FICO score

What do you think this score represents Cicerone?

What score would you like?

I've already explained it in full.
My score should be Very Good to Exceptional.
We're in the top 6% in savings, and we don't have a mortgage or car payment.
Our net worth is over $2 million.

Maybe you've canceled a few old cards. They consider the average age of your credit card accounts, and that could have lowered your score. If you applied for new cards, that hurts too. Maybe you have really great assets, but not so much income to support your available credit. They may consider your actual debt, but total credit available can also be a problem.

My score per Chase is much higher than yours. har har.

Also, maybe the lack of outstanding debt is a consideration in this. Sure you pay off your monthly credit cards each month, but maybe they want to see how you pay intallment loans regularly.

Whenever we make a larger purchase from Home Depot or Lowes, like for a new applicance (most recently we bought a bunch of new insulation) we'll charge it on the store card as they always give you 6 months to a year to pay it off. I'll just divide it up so it's paid off a couple of months early.

nyah nyah, my score's higher than that too.

Like you though, I can't figure out why it's not perfect.

The estimator said I'm a 770-820.



http://www.myfico.com/FICOCreditScoreEstimator/Estimator.aspx


I enjoy having a lend.

Of course if I were down to my last 300k+ in liquid assets, I'd be racing around getting my credit rating assessed hither and thither, and thither and yon, and enquiring about credit so that i could drive it down further, even though I had no intention or need of any borrowing.

Same here. Six months same as cash is my favorite way to shop.

That's the problem -- you don't have any debt/loans so you have not shown you are capable of paying back debt. I am guessing you haven't had a car or mortgage payment in quite some time. And you only have a credit card as any sort of debt?

So as stupid as it sounds if you have not had a loan somewhat recently in which you paid on time and/or more than what is due or paid off - then you are actually rated lower. So if you are interested in increasing your score - you need to go out and get a loan and then pay it a few months and then pay it all off. In the short run you could go down in your score, but after you have a history showing you can and will pay your debt on time your score will go up -- it also will go up if you pay it all off before it is actually due.

Another thing - on the credit card -- how much do you charge on it? The higher it is to your credit limit, you are likely to get dinged as well on your score. To help your credit score you do need to use your credit card and like you do pay it all off monthly, but do not charge close to your limit or you get a ding on your score.

Net worth doesn't play much into the score - which is stupid as well.

What is stated above is true - but canceling the cards in the long run will improve your score -- pretty much anything you do initially in regard to credit will hurt your score in the short term, except maybe fully paying off a debt; but in the long run may improve your score.

But if you have a net worth of million then who cares - pay cash.

because credit card points. I always use them to get Target or Walmart cards, then use them to buy stuff like coffee and Tide. I charge Everything. I don't understand why people use debit cards. I don't buy anything I wouldn't have purchased anyway. I really don't get that reasoning of "well, it comes right out of my checking, so I can't overspend." Well, you don't overspend either if you get it in your head you have to pay the bill when it shows up.

I make money off the credit card companies, and haven't paid a lick of interest in probably 15 to 20 years.

My biggest coup was about that long ago when we spent a ton on remodeling. This one credit card I've had since 1982, the year I graduated college. They had this crazy deal where you could take out a cash advance with NO fee, AND have it at 0% interest for AS LONG AS it took to pay it off, if you made at least minium payments. Can you believe that? I'll bet someone lost their job over that one.

They figured I guess at some point you'd forget to make a minium payment, or buy something else on the card, which of course would have voided the whole thing.

Not me. We took out cash to the limit for remodeling, I put the card away and haven't used it since. Have been making minimum payments since then, freeing up a lot of cash for other stuff. It started with a minimum payment of $200 a month or something, and with the last payment I made it's down to $36 a month.

Sometimes I think about just paying it off and being done with it, but that would still be over $2000 out of my pocket. Why should I when I'm not gaining anything from that?

We pay our credit card balance in total every month; it's an automatic payment.

I guess we'll just to live with the consequences of the current credit system even though we have no debt. No debt: your FICO score goes lower.

I'll do it, but to be honest it makes me a little nervous. Like what if an emergency expenditure comes up and suddenly the 1/6 of the bill is burdensome that month?

It's a slippery slope.

Oh! When I bought my car a few months ago, I planned on paying cash. I found out I could put $2000 of it on my credit card. Ca-ching! That was $30 of points in my pocket.

Odd things that aren't your fault can wreak it. I used a new credit card to order an expensive computer and they declined it because I had no history yet, not because it was over my limit. The incident caused my score to drop 75 points.

I was pissed on principle but said screw it because I don't use credit either. I tore up their card.

I must have said something wrong - Paying off the credit card in total does not hurt your score. Leaving large balances and making minimum payments does as well as charging to your max or close to it -- whether you pay it off in total or not will hurt your score. Having a credit card, using it (but not maxing it out) and paying it off each month is a good boost to your credit score.

Not having an actual loan in a while, I think is what is hurting your score (at least from what I can see on the surface). Basically FICO thinks you lack experience in borrowing and paying off a loan so they ding you. They are afraid if you take out a loan you won't pay it back as you are supposed to - in other words you haven't proven to them you will be reliable in paying back a loan.

that's probably one of the causes of your score

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does it matter? are you planning to borrow a large sum of money soon? if you're not planning to borrow money , don't worry about it

Not gonna worry; waste of energy on a nonissue.

I made payments on a boat ($17,000) for one year, then paid it off.

My credit report said, "Does not make payments as promised."

Guess they were pissed that they weren't going to get all that interest money.

Seems there's no way to win the credit rating battle unless they make the max money out of its customers.
This kind of crap needs to be universally known, so consumers ignore the credit score which has no real meaning except to the creditors. If they don't want to provide credit to people, they're the ones who is going to loose out.