My Credit Journey (snapshot) - Road to 800

[JagerBombs89]

Edit (10/22/2015):
Found an older thread where my stats were:

FICO Score: Equifax 04 - 667 -> 705 after dropping utilization from 31% to 10%

Oldest Account: 2.5 years

AAoA: 1.2 years

Utilization: 10%

Found a different thread where my stats were:

FICO Score: Equfiax 04 - 755 (last scorewatch - 10/30/2011)

Oldest Account: 4 years

AAoA: 2 years

EQ Inquiries: 1 for auto loan back in August. ( I believe NFCU pulls EQ for cards )

Highest Individual Utilization: 26%

Overall Utilization: 14% ( due to a few accounts closing for inactivity )

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After reading the FICO High Achievers thread, I wanted to provide a snapshot of what my credit profile looks likes after 6 years.  This is going to be in direct correlation to the "Characteristics of FICO® High Achievers (FICO scores of 760 and above)"

Account age:

Oldest Account: 6 years old

Average Age of Accounts: 4 years

Newest Account: 1 Month ago

Number of accounts reporting:

Number of accounts currently being paid as agreed: 7 open accounts

• 1 Mortgage
• 1 Auto loan
• 5 Credit Cards

Total number of accounts:  17 in total

• 1 Closed Mortgage (refinanced)
• 1 Closed auto loan (refinanced)
• 2 Closed auto loans (PIF)
• 2 Closed motorcycle loans (PIF)
• 4 Closed credit cards (1 is actually open but report always reflects closed no matter what I try)

Utilization:

Revolving: ~1%

Installment Util: 

• Auto loan ~50%
• Mortgage ~85%

Inquiries in last 2 years:

Experian: 3  (none within last year)

Equifax: 5  (none within last year)

Transunion: 4  (1 within last year)

Misc. Notes:

• ALL THREE BUREAUS are reporting the exact same information with the exception of inquiries.
• There are NO NEGATIVES listed whatsoever on my credit report.
• I do not have any consumer finance accounts reporting at all. 
• All cards are PIF every month and I generally only let one report a balance.

Experian: unknown (Report frozen; MyFICO won't allow me to pull)

Equifax:  783 FICO (scorewatch, EQ04)

Transunion: 825 FICO (Provided by Discover when applied for new card.  Range provided: 300-850, TU08)

 I have been following this board for years now and have learned an enormous amount of information regarding credit, reports, example letters, etc.  I have used what I know to help others improve their credit and they greatly appreciated it.  These forums are amazing and I always direct people here when they need help.  All in all, I would just like to say that with responsible credit usage, anyone can become a FICO High Achiever.  My report is only 6 years old and thanks to this forum, I got the scores I have been aiming for!  Not too bad for only being 24 

[gdale6]

Congrats to your success

[JagerBombs89]

Thought I'd share another well-known occurrence in regards to the number of balances reporting.  Keep in mind that the overall utilization and individual utilization stayed at ~ 1%

Throughout the month of December:

1 Balance reporting: 783 FICO Score

2 Balances reporting: 778 FICO Score

3 Balances reporting: 773 FICO Score

4 Balances reporting: 768 FICO Score

End of Decemeber:

1 Balance reporting: 783 FICO (back to normal)

0 Balances reporting: 774 FICO

FICO can be quite picky, eh!?

[user5387]

This is an interesting data point, and the 9 point hit for zero balances reporting is the same as I've experienced with similar scores.

[JagerBombs89]

So I got my Discover FICO score and my scored dropped down from 825 to 800 for the new account + inquiry.

[Kratos-TM]

Wow, the power of bucketing..... 6 year history, and 4 years AAoA and 825 score..... amazing.

I have the same profile as far as open tradelines, thicker file, no inquiries, no baddies, 1% uti with 1 of 6 cards reporting a balance, and more history ( 19 years and 6 year AAoA) but my scores are lower than the OP's..... because people in my bucket with 19 years history have better AAoA's.....probably 8 and up. So I'm scored lower because of that.

All just a game....

[p-]

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Kratos-TM wrote:  people in my bucket with 19 years history have better AAoA's.....probably 8 and up. So I'm scored lower because of that. All just a game....

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On the upside, I doubt you have been given any less than favorable credit terms because of your score...  

AAOA is hard to manage, and doesn't always tell the true story anyway.  For example, a couple of years ago the feds moved servicing of my wife's student loans from Direct Loans to Granite State.  For six months, her report showed her 4 DL loans as closed/paid, and 4 new loans opened.  Now, this is a single, hundred bucks a month payment that is near completion, but they report as 4 separate new accounts so her AAOA took a huge dive.  Does that event make her less creditworthy?  Apparently so.

Then, a few months later, all of a sudden her GS accounts were listed as opened in 2003 and had a duplicate payment history from the DL accounts, but the old DL ones are still there too.  Now she has 8 old accounts with perfect history helping bump up her AAOA.

Weird stuff.  

[JagerBombs89]

Kratos,
Maybe it is time to open a new American Express account and boost that AAoA I got my membership date from 2010 and going to wait a few years (probably) before opening a new one. Hopefully they still back date accounts in the future!

[Kratos-TM]

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@JagerBombs89 wrote:
Kratos,
Maybe it is time to open a new American Express account and boost that AAoA I got my membership date from 2010 and going to wait a few years (probably) before opening a new one. Hopefully they still back date accounts in the future!

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I thought of that trick, but unfortunately my AMEX card is younger than my AAoA. Man, do I wish I opened that AMEX offer I had back in high school!

[JagerBombs89]

Update as of January 5th:

My Discover statement cut with a card utilization of 6% and an overall utilization of ~1%, which has allowed 1 balance to report on my revolving tradelines.

FICO Score went from 774 to 786!