topic Re: how do i get to 800? in General Credit Topics

how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:26:35 GMT

how do i get to 800? my current fako is 767.

credit lines, 6 open:

-credit cards, 2, UTIL is zero% I PIF always:

citi, 4-yrs-old (CLI about $8k)

amex, 8-yrs-old (CLI about $11k) about to apply for 3x CLI but to get to $25k

-car: 2-yr-old loan

-student loans, 3, 8-yr-old loans: about $40k total

credit lines, 14 closed:

random assortment (approx average 7.5-yr age)

1 baddie:

co-signed for my mom, she was late 32 days ONCE. 3-yrs ago. this has been paid in full.

inqueries:

5 total, but 3 will wipe off in 12 days

I will appreciate any advice

Re: how do i get to 800?

Josh2942 — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:34:28 GMT

You will get an 800 with a lot more time. Your AAoA credit would probably be close to 10 years. You will have no student loan debt. Your utilization will always be under 10%. You have cards with limits over $10k and you will have a mortgage that is probably midway though with no baddies and no INQs. My grandma has an 825 FICO's almost across the board and that's her credit portfolio.

Re: how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:39:35 GMT

that is a great point.

but i ask only to be more productive?

i was thinking of acquiring more credit through my current credit cards, adding an additional amex and backdating is also in the plans. and then staying put. agreed?

Re: how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:49:22 GMT

1. Avoid derogatories.

2. Keep utilization very low (less than 10% on one card).

3. Only apply for credit you really want and need. Don't get lots of cards simply because you can, or to eke out the last bit of rewards.

4. Don't worry about the "mix of credit types" angle unless it's a natural fit to get an installment loan or mortgage.

5. Get a CU card for financing and emergency purposes (low APRs, no fees, BTs, etc.).

Re: how do i get to 800?

lg8302ch — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:55:30 GMT

It can be done with AAoA of 4yrs, quite many new accounts and inq, but perfect payment history and no badies. All I have is revolving accounts on my CR, no installment loan, no mortgage, no car loan, no student loans, etc....just the cards in my signature and I crossed the 800 border to 802 with optimal number of accounts reporting. Right now I am testing how far I drop with reporting balances on my accounts, overall util is 4% and this was pretty much the same as with 802 but only 1 account reporting a balance the rest to 0. In May I will see if I can make it back up and cross the 800 line just by optimal reporting...LOL.. I am curious myself to see if Fico has really no memory

Re: how do i get to 800?

B335is — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 02:58:07 GMT

TU was the only CR I ever hit 800+ with. I had no negs, fewer than 3 inq, util 1%, AAoA 3yrs, 2 yrs into a 3 yr auto lease. EX and EQ popped above 800 a few times but never managed to keep it there very long. TU was at 815 for 6+ months, now its dipped to 779 with new accts including new auto lease.

Re: how do i get to 800?

clocktick — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 03:24:20 GMT

Do you know your real FICO scores?

Re: how do i get to 800?

-Wade- — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 03:48:16 GMT

@lg8302ch wrote:
It can be done with AAoA of 4yrs, quite many new accounts and inq, but perfect payment history and no badies. All I have is revolving accounts on my CR, no installment loan, no mortgage, no car loan, no student loans, etc....just the cards in my signature and I crossed the 800 border to 802 with optimal number of accounts reporting. Right now I am testing how far I drop with reporting balances on my accounts, overall util is 4% and this was pretty much the same as with 802 but only 1 account reporting a balance the rest to 0. In May I will see if I can make it back up and cross the 800 line just by optimal reporting...LOL.. I am curious myself to see if Fico has really no memory

No it does not have a memory............3 1/2 years ago i was a victim of ID theft with 11 CO and 1 judgement and none of them were mine . It took me over a year to get all them off with 10 or 11 police reports and all i had on my report was an old close Amex acount from 2001. I have less than 10 accounts total and i am a member of the 800 club. I did just get a new TL that has not reported yet !!! so i will have to wait and see what my scores will be when it reports ..But i wll be back in the 800 club soon if it

knocks me out

PS : AAoA is 6.4 years oldest account which is the 2 Amex accounts backdated to 2001

Re: how do i get to 800?

vanillabean — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:23:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
how do i get to 800?

