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@Kforce wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:I would like to determine utilization levels necessary to take my scores below 700. I would also like to see impact of reporting +90 % UT on just 1 card for a month. Unfortunately, I can't afford that kind of spend.
Sure you could if you did that evil thing : Lower a cards CL.
You just found that good reason and discovered the bad side of high CL's
Perhaps I could. However, I'll heed my own advice not to pursue CLDs - particularly once retired and on fixed income. Future CLIs are unlikely for me. Gotta plan for ongoing erosion of CL purchase power.
Of course, I could get a new, low limit, test card. Well, perhaps not. I'm fond of my 13 year AoYA and 23 year AAoA.
The test is not worth it.
I was just a joke.
@Kforce wrote:The test is not worth it.
It was just a joke.
So I gathered.
Still, it gave me pause. A low limit test card could provide some entertainment. If my newest account was only 2 years old, I might consider getting one. However since it is 13 yo, I'd rather go for a 15 year AoYA milestone and reach 25 years AAoA.
I lost it temporarily.
My purpose for getting into this was to improve my credit so I could buy a Corvette.
My scores were in the 685-715 range. I built them up to where they were 785-835 in every score that could matter outside of mortgages. (The mortgage algorithms never liked me.) FICO 8 was 804/790/797. I bought the 'Vette. I stopped checking my scores every day. Found it a chore to check account balances every day like I had been. I didn't care. I got what I wanted.
As I approached six months with no inquiries, I started jonesin' for ONE new card. Got back into it.
Got approved for a new card and immediately started thinking about squeezing another in there. Citi pulled Eq. What else could I get that pulls Ex and/or TU that I could apply for before the new Citi card reports? How long to get to what point in my x/6, x/12, x/24? Do I wait until then? Or do I try to grab another one before this card reports? Wait. I can wait 6 months. I'll be 0/6, 1/12, 4/24 and I can get anything I want. But I could probably sneak another one in NOW. . . . What are the scores today? Why hasn't this updated yet? What's the SUB on this card? Do I need it? Can I later PC it to something I'd rather have? Does it have an annual fee? Is it waived for the first year? Why hasn't TU updated? Eq and Ex are showing updated scores. . . .
An 850 isn't even worth trying for because it means you owe people money with interest on a lot of different types of loans and as soon as you pay them off, your score goes down even if you didn't do anything wrong.
It's a reward for being in debt all the time and losing $100,000 in bank interest. Oh boy.
I would have to say some of the thrill of and struggle has dropped a bit once my baddies fell off and i finally hit my goal score of 800's across the board now I'm just concentrated on maintaining what I've accomplished although i cannot lie it would be cool to see 850 but I'm not going out of my way for that right now
I would say $100k in liquid assets and being completely debt free would do more for me than any max credit score. I would like to have better credit than the 570-ish I'm at now on my highest, but anything above 740 would be diminishing returns. Of course now I have neither, but hope to attain the 100k within 5-10 years, with debt free a lot sooner. We'll see.
It depends on your focus at that point. What are you trying to get out of your score? A perfect or near perfect score? A beacon that few can achieve, or instead maybe a smorgasboard of opportunity available to you today? No one should actually care after a certain point of score and credit reached, but it has to be personalized to be something you want to earn for a very specific purpose.
In my profile, I call out my score of 800+, but it's more accurately much higher. In life, we go to work. We earn an income, and we provide for our families very adequately. We know how much we earn, how much we owe, and how much is left over. More than adequate.
But, with credit, especially fantastic credit, there are lenders just wanting to provide to you weeks of free vacation, or free airline miles, or free anything, that you can't easily achieve otherwise. No one wants to go and pull a second job, but if it was made free via your FICO score, simply by shuffling around information and financials, that's different. That's an accomplishment, along with a little motivation.
I don't aim for a specific score. I aim for the end result. You don't have to lose drive, if you understand that your score is only a tool. Take care of the tool, and it will serve you for life.
I remember being near obsessed with checking my scores constantly when I was in my initial rebuild, and I had a hard time getting my scores over 660. That all changed when I got my mortgage, and when my scores were consistently in the mid-700s with pretty good limits, which I was very happy with, I was brought down to earth by realizing that even with much better scores, I was not in the financial shape I wanted to be. I had more credit card debt than I liked, so I took the notion of "finances over FICO" to heart. By the time I got rid of most of my consumer debt in 2023 and solely had (and still have) my student loans and mortgage to contend with, all my FICO 8s had cracked 800, but the scores weren't what I celebrated. I celebrated having my financial house more in order than it had ever been. Life has happened since that stalled that progress a bit, but since then, I watch my scores for amusement and not much else. I care far more about where my balances stand than where my scores are.
@blossom_rebuilding wrote:I remember being near obsessed with checking my scores constantly when I was in my initial rebuild, and I had a hard time getting my scores over 660. That all changed when I got my mortgage, and when my scores were consistently in the mid-700s with pretty good limits, which I was very happy with, I was brought down to earth by realizing that even with much better scores, I was not in the financial shape I wanted to be. I had more credit card debt than I liked, so I took the notion of "finances over FICO" to heart. By the time I got rid of most of my consumer debt in 2023 and solely had (and still have) my student loans and mortgage to contend with, all my FICO 8s had cracked 800, but the scores weren't what I celebrated. I celebrated having my financial house more in order than it had ever been. Life has happened since that stalled that progress a bit, but since then, I watch my scores for amusement and not much else. I care far more about where my balances stand than where my scores are.
FICO scores don't change based on how well you're doing financially. If you won the lottery today and got a billion dollars, your FICO score wouldn't go up a single point.
It's a score that rates how much of what kind of debts you're in, and how reliable you've been about paying debts. It gives, as "negative reason codes", punishment for not taking on credit cards, car loans, and a mortgage, even if taking on those particular things would make no sense in your situation, and would hurt you.
It is not a "winning with money" score. I've had a 806 FICO score with $1,000 in the bank, and a 590 with $40,000 in the bank. It loved that when I only had $1,000, that I had a car loan that was killing me.
I finally realized that FICO is not a measure of financial health, it's a reward for utter stupidity. The car loan ended up being a significant part of my eventual bankruptcy, which brought the stupid FICO score down much lower than had I never had a car loan.