This all adds up to one point....

[Lel]

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@Anonymous wrote:
That sounds about right. When I add up the missing points from my avg age I come up with 849 too. Being that your avg age is only 9 years you still have room to gain another point to hit 850 I am guessing. I am guessing based on what I learned that it is either 10 or 12 years to gain max age points. Your profile looks very similar to mine with your avg age being much higher than mine.

Interesting in that when I remove the points I suspect for avg age to match mine age I drop down to the score where I am now. I would agree that this profile very well could and would produce an 849 Classic score. I agree that it would be a mortgage Classic FICO score of 849. Very well done indeed.

Maybe next year when your profile turns 1 year older and inqs fall off and new account is aged 1 year, you might have another crack at a perfect 850. Don't know about your UTL because their might even currently be room for 1 more point. Super!!!

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 06-09-2008 03:47 PM

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My utilization has always been low - no more than 5%, and usually around 3% or less. At the time the score was pulled, I had 6 accounts with balances - the two mortgage loans, the student loan account, and 3 credit cards.

I can't understand how there could be such a disparity between the FICO scores pulled from this site and the FICO score pulled by the lender. I find it hard to believe that a so-called "mortgage-enhanced" FICO score would be so much higher than the generic FICO score. My mortgages are only 2 years old, and still have large balances. I feel that this 849 is somehow an error in calculation, or just a weird quirk in the system. These boards are full of people who report inexplicable drops in score for no apparent reason. In my case, I have enjoyed (but not benefited from) a temporary jump in my score.

[Anonymous]

From my understanding a so-called "mortgage-enhanced" FICO scoreis a generic FICO score which people call generic are actually referring to mortgage score. If there is an Enhanced mortgage and a regular classic mortgage score I have not heard it it being different. I can tell you this. Any little thing that FICO does not like will ding you for more points than anyone else. Going by my profile which is similar to yours you very well have what it looks like to hit the 850. I am getting close but my average age is low. I have been trying very hard to find ways to gain points to over come the avg age loss. I do believe strongly that if I had all my age points I would have hit 850 already. Maybe a bug but could in fact be accurate. This is the profile that I am guessing reaches 850.

I don't think there is much of a difference between those with low 800 with low avg age and those with 850 besides avg age differences. But I won't know this for a few more months, that is if I can hit 850.

[smallfry]

pizza assuming low utilization no inquiries no baddies no accounts newer than 5 years old 10 years average age what would you think the highest score you could reach without a mortgage reporting?

[Anonymous]

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smallfry wrote: pizza assuming low utilization no inquiries no baddies no accounts newer than 5 years old 10 years average age what would you think the highest score you could reach without a mortgage reporting?

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I don't think the mortgage is really factored in any special way. I have never seen anyone held back from not having mortgage loans. Just need installment loans. I even think that mortgages are scored lighter than a car/personal loan.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 06-09-2008 07:38 PM

[Anonymous]

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@smallfry wrote:
pizza assuming low utilization no inquiries no baddies no accounts newer than 5 years old 10 years average age what would you think the highest score you could reach without a mortgage reporting?

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This would be a very prime situation. But I think it's good to have some newer credit than 5 years old. This goes in to a completely new area that I have no experience with yet. Profiles that fit the 850 score but have no recent new accounts. I don't know if you are dinged for non recent installment activity. If you had a car loan that was 5 years old and just pif'd it than at least you had recent installment activity. So if you had no new accounts in 5 years but had open installments than I think you are super prime for low-mid 800 scores. If you had no installment activity then (only guessing) would have upper 700 maybe 800 score.

I would need to see number of total accounts, open/closed ccs and how many installments. But as long as you hit all the required accounts it would sound like a pretty hot profile to have under this scoring model.

So far we know that the areas to fill are:
Avg age (could even be 4 points a year)
required accounts, bunch of CCs and some installments.
low UTL
residential address
lots of history
no inqs
all accounts older than 12 months

I think that is most of it.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 06-09-2008 07:48 PM

[Lel]

The first post that I ever made on these forums was titled "How fickle are the FICO scores." The reason for this is that last fall, Bank of America pulled my Experian score twice on the same day, and I received two different scores - 822 and 805. It was suggested that the first inquiry resulted in the 822, but the second score was lower because the inquiry had already hit my credit report. Seemed like a reasonable explanation at the time.

But now that I have this unexpectedly high score, I am increasingly convinced that the FICO scoring model is unpredictable within a narrow range. When looking at the entire spectrum of credit profiles out there - from those with pristine histories to those with multiple negative factors - FICO can categorize people appropriately. That is, persons with excellent credit profiles will fall into the 780-850 range and those with above average profiles will fall into the 650-750 range, for example. Within these ranges, however, I now feel that the FICO score cannot refine a person's credit risk with any degree of accuracy or reproducibility.

Don't get me wrong, my 849 score is a source of personal pride, but I do not feel that I deserve this score. I feel that I have too many credit card accounts. I have two mortgages with high balances. And I have a new credit card that is less than 6 months old. Yes, I have never had any late payments and have a good mix of credit, and I do believe that I "deserve" a score in the high 700s to low 800s range. But 849? That's quite a stretch.

[RobertEG]

i agree with pizzas observation on mortgage loans.

FICO is a short term (two year) risk analysis on debt payment potential, and the very last thing that anyone pays late is their mortgage.  Ergo, mortgage loans not a high predictor of current repayment risk.  The next thing one pays late is on their car, ergo a bit higher on repayment risk, but still low.

The earliest indicator of immediate credit risk is the most discretionary of payments, that being revolv accounts, ergo the higher scoring emphasis by FICO risk analysis.

Any mortgage or auto loan, by definition, puts you at 100% util on that loan when opened. And tehir terms and monthly interest are fixed.  But FICO is a repayment analysis, and not a credit soundness analysis.

Knowing that a revolv TL has creeped up in util, and also being the last account in the repayment heirarchy, is an increased repayment risk of far more significance to prospective lendor.   Interest payed on a revolving TL is normally not only much higher than an install loan, it compounds monthly upon current balance, and not original contract balance.

There is no comparison in their iimpact, and thus in their affect on FICO risk analysis.

[Anonymous]

It is your avg age that put you there. It's ok to have new account because your avg age is so high. That shows responsibility and the ability to handle more. You have not been over applying over the years and have many old accounts. That does say something.

[Lel]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It is your avg age that put you there. It's ok to have new account because your avg age is so high. That shows responsibility and the ability to handle more. You have not been over applying over the years and have many old accounts. That does say something.

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Is an average age of 9 years really that high? I never really thought so.

My average age is going to eventually drop pretty drastically, because my oldest accounts are the student loans that I refinanced, the first of which was opened nearly 21 years ago.

How long does a student loan account persist on a credit report after it has been paid off?

[Anonymous]

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Lel wrote:

How long does a student loan account persist on a credit report after it has been paid off?

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Any positive account reports for up to ten years after it is closed, as a general rule.