@Anonymous wrote:I've been between 797 and 798 for 5 months straight, and I was wondering what is necessary to get 800 and higher. right now, my inquiries aren't that high on all credit bureaus, I haven't really been trying to keep a balance on only one credit card to report with, got some student loans left, and been making loan payments that aren't student loans. Would I just have to pretty much garden and then wait until all the inquiries fall off? And I know there's no additional benefits having an 800 or higher credit score, but i'd like to be able to brag about it at least once lol. thanks!
Without knowing your credit profile, I'd guess it's utilization or average age of accounts holding you back from the elusive 800. Feel free to share some data points to confirm my theory 
@Anonymous wrote:I've been between 797 and 798 for 5 months straight, and I was wondering what is necessary to get 800 and higher. right now, my inquiries aren't that high on all credit bureaus, I haven't really been trying to keep a balance on only one credit card to report with, got some student loans left, and been making loan payments that aren't student loans. Would I just have to pretty much garden and then wait until all the inquiries fall off? And I know there's no additional benefits having an 800 or higher credit score, but i'd like to be able to brag about it at least once lol. thanks!
Well you haven't given us much to go on. I would need to know what your profile is today, in order to advise you on how to improve it.
Based on the few clues you've given:
1. Your inquiries falling off at the 12 month mark will help.
2. Getting your aggregate loan utilization down to 9% or less will help your FICO 8's and 9's.
3. Having almost all accounts reporting zero balances will likely help.
The inquiries could be 10-20 points alone. I was at 808 with zero inquiries over 24 months and dropped 16 points when 3 hard pulls hit.
When my foreclosures fell off EX in January 2021, my FICO8 went to 797 while the rest went to over 800. It took me 13 months before EX8 went to 801.
I feel your pain of looking at that number stay so close to 800 without going over. Without more information it's hard to say, but I'd say that 1-6 months is reasonable for that change to happen.
My EX FICO 8 is currently 792, while EQ and TU are 25 points or so higher. Six INQs will do that.
In 8 months, when one or two have dropped and the others are a year old, my EX score will be 82x.
@coldfusion wrote:You pretty much have to keep doing what you have been doing and be patient, you'll get there.
In the aftermath of my extended spree (55 cards in 24 months) my EX score was stuck at 793-795 for over a year until one day it seemingly randomly jumped to 801.
55 cards in 24 months is indeed badass.
Must surely do a number on AAoA.