topic Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8 in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 20:35:03 GMT

I'd like your take on this one based on your experience, @Thomas_Thumb.

I've always understood there to be 2 requirements in order to obtain a perfect 850 FICO 8 score...

1 - 3+ open bank cards

2 - An open installment loan

In short, an 850 could be arrived at with as few as 4 accounts.

Naturally there are other factors that can aid in hitting 850 like no scoreable inquiries, no revolvers opened in the last 12 months, AZEO, aging metrics being capped out, utilization optimized, etc. My perception however is that those shortcomings could be overcome (buffer) where the other two I listed could not be.

Does your understanding align with mine, or do you view it differently. What other "deal breakers" (if any) do you know that would prevent someone from an 850?

I'm assuming a clean file, of course

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

pizzadude — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 20:59:13 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
I'd like your take on this one based on your experience, @Thomas_Thumb.

I've always understood there to be 2 requirements in order to obtain a perfect 850 FICO 8 score...

1 - 3+ open bank cards
2 - An open installment loan

In short, an 850 could be arrived at with as few as 4 accounts.

Naturally there are other factors that can aid in hitting 850 like no scoreable inquiries, no revolvers opened in the last 12 months, AZEO, aging metrics being capped out, utilization optimized, etc. My perception however is that those shortcomings could be overcome (buffer) where the other two I listed could not be.

Does your understanding align with mine, or do you view it differently. What other "deal breakers" (if any) do you know that would prevent someone from an 850?

I'm assuming a clean file, of course

I'd guess that there's some minimum AAoA requirements to go along with this also - accounts have to be opened for some period of time before they'd be able to be eligible for a maxed out FICO score.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:16:41 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
I'd guess that there's some minimum AAoA requirements to go along with this also - accounts have to be opened for some period of time before they'd be able to be eligible for a maxed out FICO score.

I don't think that's the case, at least no where near the cap of 90 months that exists for AAoA. That's what I meant when I said certain factors can be overcome by "buffer" with FICO 8, which can be up to ~25 points or so. With most AAoA thresholds being "worth" around 3-5 points, one could theoretically have an AAoA that's 5-8 threhsold points below ideal and still boast an 850; that could be an AAoA of 4.5-5.5 years, for example. So while we could therefore state that an AAoA of (say) 4.5-5.5 years is required, I don't think that in most cases that metric is actually what's going to be holding someone back from hitting 850.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:20:38 GMT

Three revolvers and an installment loan on file is sufficient for a Fico 8, 850. The loan does not need to be open. 850 with a closed loan has been documented on EX a few times and EQ by Disdreamin back in 10/2015. See his thread "850 with newly opened accounts". [Side note: Disdreamin had multiple recently opened CCs. However, the only score to reach 850 was EQ - the new account HPs were all on TU and EX.]

Aging is a requirement directly and indirectly. There have been no reported Fico 8 850s with AoOA under 14.5 years or AAoA under 6.5 years that I have come across. Not sure there is a hard threshold on these 2 factors. I'd put minimums at 14 years AoOA and 6 years AAoA.

File thickness is important. Those with thick files can clearly achieve and retain 850s with more suboptimal conditions in play - such as a HP or even a new revolving account. In the case of adding a new revolver and holding 850, a thick, well aged, file with an open loan is manditory.

Once AoOA reaches 20 years, I don't believe greater aging (credit history) helps except as an anchor to minimize AAoA drops when new accounts are opened. Of course, thick files help with maintaining AAoA as well.

As we move into the era of VS4, file thickness takes center stage for achieving 850. That is also true with VS3. I've only seen one poster report VS3 850s. Iirc they had more than 15 accounts. I never came close on VS3 - plateau at 835 (8 cards with 7 open and, 2 mortgages with 1 open) and 828 (with 6 cards all open, 1 mortgage open). Mortgage now closed.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

JamesS84 — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:27:19 GMT

You need low credit utilization too. Time is a factor as well. It takes years.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 02:38:09 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb, that's interesting that you've seen an 850 with a closed loan (not open) on a 4 account profile. I wouldn't think that to be possible without the Amount of Debt bonus in place from the loan being open. The closed loan in question, do you recall the type? Do you recall the other profile factors like aging metrics on that 4 account profile?

