-month installment loan against the CD (~$50.00 in interest).  I left the funds received from the loan in my savings account, added $50 to the account and had it setup to auto-pay each month.  Loan was fulfilled, CD was released, funds stayed in savings.

Next, I applied for a secured credit card with my credit union ($500) and the Harley Davidson secured card with US Bank ($1K).  Kept utilization under 19% (didn't know it was best to keep it under 10% at the time).  Balances paid in full every month.  I also started removing the bad debt listed on my credit reports after I setup the two secured cards.  I refused the payments plans and just simply paid them in full when I had the money to do so.  This took me about 6 months.  A lot of people may question this, but for me personally it was more important to start the clock on the AAoA as I was paying the bad debt. 

July 2013 - score was in 670s so I applied and received the BarclayCard Average Rewards Card with $1K limit.  That put me at 3 revolving cards.

I financed a vehicle earlier this year that put a dent in the scores with all of the inquiries.  Asked Barclay for a CLI on my anniversary date and they bumped it up to $2.2K.  Applied for a Chase account two months later.  Score was 767/749/767 with 5 inquiries at that time. 

Applied for Citi Doublecash and two Amex cards (one charge & one revolver - thanks to the myFico peeps who helped me do that with only one hard pull) a month ago and was approved for everything.  My Amex cards are the reason my score is currently over 800.  I didn't know about backdating until very recently.  One of my employers put me on his Amex account about seventeen years ago.  Apparently he has been a member since 1966 and I now get to share in that good fortune.  AAoA is now 10.5 years, inquiries listed as 6, current utilization at 7%.

Finally, I used/use myFico and CK (Credit Sesame was recently added) to research which cards I was able to apply for with my scores at any given time.  Creditboards - Credit Pulls was also extremely useful in determining whether or not I should apply for a card.  I only applied for a card if the odds appeared to be in my favor. 

Good luck!