Achieving 850 CS

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Currently I'm sitting at 805 accross the boad with 4 years 7 months of AAoA and 1% CU and a 65k limit. My question is... how do I get it to 850? I've done my research as my credit is really important to me but I'm guess I'm missing the secret because I've been stuck at 805 for some time now. 

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One thing you may want to research a bit further is whether the very goal of an 850 is worthwhile -- if the driving concern is having good credit.

There is no credit product on the market (loan, credit card, etc.) where the lender will give you better terms once you have achieved scores of 780.  No better chance of approval, no better interest rate, no higher credit limit, etc.   The guy with the 835 gets no advantage over the guy with the 782.

Moreover a perfect 850 is difficult to obtain and maintain if you think you will actually be using the high score.  Think of it like a beautiful plate.  The only way to keep it 100% pretty and spotless at all times is never to actually use it -- never dirty it with steak or mashed potatoes or whatever.  (There's a small invisible buffer at the top that allows some people with an 850 to open an account without taking a drop, but this is not the norm.)

A goal of having a score that varies between the 820s and 840s, by way of contrast, is quite consistent with getting to open accounts -- like having the beautiful plate but still using it to eat food. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm 5 years into a 30 year. Starting was 180k I'm now down to 160k~

Auto is 5 year starting at 59k and now down to 44k with 3.5 years remaining.

5 CCs and all 5 report.

One card typically has <1k

Never any lates

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Report a balance on one or two cards only. That will boost your score a bit on its own. Keep your overall utilization under 9% (more preferrably under 6% to give yourself some headroom) and keep any card that does report a balance under 29%.

Note: Inverse reported scores of 850 with two mortgages and one auto loan. His combined mortgage B/L ratio was just under 64%, his auto loan B/L was about 80% and aggregate "installment" B/L just over 65%.

OP will likely need to get aggregate installment B/L under 70%, AAoA to around 8 years and AoYA to above 12 months for a realistic chance at 850. Maintaining 850 typically translates to a boring credit life. If OP wants to maintain an active credit lifestyle, I'd recommend maintaining membership in the 800 club as a goal and forego 850 as a near term objective.

[Anonymous]

OP, to sort of give you a shooting from the hip answer to your original question (...how long...to 850...) I would say at least 2, likely 3-4 years for you.  The main constraints I would say are your AAoA and AoOA.  In 3 years if you didn't obtain any new accounts between now and then and you don't have any significantly old accounts fall off your report during that time, your AAoA would be around 6-7 years and your AoOA would be around 13 years.  I think those numbers would be about the minimums required to land around 850.  Most with 850 have an AoOA of > 17 years and an AAoA of 8+ years from what I've seen. 

[NRB525]

CGID points out the reasons to be cautious about striving for 850. 

In my interpretation, you have to basically stop borrowing to maintain 850, which is really a measure of zero risk of default. That is fine as a goal, but not a goal I have. 

I prefer to get a little bacon grease on my plate. Mmmmm... Bacon....

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

In my interpretation, you have to basically stop borrowing to maintain 850, which is really a measure of zero risk of default. That is fine as a goal, but not a goal I have. 

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While this overall idea is generally true, there are two things that doesn't align with this thought process.  One would be the presence of a lone almost paid off installment loan.  As we all know, having one of these in place results in a 25-30 point FICO score boost.  The same is true if that only installment loan is a mortgage that's been paid on for a good number of years (say, 8-10) but still sits at 60%-70% utilization.  In both of these cases, the individual with the open installment loan is "borrowing" relative to an otherwise equal profile that doesn't have either of these open installment loan types.    The second would be revolving credit use over no revolving credit use, as indicated by the presence of a small reported balance on a revolving line of credit.  In order to report a balance, even if it's a trivial one, a person must technically "borrow" ... where someone that doesn't use their revolvers at all and has them all at $0 balances would see a scoring penalty over the previous person.

I'm quite sure that someone has reported an 850 score without the presence of an open installment loan or with all cards reporting $0 balances, but I'm not sure that someone has reported an 850 score without both of these known score boosters in place, as I'm not sure a buffer could overcome the ~40-50 points possible between the two of them combined?

[Anonymous]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

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OP will likely need to get aggregate installment B/L under 70%, AAoA to around 8 years and AoYA to above 12 months for a realistic chance at 850. Maintaining 850 typically translates to a boring credit life. If OP wants to maintain an active credit lifestyle, I'd recommend maintaining membership in the 800 club as a goal and forego 850 as a near term objective.

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What's your highest score you've seen with AoYA < 12 months?

[Kree]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Currently I'm sitting at 805 accross the boad with 4 years 7 months of AAoA and 1% CU and a 65k limit. My question is... how do I get it to 850? I've done my research as my credit is really important to me but I'm guess I'm missing the secret because I've been stuck at 805 for some time now. 

---

One thing you may want to research a bit further is whether the very goal of an 850 is worthwhile -- if the driving concern is having good credit.

There is no credit product on the market (loan, credit card, etc.) where the lender will give you better terms once you have achieved scores of 780.  No better chance of approval, no better interest rate, no higher credit limit, etc.   The guy with the 835 gets no advantage over the guy with the 782.

Moreover a perfect 850 is difficult to obtain and maintain if you think you will actually be using the high score.  Think of it like a beautiful plate.  The only way to keep it 100% pretty and spotless at all times is never to actually use it -- never dirty it with steak or mashed potatoes or whatever.  (There's a small invisible buffer at the top that allows some people with an 850 to open an account without taking a drop, but this is not the norm.)

A goal of having a score that varies between the 820s and 840s, by way of contrast, is quite consistent with getting to open accounts -- like having the beautiful plate but still using it to eat food. 

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I'd go one step further.  Never using the plate gets you to 850, but then you have to take it out every week and dust/polish it. (azeo or similar maintenance). Lots of work for little practical value.  Still nice to have though.

[Anonymous]

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@Kree wrote:

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I'd go one step further.  Never using the plate gets you to 850, but then you have to take it out every week and dust/polish it. (azeo or similar maintenance). Lots of work for little practical value.  Still nice to have though.

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Plus it's weird to me to see folks saying they merely want 850 scores and not aim for the next level beyond 850 (850 + buffer).

If you're going to aim for the top, why not actually aim for the actual top?

It's not like FICO gives people metal credit scores, yet!

[arkane]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Kree wrote:

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I'd go one step further.  Never using the plate gets you to 850, but then you have to take it out every week and dust/polish it. (azeo or similar maintenance). Lots of work for little practical value.  Still nice to have though.

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Plus it's weird to me to see folks saying they merely want 850 scores and not aim for the next level beyond 850 (850 + buffer).

If you're going to aim for the top, why not actually aim for the actual top?

It's not like FICO gives people metal credit scores, yet!

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Shhhhhhh don't give them ideas! At this rate instead of "bad/fair/good/excellent/exceptional" descriptors for scores, we just might get "rusted iron/stainless steel/silver/gold/platinum" instead. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Kree wrote:

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I'd go one step further.  Never using the plate gets you to 850, but then you have to take it out every week and dust/polish it. (azeo or similar maintenance). Lots of work for little practical value.  Still nice to have though.

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Plus it's weird to me to see folks saying they merely want 850 scores and not aim for the next level beyond 850 (850 + buffer).

If you're going to aim for the top, why not actually aim for the actual top?

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I think simply because it's very difficult to try and quantify the buffer, where 850 (or any score) is easily visible and finite.  When someone sees their score tick up from 846 to 850 for example, they have no way of know if they're really at 850, or if they're at, say 853.