Funny that you bring up VS3 850s. I've had them off and on for 3-4 years now. I fluctuate between 838 and 850 (almost always +12 and -12) from what appears to me to be a revolving dollars threshold point.

F8/9/10 have historically been much easier to cap at 850; I did it years earlier with those versions relative to VS3.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:06:57 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots

Congrats on the VS3 850s! That much more rare than Fico 8/9/10 850s.

As I recall, back in 2019 you used to report a VS3 plateau at 836. You must have bulked up since then.

How many open/closed cards and open/closed loans do you now have on file? Do you get a VS4 score? Also, what industry option 900s have you realized on F 8/9/10?

Side note: The "thin file" 850 poster without an open loan was Ubuntu or something like that. His posts were from 11/20/2015 in the "FICO high achievers who have a Fico score of atleast 760" thread iirc. He was a short timer poster during 2015-2016. He claimed to have 4 total open accounts -all cards at the time of his 850 and that his closed loan was no longer on file. He also mentioned having 2 AU cards that did not affect his utilization or Fico 8 score.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 02:58:40 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
He even claimed his closed loan was no longer on file.

@Thomas_Thumb

I'd seriously question anything he had to say then, as 850 being achieved without diversity of credit mix being satisfied? Highly doubtful, IMO.

Yes, in 2019 I don't recall my VS3s ever going above 836 or 838. A couple of years later, 841 was a common score I saw. I've never seen a score in the 842-849 range.

Overall, not much has changed with my profile since 2019. At the time I had 7 revolvers, where I have 9 now. My oldest dropped off since then; in 2019 my AoORA was 18 years, where now it's only 11. I had 2 closed cards on file then, where now I have 2. I had both an open and closed mortgage on file in 2019, where now I just have the open one (the closed one fell off). I had 2 closed auto loans on my file in 2019, now I only have one. I opened a HELOC in 2021, so that wasn't on my reports in 2019. It has sat idle, unused / never drawn upon since being opened to this day. My AAoA back then was ~7 years, where it's now > 8 years. I can't think of anything else noteworthy, but if you can think of anything I may be overlooking let me know.

I used to get my VS4 through a Synchrony card I have, but my reports have been frozen for years and you can't get your score through them with your reports frozen. I want to say in 2020 or 2021 (the last time I saw my VS4) it was 845. I do remember it being higher than my VS3s at the time.

Industry option 900s I've seen have been EX BCE8, TU BCE8 and TU Auto 8. Those were all back in 2019-2021 though with AZEO in place. I haven't tried AZEO at any point in the last 4+ years / haven't done a 40 score pull when optimized, so I'd imagine my shot at more 900s is greater today. I have seen 850s across all 8/9/10 scores when not at AZEO though; they are all much easier to max IMO.

EDIT: This is what VS3 has looked like for me over the last year:

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 04:34:50 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots

Here is a link to Disdreamin's interesting thread discussing EQ 850 with multiple new/recent accounts on file. He has open loans at high B/L ratio along with a thick file. All HPs were on TU and EX and those scores could not regain 850. He provides good data.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/850-with-newly-opened-accounts/m-p/4293248#

Here is a link to Ubutu's posts on 850 with only 4 open CC accounts supposedly no closed loans remaining on file. He lists all 3 CRA F8 scores but, fails to tie them to the specific CRA. He mentions scores dropping to 820s when a couple new cards were opened. His discussion on score drops relating to no cards reporting and multiple cards reporting is spot on. So, he has some experience monitoing and analyzing scores.

He also shares an interesting observation about one of his AMEX charge accounts going inactive then losing points when it 1st reports again then later regaining them after the card has reported a 2nd or 3rd time. Over the years, others have reported score drops when an "inactive" accounts begins reporting activity. There are threads discussing this observed behavior.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Our-Forums-FICO-High-Achievers-Who-has-at-least-one-FICO-Score/m-p/4339069#M101635

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 03:12:56 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb in the first linked thread, it seems that the accounts opened were not credit cards, so scorecard reassignment to New Revolver was not incurred. Is that correct?

