@Anonymous wrote:
The legendary 800 and above credit score.
Teach me your ways!
How long did it take? (Your credit profile)
How many credit cards did it take you?
Or is it a random occurance of naturally paying on time with a clean credit report?
Is their a difference in having 765 vs 850 score?
Just a student trying to learn! What's your story?
Oh geez. Let's see I started out in 2001 when I was dating my husband. We had the big credt talk and set out to fix my finances, I think my scores were around 630 there (I was really irresponsible before all this and ignored my credit and about $2k in small debts).
We set out and gradually paid off all my collection orders and then I sat and waited for several years which helped clear my reports. I had no debts, but also no credit.
In 2004 I got a secured card at BofA, I treated that like my credit baby and charged a small amount and paid in full on time every month. My second card was in 2013 (I think), the Target Card...which I partially regret, and my third was Barnes and Noble. Each month I charged between $10-100 at most and always paid in full. On my Barnes and noble card I have a magazine subscription for $4 a month to keep it active.
In Oct of 2014 I applied for my AMEX BCE. Same story, charge a small amount, pay in full.
Yesterday I got my SECOND 800 score! I must be doing something right!
In short:
Clean reports/paid off debt
Applied for credit I would actually use and always PIF
Spaced out my applications.
I'm fairly frugal, but still have fun, it can be done with only 4 cards. Here's the weird part; My score jumped over 30 points on Equifax because ONE inquiry fell off (for a CLI at BofA), how weird is that? Also, I have no loans, car or otherwise in my name. I have nothing financed. I technically am on the mortgage only because I signed refinance paperwork in 2009, I would think if a mortgage helped my credit score it would have shown up around 2010...but nope, my score stayed normal until around 2013.
