I was surprised to see today that my credit score went from 665 EQ to 805 EQ.
The reason I am so surprised is because I have no fancy credit cards. Infact, I only have one, none store card from my credit union. I had 8 baddies on my credit report, including a car repossession, that all fell off in December 2012. I expected my score to rise once all the baddies fell off, but I did not expect to skip 700 and go straight to 800.
These are my cards:
AlaskaUSA $0.00/$2,500.00
SEARS $0.00/$2,000.00 (not the CITI mastercard)
Macy's $0.00/$100
AAFES $4,10000/$5,200.00 (not the Chase mastercard)
AAFES Club Card $0.00/$500.00
I used to have more credit cards two years ago, but closed them so my wife and I could qualify to get the $300,000.00 we needed to buy our current house. My wife and I were still able to qualify for a home loan with our mid 600 credit score because of our combined income and length of employment. As far as credit cards goes, I have nothing special going on.
I think I owe my 805 to my automobile loans. I have managed to pay off 4 out of 5 auto loans in about 2 1/2 years. I am not talking about small auto loans from $5,000 to $10,000 either. These are newer (not new) model car loans from $12,000 to $32,000.
My wife and I make a decent amout of money, but we only add and extra $100 to our car payments. The reason we were able to pay off these car loans so fast, is because these 4 cars where involved in some form of auto incident and insurance paid them off. Thank goodness we had GAP insurance.
(a) Honda Ridgeline - roommate ran it into a ditch.
(b) Toyota Camry - nanny hit another car
(c) Toyota Corolla - stolen & destroyed. Thief apprehended in another state.
(d) Lexus IS - friend flipped on exit ramp (cosigned)
These are all unfortunate events, but luckilly for my wife and I, we were not, I repeat were not the primary insured/liable. So even though these cars are registered to my wife and I (minus the last car) - the insurance claims are not counted against us. We still have zero claims discount from our insurance company.
(a) Honda Ridgeline - roommate had own insurance policy
(b) Camry - nanny had her own insurance policy
(c) Corolla - thief paid for it
(d) Lexus - friend's insurance paid for it
I learned one amazing thing about insurance paying off your car loans. Nowhere on your credit report does it mention that the car loan was paid off in full because it was involved in an accident. All your credit report shows is that your car loan was magically paid off in full all of a sudden.
So according to my credit report, my wife and I mysteriously paid off $75,000 in car loans in 2 1/2 years. I am betting that is why I have an 805.
For obvious reason, I do not recommend comitting fraud and destroying your cars to get out of a loan early.
I was very lucky that all these cars were deemed not worth salvaging by the insurance companies. Because I could have been left with 4 cars with salvaged titles and be upside down on multiple loans right now.
So do not try to copy what happened to me and my wife. I just thought it was worth sharing my strange set of circumstances that got me into the 800 club.
Starting Score: TU 749 02/02/2014
The AAoA revolving (open and closed) is 5 years and 6 months. My AAoA revolving (open) is 4 years. My oldest account is 10 years and my newest card is 1 year old.
My credit was already ruined from 8 baddies before I married my younger wife. She never had any form of installment loan or credit card before we were married.
So I made sure she did not repeat the same mistakes I did. My wife would most likely be in the 800 club with me, if it were not for her immature credit age. Her oldest account is only 5 years old. I piggy backed off my wife's credit for the most part. She would apply for the loans, get approved, and add me as an authorized user at a later date. So I was on some decent cards my own credit score could not afford me. So I am pretty sure that helped out a lot. My wife's and I's credit report were so identical (minus the baddies and a few accounts from before I met her) that our loan officer at Lexus, thought he mistakenly printed the same credit report twice.
So even though I had a score in the mid 600 range for the last few years, I was still able to receive a $300,000+ home loan at 4% with $0.00 down.
I was just waiting for the baddies to fall off in 2013.
I am using the myfico score simulator and it is saying I can potentially achieved 845 in 12 months if I pay off $1,000/month is debt. I don't know how accurate tha calculator is. I am a barely there 805. It took me 10 years to get to this high of a number. I am afraid it will disappear before I can reap it's benefits. I have heard it is harder to keep an 800+ than it is to make.
I am very worried my score is a freak occurence and my true score is much lower. I managed to get all 8 of my baddies on the exact same month/year and they all fell off at once.
I applied yesterday for the PenFed gas card with my wife. We were approved for $16,500 pending loan officer approval. I did not wait for them to contact me. I went ahead and sent them my pay stubs and ID's. I figure I might as well shoot for the stars while I can.
Does anyone know if pending approval is pretty much accepted with PenFed?
I am thinking that their ananlytical software already ran our credit and approved my wife and I for $16,500 and the loan officer is just there to verify our income. At least, that is what I am hoping. I do not know if when you are denied, PenFed tells you automatically right away during the online application process and doesn't even bother with the loan officer.
I am hoping I get approved, because the highest credit card my wife currently has only has a limit of $8,000. A $16,500 credit can potentially open a whole lot of new doors for us.
Our revolving credit utilization is horrible right now though. Mine is at 40% and my wife is at 52%. To make matters worst, my wife just opened a new $1,000 line last month.
I am crossing my fingers.
$150,000 combined income
805 and 750 (myfico)
40% and 52% utilization
I got approved for PenFed!!!
I sent them every conceivable paper work before they even asked me for it, so I was really getting worried why I had not heard back from them in 48 hours. So I called PenFed.
My loan had been approved, the issue was with my name. I have two first names and it could not fit in the space provided on the card. So I had to have it shortened.
I find this odd, because my name fits fine in all my other credit cards. But I am not going to complain.
I got my $16,500 card. My first card over $10,000.