@Anonymous wrote:
Hey thanks for the welcome folks!
Discover FICO: 841
I have the following cards:
Major Credit Cards:
BAC Visa $10K $275.00 bal
BAC MC $16.5K $0.00 bal
CITI MC $12K $0.00 bal
AMEX BLUE $6.5k (Was $21k, they cut to $6k during 2008 recession) $51.00 bal
CHASE FREEDOM $10K $0.00 bal
DISCOVER $15.6K $0.00 bal
CAP 1 VISA $7K (sock drawer card) $0.00 bal
CAP 1 MC $4K (was Direct Merchants Bank $10K, cut to $4k during recession) $0.00 bal
Store Cards:
HOME DEPOT $2.5K $0.00 bal
LOWES $2.2K $0.00
Total outstanding balance s less than $400 on all cards, balance is always paid off every month. Average age of credit cards is 12 years. Credit history 25 years. 1 hard credit inquiry over the past 2 years. No other loans or mortgage.
3 auto leases in past 5 years, 1 ended, 2 are active. One of the ends in a couple of months. I noticed a big jump in score when I signed my first auto lease in 2010, from 765 to 810 by the time that lease ended in 2013. I'm assuming I got a bump due to mix of type of credit. If Discover score is accurate, I'm trying to get that elusive 850!
Well...First off you need to know that there are several score models and your scores will most likely vary depending on the model. The Discover score that you mentioned is a real FICO 08 score and is mostly used by credit card lenders. Another important score model is a FICO 04 model that is used by mortgage lenders and seems to be a bit tougher to score a perfect 850 on.
It seems to me that you have the minimum number of credit types to get a perfect score. You have at least 3 credit cards and the auto leases count as installment loans.
You seem to ALMOST have the credit age to get a perfect score but I'm not sure. You stated that you have 1 hard inquiry in the past 2 years. If that inquiry is for a credit card or auto lease, and hence, the credit card or auto lease is less than 2 years old, it might be costing you a few points. In my research (And nothing is ever spelled out in black and white.) it seems that people that acheive perfect scores have their youngest credit card's age of at LEAST 2 years old or have been making their current auto loan/lease payments for at LEAST 2 years. In other words, no new credit in the past 2 years but you still NEED an open installment loan. (Now you can see just how difficult and fleeting it can be to acheive a perfect score!)
You could also be losing a few points by the way you pay your credit cards off every month. For a perfect score you can only have 1 credit card report a balance to the credit reporting agencies every month. You can control this by paying any credit cards that have a balance to $0 at least 3 days BEFORE the due date. This way, when a new monthly statement is created a few days AFTER the due date, it will show a $0 balance. The 1 credit card that does report a balance needs to report a balance that is less than 10% of your combined credit limits. It could be anywhere from 1% to 9% but must be less than 10%. And yes, you do need to have 1 card report a small balance. If you pay all your cards to $0 your score will drop by quite a bit.
You are so close to a perfect score it is about tweaking and making sure that your accounts are aged just right. I mean, after all, you are seeking perfection so your reports need to be perfect.
Starting Score: EQ 653 6/21/12
Current Score: EQ 817 3/10/20 - EX 820 3/13/20 - TU 825 3/03/20
