No one knows: How to get your score over 800

[Anonymous]

I know that we have a few new forum members who have FICO scores over 800.   Would you like to share some of your credit experiences with the rest of us?

[Anonymous]

You don't necessarily need to have old credit to be over 800.  A few years ago, a girlfriend wanted to buy a car and wanted to check her credit.  I helped her and she had a 793.  She was 20 years old at the time.  She had had one credit card for 2 years and had already had two car loans paid off since she was 16 (she liked to change cars every few years, and she always had money so she could just pay them off.) And she had student loans out.

I think as long as you have zero negatives, never miss a payment and have a good mix of credit, you should be good.

[athensguy]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
BTW, I don't know if you've seen this, but here's an expanded list of characteristics of FICO High Achievers. I'm in Firefox, so you'll have to copy/ paste it into your window:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=12673

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Glad to be of assistance

And, I still have a moderate util ding at 779 on EQ. Also one account is under a year old. My oldest account is 11 years old and my oldest open account is 6. I think when the util is fixed and the account passes a year I'll be at 800 somewhere. I'm 29 atm, will be 30 after that account is a year old. If I had gotten CCs earlier, my scores would be better.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You don't necessarily need to have old credit to be over 800.  A few years ago, a girlfriend wanted to buy a car and wanted to check her credit.  I helped her and she had a 793.  She was 20 years old at the time.  She had had one credit card for 2 years and had already had two car loans paid off since she was 16 (she liked to change cars every few years, and she always had money so she could just pay them off.) And she had student loans out.

I think as long as you have zero negatives, never miss a payment and have a good mix of credit, you should be good.

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Are you sure she wasn't an AU on one of her parent's cards? That could give her 30 years of history and rocket her up that high, but otherwise, I really doubt even 4 years of perfect credit history will bump you just shy of 800.

[haulingthescoreup]

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debtisgood wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

You don't necessarily need to have old credit to be over 800.  A few years ago, a girlfriend wanted to buy a car and wanted to check her credit.  I helped her and she had a 793.  She was 20 years old at the time.  She had had one credit card for 2 years and had already had two car loans paid off since she was 16 (she liked to change cars every few years, and she always had money so she could just pay them off.) And she had student loans out.

I think as long as you have zero negatives, never miss a payment and have a good mix of credit, you should be good.

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you sure she wasn't an AU on one of her parent's cards? That could give her 30 years of history and rocket her up that high, but otherwise, I really doubt even 4 years of perfect credit history will bump you just shy of 800.

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Also, do we know for sure that this 793 was a FICO score, and not a FAKO?

[Anonymous]

My scores are:

TU 809 / EQ 807 / EXP 820

Total past due - No accounts past due
Credit history - 12 years
Total balance of  revolving accounts: $29 / $0  (I pay all to $0 immediately) 
Mortgages: None 
Installment loans: $3k
Total number of accounts: 7 
Accounts with balances: 2 
Accounts opened in past year: 0 
Recent inquiries: 0 
Collections: 0 
Public Records: 0

I don't want to jinx it!  But basically, I pay off my credit cards immediately using online banking.  I pay for my bills immediately either through automatic debit OR by manually paying online/phone on time.  I've had no lates (knock on wood).

WHEN I'VE SEEN DROPS:

- Citibank charged me for "credit insurance" on an account with a $0 balance and my score immediately dropped 10 points, just because there was a new balance on a $0 account. It took months to get the 10 points back after I had them credit the charge.

- AT&T did a credit check when I signed up for cell service.  

- Since I keep my credit balances at $0 as much as possible, if a charge hits my account right as I'm being rescored, I get docked points.  So I basically log into online banking regularly to keep balances paid off.

I basically track expenses and account balances in a big spreadsheet every week because my wife and I are saving for a house.  It's been tough, but we've been trying to take complete control over our finances, getting rid of any unnecessary expenses and taking advantage of coupons / sales / cheaper services, etc...

It's a bit like calorie counting..

Message Edited by FICOScott on 12-14-2008 11:04 AM

[CreditAble]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Also, do we know for sure that this 793 was a FICO score, and not a FAKO?

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...and 793 is still not 800.

 It took me quite a while to go from the low 790s to 800. I thought that with 791 I was almost across the finish line. Boy was I wrong!  

I believe that it was account age, average age or both that was keeping me from crossing over into the promised land. I had no new accounts in 4 years. I had only the appropriate number of accounts reporting the appropriate balance for many many months. Nothing changed in the final months but time. A lot of time is needed to watch the grass grow. The grass definitely grew a lot slower the closer I got to 800. 

[CreditAble]

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@MidnightVoice wrote:

First - get zero negatives.

Second - 800 can be achieved with oldest cards of 20 years and average age of 7 years, good mix of credit, low number of inqs and use of credit cards every month or so.

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Third - I can further verify that 800 can be achieved with oldest card of 8 years 3 months and average age of 5 years 9 months.

Message Edited by CreditAble on 12-15-2008 01:51 AM

[Anonymous]

CreditAble,

At the time did you have an open mortgage, other non-mortgage installment loan, and store card as well as no inquiries and/or new accounts in the last year?

[CreditAble]

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@Anonymous wrote:

CreditAble,

At the time did you have an open mortgage, other non-mortgage installment loan, and store card as well as no inquiries and/or new accounts in the last year?

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No mortgage at all open or closed..

One open installment (car) loan.

One open Sam"s club (Store) card.

Additionally....

... one paid off car loan,

....three bank cards,

....no partridge in a pear tree.

 I read a long time ago that having at least three credit cards with $10,000 credit limits each would help achieve 800 so I made sure that I got my three with over $10,000 CLs.

 I hadn't applied for anything in the four years leading up to the 800. I did incur one new checking account inquiry which hit the one year (no longer counts) mark two months before I broke 800.

The open installment loan had a balance of less than 2% of the original loan amount.

Both open and closed install loans had a history of over three and a half years each.

 I will restate my primary concern in the last three years on the way to Fico 800.  I kept getting almost there (798 at one point and pilling back to 791) and couldn't bust through the barrier. I strongly suspected that 800 might require an age minimum of some sort.

 I figured I might have to wander around for a few years in the 790s wilderness, not knowing when I would be permitted by the FICO gods to cross over the river. 

 It came as a complete surprise when I finally made it.