I've hinted at this a few times, but in order to fully commit myself, I declare the challenge for myself: getting an 800 FICO score.
Why?
1. I want to get the best mortgage rate when I apply for mortgage. 800 on fico 08 probably equates to at least 750 on fico 04.
2. I want to demonstrate to my blog's followers that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to credit.
3. I'm curious what the shortest amount of time it takes to build credit from scratch to FICO 800 is.
4. I am in a good position for this goal.
My credit profile:
Length: 2 years and 7 months
AAoA: 1 year and 6 months
Number of open credit cards: 13
Number of closed credit cards: 1
Number of open installment loans: 1
Ratio of installment amount to original amount: 90%
Credit card utilization: 7%
Number of credit cards reporting a balance: 6
Number of inquiries: 2
Most recent inquiry: 6 months old
Current FICO 08 on Equifax: 762
The time limit I set for myself is 6 months. Why? Because in 6 months my credit length will reach the next age, and so will my AAoA. If I don't hit 800 then, I won't for a while. And I also may apply for mortgage next year. So this is the only time that I can plan to conquer the 800 milestone.
How am I going to achieve this? Basically not doing anything new. No credit applications. Waiting for the inquiries to drop off and the accounts to age. Perhaps consolidating the balances to lower the number of credit cards reporting a balance.
See y'all in 6 months.
Why?
1. I want to get the best mortgage rate when I apply for mortgage. 800 on fico 08 probably equates to at least 750 on fico 04.
2. I want to demonstrate to my blog's followers that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to credit.
3. I'm curious what the shortest amount of time it takes to build credit from scratch to FICO 800 is.
4. I am in a good position for this goal.
My credit profile:
Length: 2 years and 7 months
AAoA: 1 year and 6 months
Number of open credit cards: 13
Number of closed credit cards: 1
Number of open installment loans: 1
Ratio of installment amount to original amount: 90%
Credit card utilization: 7%
Number of credit cards reporting a balance: 6
Number of inquiries: 2
Most recent inquiry: 6 months old
Current FICO 08 on Equifax: 762
The time limit I set for myself is 6 months. Why? Because in 6 months my credit length will reach the next age, and so will my AAoA. If I don't hit 800 then, I won't for a while. And I also may apply for mortgage next year. So this is the only time that I can plan to conquer the 800 milestone.
How am I going to achieve this? Basically not doing anything new. No credit applications. Waiting for the inquiries to drop off and the accounts to age. Perhaps consolidating the balances to lower the number of credit cards reporting a balance.
See y'all in 6 months.
Hi ya HiLine
I'll be watching and pulling for you....
Get er done
@Anonymous wrote:I'm new, and I've been really enjoying reading your blog. Your very informative, and I like reading about someones experience who is only a few years ahead of me..makes me think it is possible. Please Please Please keep us updated on the wins and struggles.
Whoop! I'll be routing for you. Mostly beacuse this is my goal too.
I'm really glad to hear you find my blog helpful! I will surely keep you posted on the progress. Good luck with your own goal!
@myjourney wrote:Hi ya HiLine
I'll be watching and pulling for you....
Get er done
Thanks man! We'll get it done!
@iv wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
1. I want to get the best mortgage rate when I apply for mortgage. 800 on fico 08 probably equates to at least 750 on fico 04.As a perhaps-useful datapoint, the biggest gap I've seen between FICO 8 and standard tri-merge mortgage scores was 74 (EQ08 (841) vs EQ Beacon 5.0 (767)), and the smallest was 34 (EX08 (837) vs EX Risk Model v2 (803)). Obviously, the spread between the score types will vary for individual reports...
Best of luck on your goal.
Thanks! That's helpful. I'll make sure to pull my Score Power reports once in a while to make sure the gap stays in check too.
@lhcole77 wrote:YAY! Congrats on your profile and best of luck!
Thank you! My score is still 762 as of now. Next month I will focus on reducing the number of cards carrying a balance to 3 while keeping overall utilization around 10%. I should be able to gain 5 points by doing this. We'll see.
Today, I bought a new Equifax FICO score report. Right after I made the purchase, FICO gave me a waiting period of 30 minutes to view the report. Coincidentally (or not?), right away, I got 2 Score Watch alerts for balance changes, kicking my score up 5 points. The balance decreases resulted in 1 fewer account with balance, and 1 fewer account with >30% utilization. I'm pretty sure 30% is an important threshold, since the last time I got a balance increase to over 30% utilization, my score dipped by 5 points.
In the next month or so, I will be paying off 2 more balances to bring the number of cards reporting a balance down to 3 out of 13, and overall utilization to under 10%. We'll see if this helps the score.
And I am sad to report that myFICO is no longer offering the Score Power report; their Equifax report is now called the "Standard" and shows FICO 08 scores.
Quick update: I just went over to Equifax.com to order a Score Power report. As it turns out, my FICO 04 score is 718, which is 49 points under my FICO 08 score. When Score Watch switched from 04 to 08, I got a 49 points increase, which means that the gap has not changed since May. My goal of 800 on FICO 08 to reach 750 on FICO 04 is probably close to reality then.
Knowing this, I plan to cancel my Score Watch subscription at the end of my challenge; the final meaningful benefit of this service, discounts on Score Power reports, has been eliminated.