In the second if I'm reading it correctly, the profile contained no open or closed loan on file like you said and consisted of 3 credit cards and one charge card. The other part though that I think needs to be considered is that they stated that two AU accounts were present. We do know that AU accounts can artificially inflate scores, so I'd imagine they played a role in that data point provided.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:43:21 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb in the first linked thread, it seems that the accounts opened were not credit cards, so scorecard reassignment to New Revolver was not incurred. Is that correct?

In the second if I'm reading it correctly, the profile contained no open or closed loan on file like you said and consisted of 3 credit cards and one charge card. The other part though that I think needs to be considered is that they stated that two AU accounts were present. We do know that AU accounts can artificially inflate scores, so I'd imagine they played a role in that data point provided.

@BrutalBodyShots

In the 1st thread the OP mentions having 2 recently opened credit cards at 5 months age when he regained EQ 850. So, he was on the new account scorecard prior to the last 2 non revolver accounts being opened. This shows the ability to reach 850 on the new account scorecard with recently opened revolvers. [more evidence of achieving 850 on a new account scorecard]

Also, his aggregate B/L ratio (installment utilization is quite high). If you have an open mortgage (as the OP does), the installment utilization metric becomes rather inconsequential - atleast below 80%. I think a key point for the EQ 850 with multiple recent account openings IS no HPs assigned to EQ.

The other poster, who we conversed with in a recent thread, maintained 850 after opening a single new revolver while his loan was still open. I believe he held 850 on all 3 CRAs. I don't recall details on his HP(s).

Your 2019 accounts on file - is the below correct:

Open: 7 CC revolvers, 1 mortgage

Closed: 2 CC revolvers, 2 auto loans, 1 mortgage

Total: 13 accounts (8 open, 5 closed)

Regarding your current accounts on file - is the below correct:

Open: 9 CC revolvers, 1 mortgage loan, 1 HELOC

Closed: 2 CC revolvers, 1 auto loan

Total: 14 accounts (11 open, 3 closed)

What is your oldest account on file, open or closed, and what is its age? IIRC it is a loan. Credit history (Age of file) is what I am interested in, not oldest revolving account per se.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 03:59:45 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
What is your oldest account on file, open or closed, and what is its age? IIRC it is loan.

@Thomas_Thumb

Yes, all of that current info is correct. My oldest account currently is a mortgage at ~16 years. My oldest account in 2019 was a revolver at ~18 years.

Understood that they were on a New Revolver scorecard in that first linked thread.

So, it appears that 850 is attainable with either no open installment loan (arguably, no installment loan closed, either) OR while on a New Revolver scorecard. Does that sound correct?

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:47:03 GMT

Yes. However, the HP(s) are a factor that merits further study.

Regarding, the revolver only file reaching 850 - it is an outlier that I tend to discount. The OP was going from memory. I understand the closed loan was quite old but ... could it still have been on file even after 10 years. Bottom line, without a couple more independent data points, I remain skeptical on CC only 850s even if one is a charge account. The AU accounts were stated to be CCs as well.

In 4 years I'll be a revolver only profile and can add a data point. Not sure if Fico 8 will still be in use. I may have joined the anonymous by then as well.

BTW - Nice VS3 graph. Does EQ VS3 follow the same pattern and reach 850 as well? Too bad you don't currently get VS4 for comparison.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 11:53:49 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

BTW - Nice VS3 graph. Does EQ VS3 follow the same pattern and reach 850 as well? Too bad you don't currently get VS4 for comparison.

@Thomas_Thumb

The EQ graph looks very similar. It has the same 850 peak and valleys, but the timing is slightly different I assume due to when CK does their pulls. TU has always pulled daily / every time I log in, but EQ seems to be less frequently for whatever reason.

Interestingly enough, I've never seen 850 on EX VS3. Since we know that VS3 is the same across all 3B with the same input data, it means my EX report data must differ from my TU/EQ data. I know I had another CC on my EX report (Blispay from back in the day) that only reported there, but beyond that didn't think there was a difference. I'm going to have to revisit those reports and compare.

