topic Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete in Understanding FICO® Scoring

FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 06:36:25 GMT

TU/EX have been maintained @ 850 for at least the past 16-17 months. For some reason, EQ was always the odd ball out being stuck somewhere in the 840 range. I gave up checking EQ over a year ago since it cost me each time. Fast forward to yesterday, I pulled my EQ score and was very pleased to see it @ 850.

In case anyone's wondering, I don't practice AZEO regularly, nor do I have a mortgage. I do have several revolvers and one small installment loan with < 9% balance owed (SSL trick).

Here's what my profile looked like when I hit 850 for the first time:

AAoA: ~10.5 yrs

AoOA: ~19 yrs

AoYA: ~13 mo

Scorable Inquiries: 0

Installment loans: 1 open (< 30% owed)

Revolving accounts: 9 open

Auth user accounts: 1 open

Total Utilization: < 1%

AZEO: No

EQ-8 ScoreAmex EX-8Chase EX-8Discover TU-8BofA TU-8

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 07:18:17 GMT

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is awesome!

I thought about printing your post to remind me "850 really does exist." I doubt I'll ever make it, for sure it'll be years. But, stories like yours will help me stay in the gardern.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 08:01:14 GMT

Octopus, congrats on the trifecta of 850. I'll be right there with you in 8 weeks when my only scoreable inquiry on EQ goes away.

A few things. One, it bothers me in the first image that you posted that with an 850 score the needle on the score range isn't pinned at the highest point. That CMS needs to update their graphic

Second, you listed your age of accounts factors for when you first noticed all 850's I believe. My question for you is were you consistently checking them all along?

Your AoOA is 2 years greater than is necessary for 850's and your AAoA is 3 years greater. This to me means in theory you could have realized 850's as far back as 2 years ago, but probably only if your AoYA was > 12 months at a point in time during that span.

While clearly AZEO isn't necessary for 850's, I think that either it OR AoYA > 12 years is necessary. I'd be curious to know if anyone has gotten to 850 with both < 12 months AoYA and having more accounts with balances. The installment loan being in an ideal place too of course is a 3rd factor to consider. Perhaps having 2 out of 3 of these factors in place is what it takes for 850's...

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Thomas_Thumb — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 12:11:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous/EX have been maintained @ 850 for at least the past 16-17 months. For some reason, EQ was always the odd ball out being stuck somewhere in the 840 range. I gave up checking EQ over a year ago since it cost me each time. Fast forward to yesterday, I pulled my EQ score and was very pleased to see it @ 850.

In case anyone's wondering, I don't practice AZEO regularly, nor do I have a mortgage. I do have several revolvers and one small installment loan with < 9% balance owed (SSL trick).

Here's what my profile looked like when I hit 850 for the first time:

AAoA: ~10.5 yrs
AoOA: ~19 yrs
AoYA: ~13 mo
Scorable Inquiries: 0
Installment loans: 1 open (< 30% owed)
Revolving accounts: 9 open
Auth user accounts: 1 open
Total Utilization: < 1%
AZEO: No

Nice work.

I also don't practice AZEO either. Since becoming AU on DW's card (always reports a balance but is PIF), I've not been down to AZEO. - Going on 24 years now

Do you have access to any BCE Fico 8 scores such as the BCE EQ Fico 8 score provided by Citibank to card holders? Curious how BCE is scoring your file.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

19eighty5 — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 16:04:58 GMT

Congratulations! What an accomplishment!

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:10:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Octopus, congrats on the trifecta of 850. I'll be right there with you in 8 weeks when my only scoreable inquiry on EQ goes away.

A few things. One, it bothers me in the first image that you posted that with an 850 score the needle on the score range isn't pinned at the highest point. That CMS needs to update their graphic

Second, you listed your age of accounts factors for when you first noticed all 850's I believe. My question for you is were you consistently checking them all along?

Your AoOA is 2 years greater than is necessary for 850's and your AAoA is 3 years greater. This to me means in theory you could have realized 850's as far back as 2 years ago, but probably only if your AoYA was > 12 months at a point in time during that span.

While clearly AZEO isn't necessary for 850's, I think that either it OR AoYA > 12 years is necessary. I'd be curious to know if anyone has gotten to 850 with both < 12 months AoYA and having more accounts with balances. The installment loan being in an ideal place too of course is a 3rd factor to consider. Perhaps having 2 out of 3 of these factors in place is what it takes for 850's...

Hi BBS, and thanks, I'm looking forward to having you join the trifecta club!

It's possible I've been at 850 on EQ longer than I know, but I have no way of knowing exactly how long. I'm not sure what you are referring to in terms of "consistently checking them all along". If you mean my scores, then I was only consistently checking EX and TU, not EQ. The last EQ check was around April-May 2017. It's plausible what was holding EQ back from 850 was there might've been scorable inquiries on EQ when TU/EX had none. In my post, the factors listed are when I first hit 850 , not the first time I hit 850 on all 3. I first hit 850 on EX/TU in 2015, lost it for a few months in 2016 due to new accounts, then regained it in early 2017. Hope that makes sense.

@Regarding your last point, I've been at 850 with AoYA @ 0 months with balances reporting on multiple accounts. The YA was an SSL installment loan. So yes, in my case it was doable. I'm also curious to know if the YA was a revolver instead of an installment, would 850 still be possible.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:20:54 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb

Nice work.

