Our Forums' FICO High Achievers: Who has at least one FICO Score of 760 or above?

[Woodpaq]

TU: 786

EX: 765

EQ: 748

EQ has no love for me???  Anyhow LOL, Happy with the results, but preparing to have to do a balance transfer, bite the bullet on the 200.00 transfer fee, but save in the long run on interest with a 0%apr vs. 8% it usually is.  Haven't yet understood how the shift in balances across my cards (6) will affect my credit score.  The balance transfer will cause a util % of about 10,000 of a 17,000 balance which will decrease by 3,500 to 4,000 once the tax refund is applied so I'm pushing for half the balance to be off the books with this card.  Hmmm, may actually help me because 2 of my cards were above 70% util used. 

My goal, achieve and maintain scores above 775+ and get debt free hopefully sometime early next year. 

Hey, I'm in the 760+ club though!!!!  In these times, I am so glad I've been a good steward of God's blessings.  Best of blessings to you all as well!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Hi Woodpaq!

You are in the 760+ club now!  You're a FICO High Achiever.  That's great!

Congratulations!

[haulingthescoreup]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:

Gah! Just pulled TU: 759.

It's still saying that a March inq is affecting my score (maybe it is, maybe it isn't) --maybe I'll try again after that date, and then never, ever pull again.

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Well, the inq hit one year today, so I pulled, and,

*drum roll*

...no change.

And it is acknowledging that the inq has hit one year, because it says now that I'm not seeking credit and I have 0 inqs hurting my score (on screen two, the balance scale of credit doom)

So oh, well, another victim of the simulator bait-and-switch. I'll check back in a couple of months.

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Well, the inq hit one year today, so I pulled, and,

*drum roll*

...no change.

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Aw.

Message Edited by psychic on 03-11-2009 02:00 AM

[Anonymous]

I'm very new to looking into my credit scores and all I've done so far is check on here with the free trial of score watch. I'm in college so I don't have a lot of spare money, so I didn't want to pay anything to find my scores, haha.

Anyway, I'm not quite to 760 yet, but I'm at 745 for EQ. I would say my major thing counting against me though is short credit history, since my average account age is only 1 year according to my credit report. But I have never missed a payment and I've utilized my two credit cards, but kept them low. (I keep it at about 2 - 5% of my limit at all times and pay off whatever else I spend.)

So I'm hoping my EQ score will be up to 760 within the next 6 months. The only thing I think I can really change at this point is to pay off the $3500 student loan I had to take. I'm going to be working as much as I can over the summer to try and pay it off. Other than that, the only thing I think I can really do is keep using my credit cards for purchases, but keep a small balance on them. (I use them for purchases most people would use a debit card, and then just pay a portion of it off within the next couple of weeks.) I keep about the same balance on my credit cards at all times, maybe fluctuating $10 - $30, but when I make purchases it obviously goes up, I just don't keep the new balance on for too long before paying it off

If anyone else has any tips, that would be appreciated as well. But really, I can't complain about my scores at the age of 20, haha.

Message Edited by jreddick on 03-11-2009 11:55 PM

[marty56]

If you have both cards reporting a balance, try only letting 1 report a baalnce at a time.  Also watch the INQs and if either account is less than a year old, see what happens when it becomes a year old.

The best advice I can give is to stay out of CC debt (revolving balances), never pay late and never deal with BofA.

[cobaltnv]

jreddick--welcome to the forums and congrats on getting started early on building outstanding credit! 

I have a couple of suggestions for you. First is to read the credit scoring 101 thread which may be found in the link in my signature. The understanding my fico score pdf is also a good read. 

It is not clear to me from your post, but it appears that you are carrying a balance to "show utilization"--implying that you are paying at least some interest. THere is no need to pay any interest to show utilization on your cards. Almost all credit cards report your balance to the CRA as of your statement date (not due date). So if you PIF before the due date you pay no interest and still show utilization. If you want to tweak you scores you can pay all but 1-7% off prior to your statement date (and only let one card report a balance). Note this  is only important if you are looking to make a large purchase (car, house etc) and need to squeeze a few extra points out of you score. It may also be useful if you have low limits and charge up more the 30% of the limit in a given month.

Finally, if you are still a student I assume that your loans are still in the deferred stage? If these are federal student loans there is not really any benefit to paying them off (no interest collecting yet). If they are private loans and interest is collecting then by all means go ahead an pay them off. However, if the loans are your only installment loans you score will likely drop a bit.

Sorry for the novel. Good luck and keep asking questions--these boards are filled with good information and people (especially the mods) 

Cheers 

[Anonymous]

Ok, first things first, I should have been more specific about my credit card usage. I only keep a small balance on my citi card, since it has a much lower APR (13.24% compared to like 19% on my Wells Fargo card.)

So anyway, let me see if I have this straight. When I receive my statement and it gives me a due date, they have already reported my balance? If so, that would mean after receiving the statement, I can then pay in full to pay no interest, but still have it stated on my credit report, correct?

If that is the case, that's good news, because even though I'm only paying maybe a couple of bucks a month in interest, a couple of dollars a month times however long I live adds up. The only reason I left a small balance is because I had heard that if you always have $0, that it doesn't really help your credit score, since it shows that you are "scared" of your credit, or that you don't use it, instead of using it responsibly.

In regards to the student loans, about half of the $3500 is subsidized and the other is not (subsidized being the government pays the interest.) I don't have to pay on either one at all until 6 months after I graduate. From what you've said, I think what I will do is pay off the unsubsidized loan so I do not accumulate any interest, and keep the other until after I graduate.

Thanks a bunch for all of the info!

Message Edited by jreddick on 03-12-2009 09:30 AM

[haulingthescoreup]

You don't want to have all your cards reporting a small balance; just one or two. (And then pay it off before the due date; this is easy to forget to do.) There is a score penalty for "too many accounts with balances," and most of us find that letting 1 card report (if we have 4-5 cards) or 2 report (if we have more cards) gives us the best score result.

It doesn't show on the reports that we see, but activity on the card is reported to the CRA's, even if a $0 balance reports.

[marty56]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So anyway, let me see if I have this straight. When I receive my statement and it gives me a due date, they have already reported my balance? If so, that would mean after receiving the statement, I can then pay in full to pay no interest, but still have it stated on my credit report, correct?

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Some CCCs do not report on the statment date.  GEMB seems to report at the end of the month but IMHO all CCCs report the statement balance, not the balance at the time they report.