Don't be late. Ever.

@Josh2942 wrote:
My grandma has an 825 FICO's almost across the board and that's her credit portfolio.

Which FICO flavors would they be?

Re: how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 06:00:09 GMT

I was able to cross the 800+ mark with a profile similar to yours. I had two cards active, 1 closed but still reporting and two student loans reporting. I think the biggest factor holding you back is probably the baddie. I'd recommend trying a gw letter to try and get it removed. Besides that I had a slightly higher aaoa ( 7 yrs I think), 0 Inq, reported < 3% on one card and my amex was just bumped to 17k (requested the 25k but was countered $17). I did not have a car loan, mortgage, heloc etc.

You need a thick file to consistently take hard inq, new accounts and still maintain optimum scores. You can often see the members who are occasionaly adding to there portfolio have very good scores but fall short of 800 which I assume may at times be due to the impacts to aaoa for some. The rub is that with a thinner file and focusing on optimal scoring you may be impacted by a score reduction when you begin adding inq and new accounts. So the decision is whether to add accounts now and wait, or keep a thinner file and and go for optimal scorning. You could also do a combination of both. I do think there is often way to much emphasis put on the amount of credit that is needed to have 800+ scores. Also realize many members enjoy acquiring various cards because of perks, rewards, bonus and even the materials they are made of ( I'd like a csp but other than being cool is of no use for me). Acquiring new credit for those reasons do not necessarily correlate to what is needed for the 800 score if that is what your goal is.

best of luck!

Re: how do i get to 800?

takeshi74 — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 12:17:44 GMT

Why are you looking to get over 800? Best offers are generally given at ~750+. Also, if you're going to fixate on scores you should really be looking at FICO's and not FAKO's.

Consider all the standard factors that go into scoring:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

You can also refer to the FICO Scoring subforum for more details.

@Anonymous wrote:

-credit cards, 2, UTIL is zero% I PIF always:

Ideal utilization isn't 0. It's ~10% or less but the specific percentage will vary from person to person. Generic recommendation is to only have 1 card reporting a balance of 10% or less for ideal scoring. IIRC 2-3 cards are recommended for ideal scoring as well.

PIF'ing doesn't necessarily mean that your reported utilization is 0. It will only be zero or reduced if you pay prior to statement close. If you're paying by the due date (and after statement end) then you still have balances reporting.

@Anonymous wrote:

1 baddie:
co-signed for my mom, she was late 32 days ONCE. 3-yrs ago. this has been paid in full.

Derogs (i.e. Payment History or 35% of your score) are always a major problem. Get this addressed as it is holding you back. See the rebuilding subforum.

@Anonymous wrote:
inqueries:

5 total, but 3 will wipe off in 12 days

With which CRA's and how many with each? You have 3 scores. Each based on data in your reports with the CRA's. Same goes with inquiries. With each CRA you have a number of inquiries.

Re: how do i get to 800?

mrgoattoo — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:17:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
how do i get to 800? my current fako is 767.

credit lines, 6 open:

-credit cards, 2, UTIL is zero% I PIF always:
citi, 4-yrs-old (CLI about $8k)
amex, 8-yrs-old (CLI about $11k) about to apply for 3x CLI but to get to $25k

-car: 2-yr-old loan

-student loans, 3, 8-yr-old loans: about $40k total

credit lines, 14 closed:
random assortment (approx average 7.5-yr age)

1 baddie:
co-signed for my mom, she was late 32 days ONCE. 3-yrs ago. this has been paid in full.

inqueries:

5 total, but 3 will wipe off in 12 days

I will appreciate any advice

My FAKO is always 25 points or so below the real FICO scores for some reason. I wouldnt use anything but a legitimate FICO for anything other than just monitoring your credit for changes.

As for getting 800 it seems to just take time and consistency. Ive been at this for about 7 years or so total trying to recover from what was probably a mid 500 score or so. Finally in the last month or so I got to the 800 mark. There doesnt seem to be any legitimate way to rush it. It took longer to get thru the upper 700's than it did to get to the 760 range. For me anyway.

Re: how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:55:02 GMT

thanks all for the advice. just this process seems to be a bit inconsistent. while i understand that every CB calcs differently, i dont understand why they are not more transparent.

does anyone know how AAoA is calculated? for instance, is it weighed more favorably with open accounts or total (including closed)?