As for VS4, I could always unfreeze my one credit report for a couple of months which would allow VS4 scores from Sychrony for a bit. I could do that just long enough to see an 850/838 swing on VS3 and see how it corresponds to VS4.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:51:26 GMT

Differences in QTY of HPs among CRAs? VantageScore counts them for 2 years. Also look for differences in closed vs open status on listed accounts - particularly loans.

If you get motivated to pull a 3B sometime, consider dropping to AZE1 or AZE2 before pulling to maxamize potential for BCE and Auto 900s. The "900 Club" thread is locked but you can review the yes/no table. Also, no one has offered comparative industry option data on Fico 10.

P.S. My favorite thread soliciting data on "perfect" Fico scores is: "Scoring a Perfect 300". It's actually not possible but, the thread included a memorable post by Jamie123 describing how to earn a Fico 350.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 02:19:13 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Differences in QTY of HPs among CRAs? VantageScore counts them for 2 years. Also look for differences in closed vs open status on listed accounts - particularly loans.

@Thomas_Thumb I think you nailed it with the inquiry. Silly me, I forgot I had one on EX, as it was my first in 4+ years (on any bureau). I've got one on EX and none on TU/EQ. What's curious though is that I've seen 850 on VS for at least 3-4 years now, so before I took on the EX inquiry (last year). While it explains the lack of 850 today, it doesn't explain it prior to taking on the inquiry. There's still got to be something I'm overlooking...

I probably should try an AZEO stint again since it's been a LONG time since doing so. I do think I'd nail a few more 900s at this stage of the game.

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

EW800 — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 21:42:08 GMT

Just sharing what has worked for me to have 850's across the board - no surprises, pretty much what we already know.

I have about a dozen revolving accounts, as listed in my profile/signature. I have found that I can have up to two or three accounts show a small balance, which I assume is because of the number of open revolving accounts that I have. I pay all but about two accounts to zero just before the statements cut. The two or so accounts that I allow to show balances are typically only $20-$30, but at times may be up to $200 or so, so well below 1% utilization. I went several years with no installment loans, so FICO 8 scores of about 830-835 was about the best I could do. When I took out the mortgage, I dipped a few points for a few months, but within about six months of opening the mortgage I have been able to keep 850's across the board, although ever now and then one of them will go down two points or so, possibly if I allow three revolvers to report. I have not had any inquiries in just over three years.

All that I have accomplished is thanks to the people of this amazing forum!

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

BrutalBodyShots — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 03:52:42 GMT

@EW800 wrote:
I have found that I can have up to two or three accounts show a small balance, which I assume is because of the number of open revolving accounts that I have. I pay all but about two accounts to zero just before the statements cut. The two or so accounts that I allow to show balances are typically only $20-$30, but at times may be up to $200 or so, so well below 1% utilization.

Hey @EW800, is there a particular reason why you roll with that micromanagement approach rather than allowing your balances to simply report organically?

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

EW800 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 04:26:35 GMT

Hey @EW800, is there a particular reason why you roll with that micromanagement approach rather than allowing your balances to simply report organically?

Hi BBS,

Good question. My wife and I went through really difficult times in 2011/2012 and had credit scores as low as the low 500's. We worked really hard for several years to turn that ship around and improve our scores, and more importantly eliminate debt. Following that, I have admittedly become a bit OCD trying to have the highest scores I can. I know in reality there really is not much of a benefit to 850's compared to high 700's or so, but it has been kind of an obsession with having the high scores. A bit crazy, I know.

Hope you are well!

Re: Minimum requirements for 850 on FICO 8

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 14:59:22 GMT

@EW800 wrote:

Hey @EW800, is there a particular reason why you roll with that micromanagement approach rather than allowing your balances to simply report organically?
Hi BBS,

I have admittedly become a bit OCD trying to have the highest scores I can. I know in reality there really is not much of a benefit to 850's compared to high 700's or so, but it has been kind of an obsession with having the high scores. A bit crazy, I know.

@EW800

Keeping up with those industry option 900s? Years ago after your last derog fell off, you listed 3 - screen shot pasted in "900 club" thread