Understanding FICO® Scoring

[sssick]

Hello all,

My score has always been around 7would love to know what I can do to get over the 800 mark.

A little about me:

30 years old, with a credit card since 18 years old

Never a late payment....ever

Have a primary mortgage and a secondary mortgage

A discover card from 2001 $15,000 limit

A Best Buy card from 1999 $5,000 limit

An Amex gold from 2010 

Have had multiple car loans all paid off

Keep a zero balance on all credit cards

Have one hard inquiriy in the past two years

What am I missing here?  What do I need to do to get over 800?  

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

[Mustanglvr2006]

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sssick wrote:

Hello all,

My score has always been around 7would love to know what I can do to get over the 800 mark.

A little about me:

30 years old, with a credit card since 18 years old

Never a late payment....ever

Have a primary mortgage and a secondary mortgage

A discover card from 2001 $15,000 limit

A Best Buy card from 1999 $5,000 limit

An Amex gold from 2010 

Have had multiple car loans all paid off

Keep a zero balance on all credit cards Let one CC report a small balance even if only 5 dollars, Fico likes to see a little util.

Have one hard inquiriy in the past two years

What am I missing here?  What do I need to do to get over 800?  

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

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What I have suggested above will not put you into the 800's, but I can almost guarantee you will see an increase in your scores, how much? Only FICO know's the answer to that.

What are your current EQ and TU FICOs? Not Fakos, FICOs?

What are your AAoA's?

You seem to have a decent "Mix" of credit, and good AAoA's and a flawless history, and based on the profile you've listed, I would assume your FICO's are well above 700. The only thing I see that you could benefit from is having one more CC, it seems to be the general consensus that having 2-3 CC's is better than having just one.

ETA: Welcome to the Forums and Happy Holidays.

[smallfry]

Looks like you have 5 open accounts. Your 2 installments will report balances so long as they are open which is a bit problematic. Try letting 1 CC report a very small balance and see where your scores are. No reason why you can't be over 780 which is good enough for now.

[sssick]

Thanks for the quick responses. 

I got my scores from my lender when I refinanced last year, so I am assuming they are real FICO's.  They were all in the 750-765 range.  

I am pretty sure my AMEX reports my monthly balance as utilized credit, so I do have a card that technically has a balance even though it is paid off every month.

I know my score is good enough, I am just curious as to why I can't get over the 800 mark.  I was going to get a Chase Sapphire since they sent me a pre-approved offer of $500 cash back when I make my first purchase.  

If I get my scores on this website from TU and EXP are they real FICO scores?

[RobertEG]

Length of credit history and average age of accounts.

[GregB]

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sssick wrote:

Thanks for the quick responses. 

I got my scores from my lender when I refinanced last year, so I am assuming they are real FICO's.  They were all in the 750-765 range.  

I am pretty sure my AMEX reports my monthly balance as utilized credit, so I do have a card that technically has a balance even though it is paid off every month.

I know my score is good enough, I am just curious as to why I can't get over the 800 mark.  I was going to get a Chase Sapphire since they sent me a pre-approved offer of $500 cash back when I make my first purchase.  

If I get my scores on this website from TU and EXP are they real FICO scores?

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Yes, they are. These aren't fantasy/nonsense scores, which is why a score of 800+ is very, very good.

RobertEG has pointed out two reasons that your score is not going to get better than it is for awhile. It is already very good.

[llecs]

OP, even though you pay off your cards each month, are they reporting as paid off? CCs update only once per month and was wondering if they reported a balance in between the updates.

Amex doesn't enter into this because the versions your lender(s) are using likely already exclude the balance and "high balance" from CC util calculation. In other words, you can charge $10k tomorrow and report that way and it likely won't have any score impact.

If you refi'd last year and those scores are over a year old, could it be possible you are at or near 800 already?

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sssick wrote:

If I get my scores on this website from TU and EXP are they real FICO scores?

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The TU and EQ scores from myFICO are FICO scores.

[smallfry]

I've gotten over 800 with an AAofA of 5 and oldest account 10 years. The combination of high amounts owed on the mortgages combined with relatively low AAofA and oldest account might be what is holding your scores down. I had no mortgage debt and under 1K owed on revolving.

[sssick]

Ok, I got my score from TU from this site and it is 795.  The derogitory items are : You have not established a long revolving credit history.  Your first revolving account was opened 12 years 3 months ago.  My average age of accounts is 7 years.

One issue I see is that it says I have a credit utilization of 17% which is just not true.  My Discover has a $5 balance and a $15,000 limit.  My Best Buy has a $0 balance out of $5,000.  My Amex has an $1,138, but no reported limit.  I know when I use the available credit checker on the Amex site, it says I can charge $28,000 before I have to call them for approval.  Does anyone have this same problem?

[llecs]

Getting there...this version of TU FICO, TU98, happens to score charge cards like Amex into utilization. It'll calculate it off the balance in relation to the high balance. Newer versions, including ones more lenders are using now, exclude that Amex per utilization. If that Amex is the cause of the 17%, then I predict your TU FICO will be over 800 if your lender were to pull it today.