topic Re: 800 With Only CCs in Understanding FICO® Scoring

800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:57:23 GMT

One of my goals is to acquire an 800+ FICO score. My main obstacle is that I don't have any loans: no mortgage, no car loans, no student loans. I had a mortgage for a few years, but that was 20 years ago. Never had a car loan or student loan. I lived the cash only life for quite a while and only recently started down the CC path the last 2 years.

So, my question is this: what metrics do I need to get to in order to go above 800? I have 100% payment history and $49,100 credit limit (accounting for being an AU on my wife's cards) with less than 2% utilization rate. My oldest account is 21+ years, but my average age is around 9 years. I guess that is due to the recent CCs.

What should my target goals look like?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

pizzadude — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:13:03 GMT

Hitting 800s without an installment loan is doable, probably your AAOA as you mentioned might be lower than ideal.

What do your FICO scores look like now ?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 16:51:17 GMT

Eq 8: 783 and Ex 8: 775

Re: 800 With Only CCs

GZG — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:01:58 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
(accounting for being an AU on my wife's cards)

for all AU cards, is at least one reporting a balance every month? otherwise you incur the all-zero AU penalty

but honestly, if you have no plans for another open loan in the next ~3 years, just get a 5-10 year PenFed or Navy Fed SSL

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Successful-PenFed-SSL-Loan/m-p/6773999

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/td-p/4506756

Deposit $3k, wait the 30 days (penfed only), take out the loan, pay it down to $2800 and you'll get all of the loan points for the next 5-10 years

Re: 800 With Only CCs

SouthJamaica — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:04:08 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
One of my goals is to acquire an 800+ FICO score. My main obstacle is that I don't have any loans: no mortgage, no car loans, no student loans. I had a mortgage for a few years, but that was 20 years ago. Never had a car loan or student loan. I lived the cash only life for quite a while and only recently started down the CC path the last 2 years.

So, my question is this: what metrics do I need to get to in order to go above 800? I have 100% payment history and $49,100 credit limit (accounting for being an AU on my wife's cards) with less than 2% utilization rate. My oldest account is 21+ years, but my average age is around 9 years. I guess that is due to the recent CCs.

What should my target goals look like?

I don't see any barrier to your reaching 800 and above in the near future, as long as you don't apply for new credit. I assume some of the credit cards are your own, rather than authorized user cards.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

FicoMike0 — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:16:50 GMT

Go bucks!

I'm in a similar situation. Recovering from credit retirement. Mortgage and car loans all over the 10 year event horizon. No baddies, but two years ago I was unscorable. My age metrics and fico scores are being propped up by a couple of accounts that closed about 8 years ago.

I started about 22 months ago, my longtime bank huntington fixed me up with their MasterCard and a $500 cl. This account then made me scorable. I'm up to 8 cards now, cl > $50k. I've been doing azeo, aze3 now.

My concern is that when those closed accounts disappear, my scores will crash. To guard against this, I opened a ssl with penfed. Got a 30-40 point boost, cost ~$10. I'm now above 800, except ex, at 794.

I'm planning to have my aoya pass 12 months about the same time I lose the old accounts.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:45:36 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
I don't see any barrier to your reaching 800 and above in the near future, as long as you don't apply for new credit. I assume some of the credit cards are your own, rather than authorized user cards.

Yes. I am the primary cardholder with the cards listed below. My wife has similar cards that I am AU on. The two Cap One cards are fee free and she just got them for the SUB. She got a second BCP because we max out the $6k grocery cap on both cards. I also wanted her to have some cards with her as the primary in case something happened to me (or vice versa). I would hate to have all my accounts closed and leave her scrambling to set up new accounts.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:52:09 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Go bucks!
I'm in a similar situation. Recovering from credit retirement. Mortgage and car loans all over the 10 year event horizon. No baddies, but two years ago I was unscorable. My age metrics and fico scores are being propped up by a couple of accounts that closed about 8 years ago.
I started about 22 months ago, my longtime bank huntington fixed me up with their MasterCard and a $500 cl. This account then made me scorable. I'm up to 8 cards now, cl > $50k. I've been doing azeo, aze3 now.
My concern is that when those closed accounts disappear, my scores will crash. To guard against this, I opened a ssl with penfed. Got a 30-40 point boost, cost ~$10. I'm now above 800, except ex, at 794.
I'm planning to have my aoya pass 12 months about the same time I lose the old accounts.

"Unscorable". That's exactly what happend to me two years ago. I was putting an addition on my house and tried to get some same-as-cash deal at Lowes and they rejected me. I was like, "Dude, I have zero debt and $70k sitting in my savings earmarked for this project and you are telling me I am a risk?" Needless to say I was ticked and decided to open an accout to get the score rolling. Your story seems similar to mine.

By the way, I just opned the Huntington Voice card. I plan to use it only for my utilites since I have my other big categories covered. What has your experinece been with that card & Huntington?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 03:47:00 GMT

A +800 Fico 8 or Fico 9 score can be achieved with no loans open or closed and no AU accounts. A couple credit cards will do the trick as long as you avoid HPs and opening of new accounts. Three cards is better.

When my daughter surpassed 800 with just 2 cards, her AoOA was over 5 years, AAoA was 5 years and AoYA was 5 years. No inquiries on file and utilization under 9%. I suspect AoOA needs to be 5 years, AAoA 3 years and AoYA 2 years for a squeaky clean, 2 card only, file to surpass 800. An AoYA of 1 mighy be sufficient with the OP's 4 cards.

A mostly paid down SSL (under 9% B/L) added to the 4 card file could drop time frame to 3 years for AoOA. However, adding a SSL would drop AAoA and AoYA.

