topic Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you? in General Credit Topics

What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 03:30:20 GMT

I thought this would be a fun thread just to see how opinions differ on this. We all know something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. So, my question quite simply is what would having 800 scores be worth to YOU?

Of course those that are already in the "excellent" range and already there this question doesn't apply. Certainly answers will differ based on profiles, how far away from excellent scores you currently stand, your income, your savings, etc.

So, if you could walk into a mythical credit boost hut where some guy hits a magic button that would propel you scores to all 800's, what would you be willing to pay for him for that instant result?

I'm thinking that after this thread gets some replies and we look at some of the numbers the moral of the story will simply be "don't mess up" to begin with as it really is the best policy and best tip you can give.

So, I'll start this off. My current FICO 08's are all in the 730's, and to get them to the 800's I would need a 90 day baddie and a 120 day baddie removed from my account. They will naturally age off in 4 years and 5.5 years, respectively. For me, it would be worth $2000 ($1000 per baddie) from my savings to have them eliminated. Of course if they were going to naturally fall off in a year or so it wouldn't be worth as much to me, but considering their impact and for the amount of time they'll continue to impact me I'd be willing to drop $2000 from my savings account to get rid of them.

Anyone else care to share what it would be worth to them to go from where they currently stand to excellent FICO scores across the board?

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 05:09:09 GMT

It's $55 per year for me.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 05:21:42 GMT

I will wait it out. Have no baddies, just newer accts. As they age to the 6 month mark, I think my chances of getting to 800 are very real. I gues what I'm trying to say is I would not pay anyone. I would wait it out as I have done for 18 months now. It's just slow and steady.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 07:23:07 GMT

I think there are 2 camps
1) people with good income and good cards that are waiting for past errors to fall off. BBS
2) Othere like sandibeach that are starting from scratch
I am in the 2nd group. Each month there is positive gains..slow but sure. It is easy to wait this way!

The 1st group has an agonizing wait. Nothing can be done but wait.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 07:44:07 GMT

I think these fantasy ideas do not belong in this realm.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 12:26:21 GMT

It's not a fantasy idea, just trying to determine much a great score is worth to some that don't have a great score. Trying to quantify it to me is interesting.

This thread was more targeted at those like me that have established profiles, no so much someone just starting out where a little time and good credit decisions will reap healthy and relatively quick rewards.

The amount that it's "worth" to have great scores increases greatly when one sees the need to apply for credit in the future. Take a mortgage for example. If someone is strongly looking to apply for a mortgage in say 1-2 years, it would certainly be "worth it" far more to them to have excellent credit scores than it would for someone that has no immediate desire to apply for credit. That's what I was getting at when I said the answer could be very different for everyone.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

RonM21 — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 14:19:36 GMT

OP as you stated "fun thread." And it does have substance because those 800 scores are a dream for a lot of people, and some are held back for various reasons where they must wait it out. During that time you imagine where you could be and wish you could do something to fix it now.

I'm in the same boat as you. I got scores in the same range, but have a Santander auto loan that they bought out in the last year. Suddenly I got several 30 day lates before I paid it off. They do not delete. This is from 2010. So next year....

Even still, I'd pay something to get it off. Maybe less then when I first started rebuilding a couple years ago, now that has aged and my profile improved.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 14:30:01 GMT

My current experience highlights the value of a higher score, so I thought I would share it as part of my response to your hypothetical:

I've recently purchased a new (used) car, and received dramatically different rates during my preapproval canvas of area credit unions. I attribute the difference to credit score.

Some background on my credit file

3 satisfied judgments set to begin coming off in the next 18 months or so - TU shows 0 of them, EQ shows 3, EX shows 1

1 30 day late, on an auto loan, from 2011, shows on all three reports

FICO 8s pulled the morning before I started apping

TU - 732

EQ - 697

EX - 700

The best and the worst preapprovals for 25k, 60 months

Best - Kellogg CCU, pulled TU. Note: just FYI, the score they reported to me was 738, so it seems Kellogg uses FICO score 4 for their UW.

2.24%, meaning $1450 in interest, if I financed the whole 25k

Their advertised rate at time of app - 1.99%

Worst - American 1 CU, pulled EX. I never asked their internal score, given that . . .

4.5%, meaning $2965 in interest, if I financed the whole 25k

Their advertised rate at time of app - 1.59%

So . . . What's a higher score worth? To me, given my very specific situation? About fifteen hundred dollars!

While I would never throw (away) money on a credit repair ~~scheme~~ company, I'm acutely feeling the benefit of a higher score.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 16:50:52 GMT

For the longest time I never could understand why they don't charge to be in a certain "score bracket" instead of taking 5-20 years to get to say 850.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

surferchris — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 16:57:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My current experience highlights the value of a higher score, so I thought I would share it as part of my response to your hypothetical:

I've recently purchased a new (used) car, and received dramatically different rates during my preapproval canvas of area credit unions. I attribute the difference to credit score.

