How Accurate? Jump to 850 in 6 Months?

[Anonymous]

I guess I’ll find out for sure in 6 months, assuming nothing materially changes on my report. The only thing I’m expecting is a new inquiry on EQ for this commercial loan. Could be another bureau or even several, but EQ is what they’ve done with me in the past. As I’ve said, the loan itself shouldn’t show up on my personal credit report, and I’m not expecting to app for any cards or anything else in the coming months.

Just to clarify, I’m 32 years old. I stupidly closed my oldest credit cards many years before I understood the consequences of doing so, and some have already fallen off my reports. The saving grace on my EQ and TU reports are the AU cards my mom added me to when I was very young, cards that in some cases I didn’t even know about and never used. Even though all of these accounts are closed and due to fall off in the near future, my current AoOA is artificially boosted by this for sure.

I have 4 student loans from 2015, paid down to below 9%. I have 8 active credit cards, and I keep my total utilization below 5%. (This is all stuff I’m fortunate to be able to do, but I would not have known to do this had I not learned all these little tricks from these forums which is pretty cool.) Even though I don’t expect that 850 score jump in 6 months, I’m awfully curious to see what happens and how close I’ll get.

Guess I’ll post back then.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for pointing out the 17+ AoOA and 7.5 AAoA minimums for an 850. Just to clarify for my own understanding, at least within the knowledge of the forums, are there no known cases of an 850 below these minimum thresholds?

---

Not that I've seen.  I started a thread once asking the youngest age at which someone reported an 850 score.  I think 36-37 was about the lowest age anyone "thought" they had heard of someone possessing an 850, but no one actually chimed in stating for sure that they knew of anything less than that.  And, it makes sense if you figure about the lowest age you can start your credit journey and then add 17-18 years for AoOA.  I was a young 39 when I hit my first 850 and by old 39 I had triple 850's.  That was with my AoOA at 17.x years, depending on bureau. 

[NRB525]

OP could you take another calculation of AoOA without AU accounts? If that is juiced by AU accounts that are due to fall off, the simulator cannot factor that in.

A simulator is most effective when there really is nothing expected that will change the file. For example, if one has a clean file with only high utilization, then a simulator can project how the utilization improvements over two years might help, and be fairly accurate. But when I step in and add new accounts, that messses up the simulator plan.

[thom02099]

Simulators are just that....what COULD happen, given your current data and all other factors they use in their simulations.  My experience with simulators was that my scores dropped significantly by using all of the various positive influencers.  

Your scores in your signature indicate you're doing everything right as far as score production.  Once you get over 800, it really is all a moot point.  I've been at 850/850/850 several times and honestly, it's only for bragging rights.  Gets you absolutely nothing more as far as a lender is concerned, since most of the process is automated.  I'm very comfortable leaving my scores in the 830ish range since I have no plans to apply for new credit.  Still just bragging rights.... 

[Anonymous]

So, I currently have 6 closed accounts reporting between the different bureaus. Of these, 3 are AU accounts and 3 are cards I opened and subsequently closed when I was younger because I didn’t know enough about credit in my 20’s. All accounts in good standing.

I understand that the simulator doesn’t consider the impact from losing accounts like these. However, the soonest one of these is due to fall off will be in 2021, so that shouldn’t impact the likelihood of my reaching 850 in 6 months.

I know that having an 850 would be a useless distinction in terms of the real life impact on my ability to obtain credit, good interest rates, etc. And anyhow, I deal a bit in real estate. The reality is that I need to care far more about my mortgage scores long term than my Fico 8 scores.

All the same, I only genuinely started learning about my credit a year and a half ago. That’s about the time I started lurking around these forums. When I began, my scores were in the low to mid 700’s. Not bad, but not optimal. The idea of my having an 850, even temporarily, is just alluring and surprising from my perspective, given where I started and how little I knew to begin with and how young I am.

I mention my AU accounts in part because I recognize that even if I did somehow achieve that 850 status, I could not maintain it over the years or possibly even stay in the ballpark. Eventually and in the fullness of time, my AAoA and my AoOA will be recalculated without these closed accounts and I’ll take the hit. It’s a moot point really because I do intend to apply for new cards and mortgages in the coming years. Knowing that, I don’t imagine I am someone who would ever have a perfect 850 for too long if AoYA needs to be greater than 12 months.

I’m proud of the work I’ve done and the choices I’ve made in the last couple of years regarding my credit. But when I look at where my scores are now and when I’m teased by a simulator into imagining achieving an 850 in a matter of months, I can’t help but feel grateful that my mom had the forethought to add me to some of her accounts. That’s a kind of privilege, I think. She didn’t even tell me about all of these accounts. Just opened them and put them in the sock drawer. I only found out after she passed, which is when I first looked closely at my credit. I wish we’d spent more time talking about credit, business, and personal finance. But that’s a topic for another thread.