I also don't practice AZEO either. Since becoming AU on DW's card (always reports a balance but is PIF), I've not been down to AZEO. - Going on 24 years now

Do you have access to any BCE Fico 8 scores such as the BCE EQ Fico 8 score provided by Citibank to card holders? Curious how BCE is scoring your file.

Thanks TT! 24 years, that's awesome. I also figured AZEO wouldn't be possible for me since I'm an AU and that card only gets PIF when the statement cuts. I typically have anywhere from 2-4 cards reporting a balance.

I do have FICO 8 BCE from Citi. What's odd is they list too many inquiries when I have zero hard inquiries whatsoever on any of my reports.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:40:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is awesome!

I thought about printing your post to remind me "850 really does exist." I doubt I'll ever make it, for sure it'll be years. But, stories like yours will help me stay in the gardern.

Thanks SJM & 19eighty5! I once had scores stagnant in the mid 600's for years and never imagined 750 possible let alone 850. Long story short, it took time and discipline. I learned from past mistakes and vowed never to repeat them.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 05:02:40 GMT

Octopus, I'm pretty confident that had you been checking all 3 of your scores more frequently you would have seen the trifecta sooner. It sounds like you didn't check EQ for quite some time (5/17) so it's possible that (say) a year ago you have have been at 850 there. I say this again because your Age of Accounts factors are extremely solid and have plenty of buffer there above the highest needed in order to achieve 850s.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 06:21:03 GMT

BBS, you're probably right. It had been quite some time since I last pulled EQ and very possible that when the other 2 regained 850, EQ was @ 850 also at the same time or very shortly thereafter. Either way, I hope I can keep maintaining it for the foreseable future. I might be able to absorb a new account as the last new account did not drop my scores, but I don't think I can take on any new inquiries without seeing a drop.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

SouthJamaica — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:53:21 GMT

Congratulations.

Question: how many revolving accounts did report balances?

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 01:26:17 GMT

I know people have reported 850 scores with 1 scoreable inquiry present, but I'm not sure about multiples. Any examples of an 850 being possible with 2+ inquiries?

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 01:32:27 GMT

Very nice scores!! Those are goals

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 04:55:38 GMT

Congrats, time to hit the garden.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Thomas_Thumb — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 20:58:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb
Thanks TT! 24 years, that's awesome. I also figured AZEO wouldn't be possible for me since I'm an AU and that card only gets PIF when the statement cuts. I typically have anywhere from 2-4 cards reporting a balance.

I do have FICO 8 BCE from Citi. What's odd is they list too many inquiries when I have zero hard inquiries whatsoever on any of my reports.

Thanks for the graph. Those scores are very stable (4 point range). It looks like you keep a tight reign on utilization and maintain # cards reporting in a narrow band.

I see a bit more fluctuation (11 point range) - perhaps due to a wider 2-6 cards reporting and only having 6 cards. My stats during the below 2016 timeframe: AoOA = 33 years, AAoA = 17 years, AoYA = 6 years, zero INQ. EQ inquiry 6/2014 no longer on report (aged past 2 years)

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 16:24:20 GMT

TT, why do you think he's receiving the negative reason statement pointing toward inquiries when he has no inquiries at all on his CR?

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Thomas_Thumb — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:02:26 GMT

The OP has a similar profile to mine. When I took an INQ late last year my score dropped to the range where the OP is and I picked up the "too many inquiries in the last 12 months" reason statement. The only conclusion I can make is the OP indeed has an INQ less than 12 months old that is affecting his score but, it is not being listed on whatever summary report he is reviewing.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 07:22:44 GMT

OP, can you confirm that you have not taken on a HP in the last 12 months? As TT suggests, perhaps a CMS for whatever reason isn't seeing an inquiry that you have. If you indeed have not taken on a HP in the last 12 months, the presence of that negative reason statement remains a mystery to me.

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 14:25:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Octopus, congrats on the trifecta of 850. I'll be right there with you in 8 weeks when my only scoreable inquiry on EQ goes away.

Your AoOA is 2 years greater than is necessary for 850's and your AAoA is 3 years greater. This to me means in theory you could have realized 850's as far back as 2 years ago, but probably only if your AoYA was > 12 months at a point in time during that span.

While clearly AZEO isn't necessary for 850's, I think that either it OR AoYA > 12 years is necessary. I'd be curious to know if anyone has gotten to 850 with both < 12 months AoYA and having more accounts with balances. The installment loan being in an ideal place too of course is a 3rd factor to consider. Perhaps having 2 out of 3 of these factors in place is what it takes for 850's...

Number of cards reporting is such a weak factor on Fico 8 that an 850 with multiple cards reporting and AoYA < 12 months is not insurmountable. JDK certainly reported having done that. I was able to maintain 850 with new, scoreable, HPs on EQ and TU and 4 of 6 cards reporting balances (pasted below).

[Side note: The single INQs on EQ and TU did drop my BCE Fico 8 scores EQ 887 => 881, TU 899 => 891 from my prior "zero INQ" 3B report but, that report was 3/25/2017]

...

Re: FICO-8 Hat Trick Complete

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 06:15:35 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
Congratulations.

Question: how many revolving accounts did report balances?

Anywhere from 1-4 accounts reporting a balance. Always at least one reports, never AZEO since the one card is an AU which gets PIF when the statement cuts.