@Anonymous wrote:
@Abby3 wrote:
Thank you, Revelate. My last account was established in 2012. I don't have a strategy on how I have obtained high scores. I attempted to locate my current balance vs credit limit - must be searching in the wrong spot or maybe that is something I would have to calculate myself. I am a novice to FICO forum. My credit history was established 18 years ago. It shows that I have 23 revolving accounts and 1 mortgage- even with many accounts I only use 3 cards. AMEX is my most used card - paying the balance off every month; I will rotate my Visa/Mc; will leave a running balance for 3 to 4 months - paying 1/3 of the balance - once I pay it off I will rotate to another to keep them active; I use a Dept store card - again splitting the balance over a couple of months and then paying it in full - so my available credit is high but usage is low. I believe the key is to show variation in use if credit; I also take advantage of interest free promotions - I will request a new line and pay off the balance during the promotional period rather than just paying cash; my credit hasn't always been stellar - when I was a college student I remember getting calls from collection agencies - but that is a time when fringe benefits like medical insurance at my job didn't matter and credit wasn't something I thought was important. For a long time my score was unmoving in the upper 700s - when I refinanced to a 15 year mortgage and made my last student loan payment my score hit the 800 mark. I apply for credit selectively. I only beam about my score when the car salesman said my score was the highest he had seen and the mortgage broker said you don't get any higher when he pulled my scores for refinancing. I guess it's a personal challenge because the points I would pay would be the same if my score was 775. The advice I can offer is to vary your credit sources, be selective when you apply for credit and always pay your bills on time - pay above the minimum - it lowers your debt ratio. Find a mate with stellar credit - regardless of what the experts - the exceptional credit will eventually help your score. You'll get there - just be patient. Good luck.I have done the same thing & decided to switch it up. I'm now only letting one cc report and low UT. I thought it was the best way to get there. Maybe I should go back to your way? Very, very interesting. And thanks so much for sharing!
Balances are instant in time.
Anyway thank you Abby very much for your response! On a credit report it should suggest something like current (or recent) balance / credit limit.
As for the age of accounts, open date and there's some math behind it but I have to assume based on your profile they're all sufficiently old that it's sort of irrelevant heh... long history.
No worries on the additional data, was a curiousity point to compare you vs. some of our prior 850's for commonality or difference... all anecdotal trying to napkin math how the algorithm works.
@jamie123 wrote:
@Abby3 wrote:
@I have refinanced twice to lower interest - both 15 yr - the first in 2009 @ 5% and again in 2012 @ 3.3%Thanks for the reply! This will help us to better understand FICO scoring so that we can give other people proper advice.
Your replies add some evidence to my theory that you can't reach 850 with a "new" credit account that is less than 2 years old on your reports. Both your youngest credit card and your mortgage are older than 2 years.
It also lends some credence to my theory that you reach the "sweet spot" in an installment loan once 20% of the loan is paid off. Your 15 year mortgage has now aged to 3 years which just so happens to be about 20% of the loan term. From my research this may be the reason your other scores are slightly lower. From what I've learned the different CRAs treat the paid off ratio of mortgages differently which causes some scores to lag a bit. If you don't add any new credit and continue to pay everything on time, the other scores will catch up and you will have 850s across the board. You will gain the extra needed points by the mortgage aging and the paid off ratio rising.
(This post is my theory only!) (It's for discussion and enlightenment guys!)
Whoever of us reaches 850 first has to open up a celebratory card to test this 
.
Not it!
@Revelate wrote:Whoever of us reaches 850 first has to open up a celebratory card to test this
I'm in!
I hope I have enough life left to get my AAoA high enough to get to 850!
@jamie123 wrote:
@Abby3 wrote:
@I have refinanced twice to lower interest - both 15 yr - the first in 2009 @ 5% and again in 2012 @ 3.3%Thanks for the reply! This will help us to better understand FICO scoring so that we can give other people proper advice.
Your replies add some evidence to my theory that you can't reach 850 with a "new" credit account that is less than 2 years old on your reports. Both your youngest credit card and your mortgage are older than 2 years.
It also lends some credence to my theory that you reach the "sweet spot" in an installment loan once 20% of the loan is paid off. Your 15 year mortgage has now aged to 3 years which just so happens to be about 20% of the loan term. From my research this may be the reason your other scores are slightly lower. From what I've learned the different CRAs treat the paid off ratio of mortgages differently which causes some scores to lag a bit. If you don't add any new credit and continue to pay everything on time, the other scores will catch up and you will have 850s across the board. You will gain the extra needed points by the mortgage aging and the paid off ratio rising.
(This post is my theory only!) (It's for discussion and enlightenment guys!)
@Anonymous: another question for you in the same vein .
Would you mind sharing the current balance of your mortgage vs. the original size and the date opened in 2012? Trying to figure some stuff out in another thread and the age vs. utilization came up hehe, figured you'd have an interesting datapoint.
Thanks!