Obtaining 800+FICO

[Anonymous]

Hello guys I need your advise just pulled FICO"s EQ 783 TU 792 I would luv to get over the 800 mark if possible I am ever so close yet so far away seems I would appreciate your help. Not sure what you info you may need but I will start with this: EQ Flag 36 accts, credit history length 22 yrs, Util rate revolving 1%, newest acct 7 mos ago, AAOA 7 yrs, 3 accts with balances, 3 Inq"s. TU Flag 31 accounts, Credit history 22 yrs 4 mos, AAOA 7 yrs, Util revoling 1%, 3 accts with balances, 0 Inq"s.

[haulingthescoreup]

HI, welcome to the forums! Getting the new account to one year might do it on EQ.

My guess is that you're held back by your relatively short AAoA. Stop apping and let everything cook.

How many of the accounts are open? In other words, three with balances out of how many?

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.

[smallfry]

Second what Hauling stated. You might see a score bump once the AAofA goes over 8. Pretty sure 2-5 is an age bucket (AAofA).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick reply the total # of open revolving accounts 13 three of those with small balances also have one Installment loan opened 7 months ago the newest account reporting.

[Anonymous]

The recommendation I've seen recently (I'm just learning this myself) is that you should carry small balances (between 1 & 9%) on half of your revolving credit accounts - otherwise you get dinged for having too many TLs without balances.  

Point of interest: Is there a potential creditor who is requiring you to exceed 800?  I think the highest I had in my past was 797, and at that point I didn't have any problems with any applications.

[marty56]

Try a small balance on 1 card and also try 0 CC's reporting a balance.  if your score drops, LOL it is easy to correct.

[Anonymous]

Thanks marty, I will try that and see what happens I suppose time is on my side I shall give my FICO"s time to hang out together  and age gracefully. I appreciate everyone"s help.

[Anonymous]

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TallDave wrote:

The recommendation I've seen recently (I'm just learning this myself) is that you should carry small balances (between 1 & 9%) on half of your revolving credit accounts - otherwise you get dinged for having too many TLs without balances.  

Point of interest: Is there a potential creditor who is requiring you to exceed 800?  I think the highest I had in my past was 797, and at that point I didn't have any problems with any applications.

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Optimal credit utilization for FICO scoring purposes is:

• Total revolving utilization > 0 and <= 9%, the lower the better, and
• Reporting a balance on less than half of your revolving TL's, and
• Reporting a balance on half or less of all TL's.

Anyway you get there is fair game. You only need have one revolving TL report a balance.

He has less that half. But half would not be good - it needs to be less than half.

As for getting to 800 - Anything over 760 is High Achiever turf and that's all you really need. Anything beyond that is nice, but not usually necessary for any practical purpose.

[haulingthescoreup]

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TallDave wrote:

The recommendation I've seen recently (I'm just learning this myself) is that you should carry small balances (between 1 & 9%) on half of your revolving credit accounts - otherwise you get dinged for having too many TLs without balances.  

Point of interest: Is there a potential creditor who is requiring you to exceed 800?  I think the highest I had in my past was 797, and at that point I didn't have any problems with any applications.

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To echo: on fewer than half. Way fewer than half. And it's half without balances, not half with.

Ideally, you have $0 reported on everything, except that you have to scramble to allow a minimal amount to report on one CC. (Except for TU, FICO generally dings you for having all accounts report with $0.)

Since many/ most of us have installment accounts (car loans, mortgages, etc) reporting, all of which have balances while they're open, we concentrate on minimizing the number of CC's reporting a balance. For almost all of us, one CC with a balance is the sweet spot.

[Anonymous]

I defer of course to the masters who have been here much longer than I!  I seem to have misunderstood the goal regarding how many accounts to keep a balance on.  However if I understand correctly (this time!) number of accounts with balances is a metric that has no historical component, so as long as you get it right at some point it doesn't matter what the previous month's report showed for number of accounts with balances- the FICO will see the full benefit.  

N.B. I found a CR from 2005 that was pulled when I refinanced my house, and my FICO score was in the high 790's.  I'm not sure that what I saw there squares completely with the advice I'm seeing here regarding specifically revolving accounts with balances, but rather than hijacking this thread let me get my thoughts and examples together and start another one in a day or two.