What proportion of FICO high-scorers are FICO-aware?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any data, or -- more likely -- any opinions, as to what proportion of those whose credit profiles are scored extremely high (let's define that as > 800) are very attuned and educated to FICO score optimization?

In other words, are a significant number of them doing the things that mark them as ultra-low-risk to the FICO algorithm on purpose?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone have any data, or -- more likely -- any opinions, as to what proportion of those whose credit profiles are scored extremely high (let's define that as > 800) are very attuned and educated to FICO score optimization?

In other words, are a significant number of them doing the things that mark them as ultra-low-risk to the FICO algorithm on purpose?

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My guess is that the vast majority are aware that prompt payment of their bills is important to their credit standing, and not much else.

Thing is, if you go about your life, pay your bills on time, and buy the occasional house to live in and car to drive in, and use a credit card once in a while, FICO is as happy as a pig in mud.

[simplynoir]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone have any data, or -- more likely -- any opinions, as to what proportion of those whose credit profiles are scored extremely high (let's define that as > 800) are very attuned and educated to FICO score optimization?

In other words, are a significant number of them doing the things that mark them as ultra-low-risk to the FICO algorithm on purpose?

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My guess is that the vast majority are aware that prompt payment of their bills is important to their credit standing, and not much else.

Thing is, if you go about your life, pay your bills on time, and buy the occasional house to live in and car to drive in, and use a credit card once in a while, FICO is as happy as a pig in mud.

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+1 Pretty much this.

[fused]

I also pretty much agree with what SouthJamaica said. On the other hand, I'm one of the 800+ clubbers who makes sure my scores are as high as possible without wasting money. I have learned enough to ensure that happens. The newer FICO models make it a bit more challenging, tho.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone have any data, or -- more likely -- any opinions, as to what proportion of those whose credit profiles are scored extremely high (let's define that as > 800) are very attuned and educated to FICO score optimization?

In other words, are a significant number of them doing the things that mark them as ultra-low-risk to the FICO algorithm on purpose?

---

My guess is that the vast majority are aware that prompt payment of their bills is important to their credit standing, and not much else.

Thing is, if you go about your life, pay your bills on time, and buy the occasional house to live in and car to drive in, and use a credit card once in a while, FICO is as happy as a pig in mud.

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Correct! - my pig was ignorant and blissful. It is still happy but, no longer ignorantly blissful

[Anonymous]

IMO, very few people are well versed on the ins and outs of what goes into making a credit score great.  By very few, I'd define that as < 1% of the general population.  Therefore, I'd say that an extremely small percentage of those with > 800 scores know exactly how to achieve such scores outside of the extreme basics.  Back in 2012 when I applied for a car loan I was told I had 800 scores, which I had no idea at the time.  The dealership seemed impressed and surprised, perhaps because I was dressed like a bum at the time.  If you asked me then, 5 years ago, what went into a "good" credit score I would have said paying your bills on time and always paying more than the minimum payment.  That's all I would have known.  Fast forward to today and my scores are nearly identical, except of course now I know just about everything I'll ever need to know with respect to my score ingredients.  But I'm an outlier.  We are all outliers on this forum.  WE are the exception, definitely not the norm.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

IMO, very few people are well versed on the ins and outs of what goes into making a credit score great.  By very few, I'd define that as < 1% of the general population.  Therefore, I'd say that an extremely small percentage of those with > 800 scores know exactly how to achieve such scores outside of the extreme basics.  Back in 2012 when I applied for a car loan I was told I had 800 scores, which I had no idea at the time.  The dealership seemed impressed and surprised, perhaps because I was dressed like a bum at the time.  If you asked me then, 5 years ago, what went into a "good" credit score I would have said paying your bills on time and always paying more than the minimum payment.  That's all I would have known.  Fast forward to today and my scores are nearly identical, except of course now I know just about everything I'll ever need to know with respect to my score ingredients.  But I'm an outlier.  We are all outliers on this forum.  WE are the exception, definitely not the norm.

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I'd put the percentage at less than 0.1%.

Given that 15% to 20% of the population has a score over 800, it's clear that knowledge of Fico is a bit inconsequential. Solid credit management represents low risk and the primary purpose of Fico (and other credit scoring models) is to quantify risk for lenders.

Distribution charts pasted below were taken from a published sample profile.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the perspective, all.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone have any data, or -- more likely -- any opinions, as to what proportion of those whose credit profiles are scored extremely high (let's define that as > 800) are very attuned and educated to FICO score optimization?

In other words, are a significant number of them doing the things that mark them as ultra-low-risk to the FICO algorithm on purpose?

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Great comments by other folks.

My feeling is that those two groups (the blue and the green) are a bit different. 

There may be a lot of people who know the basic things to do to have a great score (never miss a payment and keep CC balances comparatively low, most notably) and who do those very deliberately -- the folks in green -- but who wouldn't be the geeky sort who know all the extreme details about the 8.99% threshhold and tricks like the SS loan and AZEO and so forth (the folks in blue).

So if the question is, how many high scorers are blue?  Extremely few.  How many are green?  Quite a lot I'd guess, though there are probably a fair number who don't even know what a credit score is but just stumbled into having an 800 by sheer accident.  (They had no idea that a credit score might like it better if they didn't max out their cards, etc.)

There are a lot more greens than there were ten years ago.  Since free credit scores became extremely common, there's been a lot of basic newspaper articles (and their web and magazine equivalents) on how to have a good score.  Therefore the number of people who understand the basics of how FICO works is much higher than it once was.  A person has had to really work to not read any of those in the last 6-7 years.

[Revelate]

Heh, I'd think even 0.1 would be high... I was thinking more like 0.01 or even 0.001% haha.  We are utter and complete outliers on this forum.

That said when I was having my time wasted at a BOFA branch today (so moving this set of accounts) they were running a credit scoring trivia question on their advertising screen, so I'd still suggest we're at a better point of consumer credit education than we ever have been in the past.... incidently this is new within the last week as it wasn't there when I was last sitting in that damned chair watching the screen idly haha.