Some background on my credit file
3 satisfied judgments set to begin coming off in the next 18 months or so - TU shows 0 of them, EQ shows 3, EX shows 1
1 30 day late, on an auto loan, from 2011, shows on all three reports

FICO 8s pulled the morning before I started apping
TU - 732
EQ - 697
EX - 700

The best and the worst preapprovals for 25k, 60 months
Best - Kellogg CCU, pulled TU. Note: just FYI, the score they reported to me was 738, so it seems Kellogg uses FICO score 4 for their UW.
2.24%, meaning $1450 in interest, if I financed the whole 25k
Their advertised rate at time of app - 1.99%

Worst - American 1 CU, pulled EX. I never asked their internal score, given that . . .
4.5%, meaning $2965 in interest, if I financed the whole 25k
Their advertised rate at time of app - 1.59%

So . . . What's a higher score worth? To me, given my very specific situation? About fifteen hundred dollars!

While I would never throw (away) money on a credit repair ~~scheme~~ company, I'm acutely feeling the benefit of a higher score.

Thanks for the good information.

Brutal, I would probably agree with Hapgood in that the value would be a discounted amount of the interest I would save by going from my current scores into the 800's.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Revelate — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 18:20:48 GMT

For me this varies based on the state of the overall credit market.

Actually currently, in everything but the mortgage space you could actually PAY ME to keep my current ~700ish scores; the fact is, 800 is kinda irrelevant right now - my poor, downtrodden benchmark score of EQ Beacon 5.0 is at 693... which is higher than the DCU maximum underwriting line for everything other than a mortgage or a HEL that I care about.

HELOC 3.25%; Auto loan whatever their best posted rate is which is usually close to best in the industry, both UW at a 675. Oh hurt me!

Also it seems clear Chase doesn't really care either, issued me yet another credit card yesterday bringing me up to 4 with a dirty file:

Freedom: 4K

CSP: 22K

IHG: 22K

FU: 22K

As a result, when I can sort my auto and HELOC needs at fantastic rates, and I can get everything I want from arguably the premier CC issuer, and to be clear other than having to recon the Freedom I've never once been denied for any CC application I've made. With the current market, not having an 800 just ain't a problem.

Back in 2010 though, none of this would've been possible and there an 800 would've been worth something; how much depends on what I needed at the time.

ETA: if you'd written this as what would you pay for a 700 in the current market, yeah, $, no doubt.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 21:34:28 GMT

I've been over 800 on two of mine; EX and TU. It was nice, but nothing I'd be willing to "pay" for.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 00:06:46 GMT

Revelate, so in the current market are you saying that one can obtain just as good an interest rate with a 700 score as an 800 score, or are you not talking mortgages?

I've always been under the impression that for the best mortgage rates you need 740-760. Maybe that was years ago though. I took out my last mortgage in 2004 so it has been a while.

Perhaps I shouldn't have quantified a score in the thread title. Instead a title such as "what would you pay for excellent credit" would suffice; basically to get from wherever you are... 550, 600, 650 etc. to the score you personally feel qualifies you for anything you'd ever want (best mortgage rate, auto loan rate, best CC's you desire, etc).

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Revelate — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 18:11:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Revelate, so in the current market are you saying that one can obtain just as good an interest rate with a 700 score as an 800 score, or are you not talking mortgages?

I've always been under the impression that for the best mortgage rates you need 740-760. Maybe that was years ago though. I took out my last mortgage in 2004 so it has been a while.

Perhaps I shouldn't have quantified a score in the thread title. Instead a title such as "what would you pay for excellent credit" would suffice; basically to get from wherever you are... 550, 600, 650 etc. to the score you personally feel qualifies you for anything you'd ever want (best mortgage rate, auto loan rate, best CC's you desire, etc).

I excluded mortgages in my statement heh, yes having below 740 or 760 when we're talking loan insurance does make a difference and jumbo loans are whatever the lender wants.

Everything else though, ain't no big thing imo. Many credit card products only have a singular rate now, and for transactors anyway (which we should all aspire to be here) APR is an irrelevant measurement anyway. Auto loans and HELOC's depending on lender can obtain tier 1 at a lower score than a 700 even, and be competitive with everyone else in the market too.

Admittedly, would make a difference in personal loans too, but that's not a terribly common product compared to even mortgages I suspect even on this forum let alone entire consumer base.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

takeshi74 — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 19:42:11 GMT

I've been around and just over 800 for a little while but I wouldn't pay anything if I was under. It didn't take me long to improve but most of my credit was already in good shape before I began working on it. Trying to rely on shortcuts and quick fixes seems to tend to get people in trouble. Those with less than good credit probably need to work on much more than just credit and include things like budgeting, building a liquid cash reserve for emergencies instead of relying on credit, saving for retirement., etc.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 01:04:00 GMT

There's certainly some truth to that, but there are exceptions to everything.

There are people out there with less than good scores because of 1 or 2 derogs that were completely out of their control or even that they were unaware even existed that have nothing to do with budgeting, ability to pay, etc. With the system the way it is, this person suffers for 7 years the same way someone that knowingly and intentionally acquired their derogs. To the person that may have been in the dark about their score getting bashed from 800 down to 620 that's looking toward a mortgage in the next year or two, to them, it certainly would be "worth" something to get back to their previous credit prowess.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 17:42:48 GMT

I'm with Revelate. I'm currently sitting at 745-767 which has given me the best rate on my new car purchase and decent CLI's on my credit cards. My loan balances are holding my scores down. Since I currently qualify for prime rates even if I was purchasing a house I really have no need for 800s right now so it doesn't have any $$$ value to me.

Re: What would you pay for 800's; what's it worth to you?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:56:17 GMT

Makes sense. Naturally, the higher ones scores the less value (diminishing returns) they'll likely see in raising their scores higher.