(I originally posted some of this information in the 'Understanding FICO Scoring' section.)
Cut to the chase: 1YR 13DAYS credit history, $68,000/yr salary, 1 secured loan on report, never a derogatory, Transunion FICO 8 726 at application. Approved for $2000CL/15.75% APR.
Yesterday, December 20, 2018, I applied for a credit card for the first time in my life. I am 47 years old, making $68,000/yr and the only 'credit account' I have ever had was a secure loan this past year through my credit union (just made the 12th and final payment yesterday) . Never a bankruptcy, derogatory...nothing - just 11 months of perfect payment history (yesterday's final payment not on report yet) on that secured loan at time of application.
Scores at time of application:
- Credit Karma: [Vantage Score 3.0], Transunion 634, Equifax 658 (As of December 20, 2018)
- Creditscorecard.com (Discover) [FICO 8]: Experian 687 (As of December 4, 2018)
- myFICO: Transunion only, FICO 8 666 / FICO Bankcard Score 8 626 (As of December 4, 2018)
(I am aware that Vantage Scores don't mean much. I'm posting all the scores I found online so others in a similar situation can see what happens with approval when you have those scores.)
Total length of credit history at time of application: 1 year and 13 days. That's exactly how long I had a $500 secure loan with my credit union, paying around $42 a month on it to show an excellent payment history on my credit report.
Total accounts on credit report: One (1). Just that $500 secured loan.
When my credit union did the 'hard pull', my Transunion FICO 8 score came back at 726. So, 16 days prior, myFICO had that FICO 8 from Transunion at 666. On my other post, user tmr commented: "So it seems you may have passed the 1 year mark between the last time your myFICO report was generated (2 weeks ago) and your credit app."
I have no idea how my score went up 60 points in 16 days. I made the final payment on that secured loan mere minutes before they did the hard pull for the new credit application. I can't believe that my Transunion score would update that quickly due to that payment, but who knows anymore. I think 'tmr' is probably right.
[EDIT]: I looked at the myFICO report generated on December 4, 2018 and under the What’s hurting your FICO® score section it says:
Your oldest account was opened: 1 Year ago
FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 25 years ago, on average.
Average age of your accounts: 1 Year
Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts of 9 years or more.
Also, @CreditGuyInDixie replied to my other post:
BTW, your score likely went up in part because your loan reported a very low positive balance compared with the original loan amount. If you look at a recent report you will see that your loan is less than 8.99% of its original amount, but still reads as open with a small positive balance. The month before your loan balance was likely > 9.01%. The 9% figure is a breakpoint for where you get a scoring bonus.
That's gotta be it. So it looks like I went in to apply for my first credit card at just the right time - with only one single $42 payment left on a $500 secured loan. I did make the final payment on it minutes prior to the hard pull, but there's no way I'd have a credit score drop that fast due to the loan being closed.
[END EDIT]
Also on the other post, oldman87 wondered if my credit union was using the same FICO 8 score as myFICO. At the time of application, and again today, I specifically asked what Transunion FICO version they used. They just said 'regular FICO 8' yesterday, and today when I asked specifically if it said something on their computer screen, they said 'FICO 8 Classic', if that means anything to anyone.
Today, December 21, 2018, I got a call back from my credit union and was approved for their 'rewards cash back' Mastercard with a $2000 credit line and a 15.75% APR.
I have never had a late payment, bankruptcy, derogatory, or any account listed on my credit report for my entire life until December 7, 2017, when I took out that $500 secured loan in order to build my credit. It seems to have worked well!
