topic So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

ncscgirl2005 — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:54:23 GMT

As you can see in my signature line, I am fairly close to the 800 club.

I have no idea what else I can do to bump these babies up. Any suggestions?

Equifax said the only negative thing affecting my score is a late payment 5 years, 8 months ago.

Transunion said the only negative thing affecting my score is average age of accounts which is 7 years (my oldest account was opened over 11 years ago).

I currently only use 1% of my total CL and I pay my CC in full each month. I have not applied for any new credit in the past 2 years. I don't have a mortgage or any car payments.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

MarineVietVet — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:09:39 GMT

@ncscgirl2005 wrote:
As you can see in my signature line, I am fairly close to the 800 club.

I have no idea what else I can do to bump these babies up. Any suggestions?

Equifax said the only negative thing affecting my score is a late payment 5 years, 8 months ago.

Transunion said the only negative thing affecting my score is average age of accounts which is 7 years (my oldest account was opened over 11 years ago).

I currently only use 1% of my total CL and I pay my CC in full each month. I have not applied for any new credit in the past 2 years. I don't have a mortgage or any car payments.

Congrats on your scores. As your score gets higher the nitpicking really begins and for the most part can simply be ignored. I see a couple of things that might make a difference. When that last late payment finally goes away at the 7 year mark (it could go away sooner) that might help a little and if you only have revolving accounts you might see a small ding because FICO likes to see a mix of credit. However that mix is only 10% of your total score but might put you into 800 territory. But I would never go into debt just for a few FICO points.

You're doing just fine. Just relax and let everything age. A score of 760+ is considered a FICO High Achiever so anything above that is just for bragging rights.

From a BK years ago to:

9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
3/10 EQ- 800
4/10 TU -772

You can do the same thing with hard work

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Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

fused — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:10:56 GMT

Your scores are great, but I understand how you're feeling, I went through the same thing. Do you only have one CC?

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

ncscgirl2005 — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:36:55 GMT

Thank you.

EEK! I have like 17 accounts reporting on my CR (I went a little crazy opening accts back in my early 20s). I have primarily been using only one CC since I paid off my CC debt earlier this year.

Two of them are from auto loans that have been paid off since 2005 and 2006 and the rest are CCs (some store cards).

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

marty56 — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:14:18 GMT

Try 0% util on TU and see what happens. If that doesn't help it is easy to allow a balance to report next month.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

MarineVietVet — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:57:24 GMT

@ncscgirl2005 wrote:
Thank you.

EEK! I have like 17 accounts reporting on my CR (I went a little crazy opening accts back in my early 20s). I have primarily been using only one CC since I paid off my CC debt earlier this year.

Two of them are from auto loans that have been paid off since 2005 and 2006 and the rest are CCs (some store cards).

I have 36. I forget whether it was EQ or TU that told me I have "too many accounts". But I don't care.

You need to get going to catch me.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

smallfry — Thu, 06 May 2010 23:42:39 GMT

@marty56 wrote:
Try 0% util on TU and see what happens. If that doesn't help it is easy to allow a balance to report next month.

TU might like it but I hear EQ will not. All things considered I would rather play to EQ than TU98. I think you are over 800 with that late off the reports. Very good scores with a negative. Congrats. Hey for giggles and maybe a bit more insight why not pull a myFICO12 and get the other 3 negatives holding you back?

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

fused — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:07:40 GMT

@ncscgirl2005 wrote:

Thank you.

EEK! I have like 17 accounts reporting on my CR (I went a little crazy opening accts back in my early 20s). I have primarily been using only one CC since I paid off my CC debt earlier this year.

Two of them are from auto loans that have been paid off since 2005 and 2006 and the rest are CCs (some store cards).

So, only one CC is reporting a balance on your reports?

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

Anonymous — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:58:46 GMT

smallfry wrote: Hey for giggles and maybe a bit more insight why not pull a myFICO12 and get the other 3 negatives holding you back?

That's a truly twisted form of entertainment!

ncsc - just to clarify, I'm a huge fan of myfic.com/12. It's just a jolt to the system to see four neg's and 0 positive factors - which is what you'll see there. Make sure you have a slurpee or something to cool you down after you've pulled. They're the same four reason codes your lenders would see. The info is invaluable, though. And smallfry is right, it might give you a little insight into what may be holding you back.

I still haven't been able to laugh about the first time I pulled mine, though. Maybe in about two years.

I've got to agree to MVV - you're good. Exhale. Party! If you can't and feel like you have to attack it, pull the /12. It'll be invigorating, if nothing else.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

ncscgirl2005 — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:27:25 GMT

Sounds like I may need more than a Slurpee if I pull that myfico.com/12. I think I'll pass for right now but thanks's for the entertainment offer. I'm watching Real Houswives of New York right now so that's plenty of entertainment.