Re: how do i get to 800?

DaveSignal — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 20:08:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
thanks all for the advice. just this process seems to be a bit inconsistent. while i understand that every CB calcs differently, i dont understand why they are not more transparent.

does anyone know how AAoA is calculated? for instance, is it weighed more favorably with open accounts or total (including closed)?

It depends on the FAKO you are using. Credit Karma only calculates AAoA on open accounts. FICO includes open and closed. Depending on which FAKO you are trying to increase, there will be different tactics to getting it higher, as they are scored differently. This isn't really the right forum. I wouldn't really bother with the FAKO though, since it is really a useless score that nobody uses. My FAKO is 978!

We can help you increase your FICO score here though.

Re: how do i get to 800?

thom02099 — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 00:59:49 GMT

@takeshi74 wrote:
Why are you looking to get over 800? Best offers are generally given at ~750+. Also, if you're going to fixate on scores you should really be looking at FICO's and not FAKO's.

Consider all the standard factors that go into scoring:
http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx
You can also refer to the FICO Scoring subforum for more details.

@Anonymous wrote:

-credit cards, 2, UTIL is zero% I PIF always:
Ideal utilization isn't 0. It's ~10% or less but the specific percentage will vary from person to person. Generic recommendation is to only have 1 card reporting a balance of 10% or less for ideal scoring. IIRC 2-3 cards are recommended for ideal scoring as well.

PIF'ing doesn't necessarily mean that your reported utilization is 0. It will only be zero or reduced if you pay prior to statement close. If you're paying by the due date (and after statement end) then you still have balances reporting.

@Anonymous wrote:

1 baddie:
co-signed for my mom, she was late 32 days ONCE. 3-yrs ago. this has been paid in full.
Derogs (i.e. Payment History or 35% of your score) are always a major problem. Get this addressed as it is holding you back. See the rebuilding subforum.

@Anonymous wrote:
inqueries:

5 total, but 3 will wipe off in 12 days
With which CRA's and how many with each? You have 3 scores. Each based on data in your reports with the CRA's. Same goes with inquiries. With each CRA you have a number of inquiries.

+1 to everything that takeshi74 posted.

Also, for whatever reason, many folks report anecdotally a varying "sweet spot" for utilisation, that one percentage location that FICO seems to like best with YOUR individual credit history. For me, having recently reached that 800 figure (825 TU08), it was dropping my util from ~13% or so down to ~5% (actually just under). I've reached it before (EQ - 813 -- it's been a while!). But, at least for me, anymore the only thing it's good for is bragging rights! I'm not seeking new credit and don't plan to in the future. And as takeshi said, anything over 750 is not really going to gain anything...just gravy on the biscuit!!

Re: how do i get to 800?

vanillabean — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 02:18:28 GMT

@thom02099 wrote:

But, at least for me, anymore the only thing it's good for is bragging rights! I'm not seeking new credit and don't plan to in the future. And as takeshi said, anything over 750 is not really going to gain anything...just gravy on the biscuit!!

I recently discussed the 28/36 rule with a real estate agent, whose experience is that someone in the 800s will be allowed a good deal more flexibility with those percentages than someone at say 760.

Re: how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 06:42:38 GMT

Thank you all for the advice. I'm waiting to pull my fico - 3 inqs dropping in a week. I'll do it then. Thanks all for the great advice. I will keep you posted provided this venture keeps your interest. Also, 800 is my goal because I assumed it was the goal, but now I know better. In regards to the baddie, I have tried to remove it a bunch. Wells dealer service has not been warm

Re: how do i get to 800?

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 23:18:05 GMT

ok, some news: EQ fico 775. cant complain!

Re: how do i get to 800?

AndySoCal — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 01:20:42 GMT

The one thing that will slow your progress to 800 is the 30 day late. When that falls off the credit report you should be able to get 800. I agree with the other advice about not apping. Keep in mind higher credit limit does not equal higher scores. The credit limit only impacts the score is it impacts the credit untilization.

Re: how do i get to 800?

DaveSignal — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:06:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
ok, some news: EQ fico 775. cant complain!

Thasts fantastic! I imagine that my score would be around there if my report was clean.