topic Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 05:53:38 GMT

It's been a lot of fun floating sky high at the top. Sadly, all good things must end. After over 48 consecutive months of maintaining 850 on EX and TU and nearly 24 consecutive months sustaining the hat trick, the train ride finally stops here. Because very soon, a new mortgage loan will report on my CR's. I haven't seen any drop in scores as a result of the mortgage inquiry, but when the new loan reports I'm probably looking at a 20-40 point drop.

I'm hoping to pay this 30 year note off in 5-7 years, so it'll be a while before I can regain 850. It was fun while it lasted, but I suppose the whole point of achieving high scores was to be able to land a low interest rate loan. And of course for the bragging rights ; ). It's going to feel wierd being kicked out of the exclusive 850 club, I'm going to hopefully make it back there sooner than later

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

AllZero — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 06:38:29 GMT

Congratulations on your success! Pick up a few cards on the way back to the garden.

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 12:03:18 GMT

Congrats on 4 years! WOW

Scoring used for intended purpose, well done!

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 05:25:49 GMT

Thanks! I will definitely pick up some new cards now that 850 is no longer going to be achievable anytime soon. Yeah, 48+ months went by like it was yesterday. It would have been over 60 consecutive months at 850, had I not gotten a car loan a few years back. I hope to at least stay over 820 once the mortgage hits my reports.

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

805orbust — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 06:22:42 GMT

Wow! That much of a hit, huh? Crazy. However you definitely pimped that 850 for the best of reasons. What were your key data points that helped you maintain?

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Revelate — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 13:58:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's been a lot of fun floating sky high at the top. Sadly, all good things must end. After over 48 consecutive months of maintaining 850 on EX and TU and nearly 24 consecutive months sustaining the hat trick, the train ride finally stops here. Because very soon, a new mortgage loan will report on my CR's. I haven't seen any drop in scores as a result of the mortgage inquiry, but when the new loan reports I'm probably looking at a 20-40 point drop.

I'm hoping to pay this 30 year note off in 5-7 years, so it'll be a while before I can regain 850. It was fun while it lasted, but I suppose the whole point of achieving high scores was to be able to land a low interest rate loan. And of course for the bragging rights ; ). It's going to feel wierd being kicked out of the exclusive 850 club, I'm going to hopefully make it back there sooner than later

Not so sure on that assessment, wait and see when that new loan hits as unless it materially changes your installment utilization (which I don't remember on your file) installment loans don't appear to be the same as revolvers as far as new accounts go for FICO 8.

On the inquiry side, mortgage inquiries count 30 days later (grace period) so look for any damage then. Also if you can play reindeer games with the mortgage depending on who the servicer is and if they push your due date ahead out into the future, pay it way down and not off and you'll be back at 850 by that point anyway.

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 06:21:45 GMT

@805orbust wrote:
Wow! That much of a hit, huh? Crazy. However you definitely pimped that 850 for the best of reasons. What were your key data points that helped you maintain?

The hit ended up being 25-26 points on all 3. Pretty disappointing seeing my perfect scores take a nosedive like that, but it was to be expected. As far as data points, these were the main ones I can think of:

- Extremly low utilizations (<1%)

- No new inquiries, no new credit

- AAOA > 15 years, and AOOA > 20 years

- 9 revolving cc accounts

- 1 open SSL loan paid down <9% so I could have at least one installment reporting

Also, it seems they placed me in a rare bucket where AZEO was not mandatory for me to maintain 850. There were many months where I carried a balance on multiple cards, sometimes on just one card, and other months where I carried no balance on any cards.

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 06:34:15 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Not so sure on that assessment, wait and see when that new loan hits as unless it materially changes your installment utilization (which I don't remember on your file) installment loans don't appear to be the same as revolvers as far as new accounts go for FICO 8.

On the inquiry side, mortgage inquiries count 30 days later (grace period) so look for any damage then. Also if you can play reindeer games with the mortgage depending on who the servicer is and if they push your due date ahead out into the future, pay it way down and not off and you'll be back at 850 by that point anyway.

Revelate, thanks for your input. I'm not sure I can pay it down that fast, at least not for the first couple of years. But come 2022 I expect to be able to pay of big chunks at a time. So I'm probably stuck around 825-830 for another 2 years. I remember a few years ago I took out an auto loan shortly after I first hit 850. My score took an even bigger drop (down to around 815 or so). I paid off the 60 month loan in 16 months, but I had regained 850 in less than 6 months after the loan first reported.