I only had one CC reporting. I took the advice of Marty56 and I just paid it off so it will report a $0 balance.

I guess we'll see what happens. If I take a ding from EQ from doing this I will keep letting a small balance report and leave things as is. I don't plan on opening any new lines of credit soon so I have time to recover if my score takes a ding.

Thank you all for your advice.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

Anonymous — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:56:52 GMT

My impression is, credit card utilization calculations are based on your balances as of the closing date(s), and FICO doesn't know or care if you pay it in full during the grace period or not. Next, they'll ding you for not using your credit cards at all (zero balance on closing date), and they'll ding you for having balances on more than one card. Plus, you don't get any available credit dollars assigned to any of your signature cards (cards without a fixed reporting limit).

The strategy that has maximized our scores is:

• pay all credit cards except one (using on-line banking transfers) BEFORE their closing dates down to a zero balance.

• for that final card, pay it BEFORE its closing date down to anywhere from $1 to $100.

I do this 4 times per year (for example, in June, because the June statements are used to send me my member's quarterly July FICO score). I would also do it for any month where I knew my credit was going to be pulled by a lender or insurance company the next month.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

ncscgirl2005 — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:46:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My impression is, credit card utilization calculations are based on your balances as of the closing date(s), and FICO doesn't know or care if you pay it in full during the grace period or not. Next, they'll ding you for not using your credit cards at all (zero balance on closing date), and they'll ding you for having balances on more than one card. Plus, you don't get any available credit dollars assigned to any of your signature cards (cards without a fixed reporting limit).

The strategy that has maximized our scores is:
• pay all credit cards except one (using on-line banking transfers) BEFORE their closing dates down to a zero balance.
• for that final card, pay it BEFORE its closing date down to anywhere from $1 to $100.

I do this 4 times per year (for example, in June, because the June statements are used to send me my member's quarterly July FICO score). I would also do it for any month where I knew my credit was going to be pulled by a lender or insurance company the next month.

Thank you.

I guess it would help to know when the closing dates on my cards are! LOL! I just pay the bill when the statement comes or the first of the month (whichever comes first).

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

smallfry — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:07:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My impression is, credit card utilization calculations are based on your balances as of the closing date(s), and FICO doesn't know or care if you pay it in full during the grace period or not. Next, they'll ding you for not using your credit cards at all (zero balance on closing date), and they'll ding you for having balances on more than one card. Plus, you don't get any available credit dollars assigned to any of your signature cards (cards without a fixed reporting limit).

The strategy that has maximized our scores is:
• pay all credit cards except one (using on-line banking transfers) BEFORE their closing dates down to a zero balance.
• for that final card, pay it BEFORE its closing date down to anywhere from $1 to $100.

I do this 4 times per year (for example, in June, because the June statements are used to send me my member's quarterly July FICO score). I would also do it for any month where I knew my credit was going to be pulled by a lender or insurance company the next month.

Not sure about the 1-100 reporting balance on that one card but 1 card reporting seems best for me too. I will try letting a few bucks report and see if I can squeeze a point or two out of EQ.

Re: So Close to the 800 club. What else can I do?

MarineVietVet — Sat, 08 May 2010 03:01:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My impression is, credit card utilization calculations are based on your balances as of the closing date(s), and FICO doesn't know or care if you pay it in full during the grace period or not. Next, they'll ding you for not using your credit cards at all (zero balance on closing date), and they'll ding you for having balances on more than one card. Plus, you don't get any available credit dollars assigned to any of your signature cards (cards without a fixed reporting limit).

The strategy that has maximized our scores is:
• pay all credit cards except one (using on-line banking transfers) BEFORE their closing dates down to a zero balance.
• for that final card, pay it BEFORE its closing date down to anywhere from $1 to $100.

I do this 4 times per year (for example, in June, because the June statements are used to send me my member's quarterly July FICO score). I would also do it for any month where I knew my credit was going to be pulled by a lender or insurance company the next month.

I don't believe this is a good strategy for those who have a card with a small credit limit to have a balance as high as $100. For example if the CL is $250 which is typical for rebuilder cards and you show a balance of $100 each month your uitilzation will be 40% which is much too high.

In my opinion optimal credit utilization for FICO scoring purposes seems to be:
Total revolving and individual utilization > 0 and < 9%, the lower the better, and
Reporting a balance on less than half of your revolving TL's, and
Reporting a balance on half or less of all TL's.

But sometimes it takes awhile to figure out what works best for each individual.