* Note: Fico looks at AAoA and AoOA for installment loans independent of revolving accounts in scoring, not just aggregate B/L.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:58:31 GMT

@GZG

All-zero AU penalty? Could you explain this, please?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:04:59 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb

So, if this is true, it will be a few years before I get there. I opened my Quicksilver 2+ years ago, but the BCP, Voice, and SavorOne were all opened in 2024. Do you just add up the ages and divide the number by the number of accounts to get the average age or is there some weighting that goes on? (21+2+1+1+1)/5 will put me at an average of 5 or so, right?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:10:28 GMT

@FicoMike0

What is AZE3?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 02:23:03 GMT

The AU account CL and balance will not be included in Fico 8 and Fico 9 aggregate revolving credit utilizations for your file. Keep reported utilization on your cards below 9%. Atleast 1 card should report a statement balance.

AAoA is strictly an arithmetic average, no weighting. However, according to Fico, AU accounts might be excluded for scoring purposes. If not excluded, in 1 year your AoYA will reach 2 years, your AAoA is already above 3 years and AoOA is well above 5 years.

Side notes: you have 4 personal cards. Use the cards all you want but, keep balance(s) reporting on monthly statements low for highest scores. Don't fixate on practicing AZE1. No harm in reporting AZE2 as opposed to AZE1. However, try to avoid all cards reporting balances (AZE4 in your case). Also avoid AZ (all cards reporting $0)

Don't go crazy on AU account swapping. One AU account each is enough.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:25:36 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb

One thing I like about Cap One AU is that I see and can manage both wife's and my account with one login. AmEx is terrible with this. I have my account, she has hers, I have to make another username as her AU, and she has a separate AU login for my account. It sucks. I end up just logging in to her account on her phone to make payments because I am not going to remember 4 separate usernames just to see everything. I may drop the AUs on the AmEx cards and just keep the 2 Cap One AU accounts if they aren't really helping.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:31:33 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:

I opened a ssl with penfed. Got a 30-40 point boost, cost ~$10. I'm now above 800, except ex, at 794.

Could you be more specific on what/how much you did this loan thing?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

CreditCuriosity — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:45:22 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
@FicoMike0 wrote:

I opened a ssl with penfed. Got a 30-40 point boost, cost ~$10. I'm now above 800, except ex, at 794.
Could you be more specific on what/how much you did this loan thing?

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/SSL-Share-Secured-Loan-Technique/td-p/6371294

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:48:49 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
The AU account CL and balance will not be included in Fico 8 and Fico 9 aggregate revolving credit utilizations for your file. Keep reported utilization on your cards below 9%.

AAoA is strictly an arithmetic average, no weighting. However, according to Fico, AU accounts might be excluded for scoring purposes. If not excluded, in 2 years your AoYA will reach 3 years and your AAoA will be well above 5 years at that time. If excluded, it will be 4 years before your AAoA reaches 5 years.

Side notes: you have 4 personal cards. Use the cards all you want but, keep balance(s) reporting on monthly statements low for highest scores. Don't fixate on practicing AZE1. No harm in reporting AZE2 as opposed to AZE1. However, try to avoid all cards reporting balances (AZE4 in your case).

Don't go crazy on AU account swapping. One AU account each is enough.

Ok, bear with me since I am a noob. The last two years I have been making weekly payments to all my accounts (usually on Sat or Sun since my wife shops on Friday) and my accounts are almost always at zero by Monday morning. Like I said, I am a cash-only guy and have been my entire adult life. I don't buy it if I don't have the cash. What do I need to do to get achieve "not report zero" as you say? Are you talking about the account statement? Are you talking about when the credit reporting agencies update my report? And how do know when these occur?

Re: 800 With Only CCs

SouthJamaica — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:01:22 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
The AU account CL and balance will not be included in Fico 8 and Fico 9 aggregate revolving credit utilizations for your file. Keep reported utilization on your cards below 9%.

AAoA is strictly an arithmetic average, no weighting. However, according to Fico, AU accounts might be excluded for scoring purposes. If not excluded, in 2 years your AoYA will reach 3 years and your AAoA will be well above 5 years at that time. If excluded, it will be 4 years before your AAoA reaches 5 years.

Side notes: you have 4 personal cards. Use the cards all you want but, keep balance(s) reporting on monthly statements low for highest scores. Don't fixate on practicing AZE1. No harm in reporting AZE2 as opposed to AZE1. However, try to avoid all cards reporting balances (AZE4 in your case).

Don't go crazy on AU account swapping. One AU account each is enough.
Ok, bear with me since I am a noob. The last two years I have been making weekly payments to all my accounts (usually on Sat or Sun since my wife shops on Friday) and my accounts are almost always at zero by Monday morning. Like I said, I am a cash-only guy and have been my entire adult life. I don't buy it if I don't have the cash. What do I need to do to get achieve "not report zero" as you say? Are you talking about the account statement? Are you talking about when the credit reporting agencies update my report? And how do know when these occur?

FICO has an irrational policy of penalizing you for having all your revolving accounts report at zero balance. With most cards the statement balance is the reported balance. So it is preferable to let one card report a small balance, rather than a zero balance, to avoid the "All Zero Penalty".

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:05:37 GMT

@SouthJamaica

So, leave one account unpaid until I get the "Your Statement is Ready" email from them. Then pay it? Honestly, I don't even know when my account statements happen because my account are at zero 99% of the time.

Re: 800 With Only CCs

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:09:09 GMT

Regarding the SSL:

1. I give the $500

2. I then borrow $500

3. I then pay back $450

4. I wait 4.5 years and pay the last $50

Is that about right?

Oh, the $500 I gave them at the beginning is just sitting there unavailable for 5 years? I get that back when this all over, right? With interest I hope?