As someone suggested, I might use this time to load up on some new cards while my score is no longer in danger of getting toppled from 850 ; )

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Thomas_Thumb — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 13:27:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's been a lot of fun floating sky high at the top. Sadly, all good things must end. After over 48 consecutive months of maintaining 850 on EX and TU and nearly 24 consecutive months sustaining the hat trick, the train ride finally stops here. Because very soon, a new mortgage loan will report on my CR's. I haven't seen any drop in scores as a result of the mortgage inquiry, but when the new loan reports I'm probably looking at a 20-40 point drop.

I am anticipating a drop from 850 as well. My only open loan, a mortgage, will be paid off in October. No other open or closed installment loans on file. Been at 850 for 6.5 years. Estimating a nominal 30 point drop in Fico 8 but, who knows. Ubuntu reportedly had an 850 for a short time with only a few open and closed revolving accounts (no installment loans) on file. It will be interesting to see how the "no open installment loan" penalty impacts my Fico 9 scores relative to Fico 8. Guessing no penalty in the older Fico 98 and Fico 04 "mortgage" versions

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 16:12:03 GMT

An AoYA reset to 0 months often is "worth" 20-25 points, so my guess is that in 12 months time your scores will return mostly back to where they were.

I've maintained 850s for several years now with installment loan utilization being in the 70s (mortgage) so one can get there without having ideal installment loan utilization.

I appreciate the data OP, as I'm looking toward a refi in the next 6 months or so and it gives me an idea of what to expect scoring wise.

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Credit12Fico — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 06:10:12 GMT

Lucky for you OP that for all practical purposes, any 800+ still opens any and every door reasonably speaking.

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Meanmchine — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 02:20:52 GMT

I had high 840 scores and only lost 4 points on EQ when a new Chase card reported

Hopefully you wont see anything close to 20-40 point smack

EDIT Just noticed this is an old resurrected thread. Im surpried you got dinged so much

Congrats on your new mortgage

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:57:38 GMT

@Meanmchine wrote:
I had high 840 scores and only lost 4 points on EQ when a new Chase card reported
Hopefully you wont see anything close to 20-40 point smack

Was your AoYA 12+ months at the time of the AoYA reset to 0 months (new Chase account)?

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

sxa001 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 00:50:40 GMT

@Credit12Fico wrote:
Lucky for you OP that for all practical purposes, any 800+ still opens any and every door reasonably speaking.

This is something that I keep reminding myself, this isn't to say that it isn't good to practice all the things recommended on these forums to maximize scores and credit-worthiness, and this isn't to say that getting 850 and mainintaining that for several years isn't a huge accomplishment (Way to go OP!!) but I am going to try really hard to not obsess about my scores after we close on a house (i.e. being scared to use credit cards or open new accounts).

Re: Saying Goodbye to the 850's

jamie123 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 17:26:54 GMT

@sxa001 wrote:
@Credit12Fico wrote:
Lucky for you OP that for all practical purposes, any 800+ still opens any and every door reasonably speaking.
This is something that I keep reminding myself, this isn't to say that it isn't good to practice all the things recommended on these forums to maximize scores and credit-worthiness, and this isn't to say that getting 850 and mainintaining that for several years isn't a huge accomplishment (Way to go OP!!) but I am going to try really hard to not obsess about my scores after we close on a house (i.e. being scared to use credit cards or open new accounts).

Yeah, I've seen the 830s but then I need to buy something!

I would really like to see 850 someday but I use my good credit scores to borrow money at low interest rates and keep my money invested earning more money than the loan cost me. It sounds like I'm taking a risk but really I'm not. For my last car, I had the money to pay cash but how could I pass up a 60 month loan @1.79%? I left my money invested and it has made a lot more than 1.79% return the last 3 years.

Same goes for credit cards. Every year or two I apply for a new credit card that offers a 0% interest introductory rate. Because of my good credit and high CLs on my other cards the new card usually has a pretty good starting CL. I will use it for my daily spend and let the balance climb to 50-60% UTI. This is free money that I can invest and hopefully make more than 0% return. I have quite a bit of investments so the risk of not being able to pay the CC off in full at the end of the introductory period is negligible. I earn money with cash back offers and earn money by having my money invested. I make money on both ends. Having a high UTI on the card kills my scores but once it is paid back after the introductory period they snap back allowing me to get another CC with a high starting CL.