Is AN 800+ FICO CREDIT SCORE EVEN POSSIBLE?

[Lorraine Hadden]

What are some strategies you have used to improve or rebuild credit?

[Tim Delaney]

Yes, it is possible. Pay all your bills on time, don’t apply for too many new things in short periods of time, keep debt under 30% on each card/loc (or even better, just pay them off), don’t close old lines of credit.

[Scott Trench]

I've got one. It takes about 10 years of never missing a payment, using light leverage relative to your income, and using a tiny fraction of your available credit card limits.

[Russell Brazil]

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

Russell do you go for those high limits for a rainey day or use those funds to bridge your rehabs for pay cycle then pay them off so your not paying interest ?  Just curious why .. I have not asked for a raise on mine I get pretty big ones out of the gate LOL.

As for Fico when i had a bunch of mortgages that reported to the fico I had a hell of a time getting even above 700.  I think I had 14 of them not including my home.. Now that I have paid them all off and ONLY have my one home mortgage I actually saw my first 800 score when i dropped a big commercial loan I had my banker send me the report. We carry no balances and have no car payments and only one mortgage.. So I guess thats how we finally got there. :)

[Russell Brazil]

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

Russell do you go for those high limits for a rainey day or use those funds to bridge your rehabs for pay cycle then pay them off so your not paying interest ?  Just curious why .. I have not asked for a raise on mine I get pretty big ones out of the gate LOL.

As for Fico when i had a bunch of mortgages that reported to the fico I had a hell of a time getting even above 700.  I think I had 14 of them not including my home.. Now that I have paid them all off and ONLY have my one home mortgage I actually saw my first 800 score when i dropped a big commercial loan I had my banker send me the report. We carry no balances and have no car payments and only one mortgage.. So I guess thats how we finally got there. :)

 I dont really use the high limits really except on my primary business card. Just having them, allows by default for my credit utilization to be low. I rarely have a balance over $20k, and more typically $10k on my personal ones. My business card I do probably have a $10k spend a month on it, but I dont really carry a balance on it, except a little in dry seaons to better manage cash flow.

[Alecia Loveless]

@Lorraine Hadden Keep paying your bills and mortgages on time and maintain a low amount of debt that is carried from month to month on your revolving types of credit accounts like credit cards.

I’ve had a solid credit score over 800 for years but recently as I’ve added more mortgages it has dropped a little bit.

I’m currently carrying some credit card debt month to month that I’m working to pay off. I suspect once I get rid of that my score will rebound some.

That being said with 10+ mortgages I think there’s only so much you can do.

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Lorraine Hadden:

What are some strategies you have used to improve or rebuild credit?

 Without question. I hit the magic 850 earlier this year. I even took a screen shot of it somewhere. That and a dollar bought me a cup of coffee. It's not meaningful if you're not doing anything with it, but it certainly never hurts to have a great credit score. 

Strategies: maintain the most amount of credit lines possible without use; no late payments, ever; any credit that you do use as a consumer should be small relative to the credit limit of the account; keep your accounts open as long as possible; don't apply for credit unless you really need it to limit hard inquiries; space out any new applications or inquiries as far as possible. 

Once a year I take out all the credit cards and make a small purchase on each one which I then pay off in full just to make sure they stay activated. Beyond that I never carry a balance on anything, and limit my CC usage to just 2 - one personal, one business - and pay them off in full each month. 

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

 This is me as well, though I don't think I'm at quite 400k available but it's several numbers in the 6 figures. People laugh sometimes but I've bought two houses on credit cards using one of my account checks at times when I had a lot of projects going at once and was short on cash but didn't want to let a great deal go by. Both were back when I had a proliferation of 0% balance for 18/24 & 0% transaction fee, and both checks generated a phone call from the credit companies (Bank of America and CitiBank) to ensure they were legitimate. Not a strategy I'd recommend to anyone unless they have the discipline and the cash to pay it off before the interest becomes due. 

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

Russell do you go for those high limits for a rainey day or use those funds to bridge your rehabs for pay cycle then pay them off so your not paying interest ?  Just curious why .. I have not asked for a raise on mine I get pretty big ones out of the gate LOL.

As for Fico when i had a bunch of mortgages that reported to the fico I had a hell of a time getting even above 700.  I think I had 14 of them not including my home.. Now that I have paid them all off and ONLY have my one home mortgage I actually saw my first 800 score when i dropped a big commercial loan I had my banker send me the report. We carry no balances and have no car payments and only one mortgage.. So I guess thats how we finally got there. :)

 That's interesting - my commercial loans don't show up on my credit reports. If I am applying for a mortgage for anything I have to self-report these loans. I do all of my commercial business with my credit union so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I have several of these mortgages so I suspect it would probably drop my score a little if they were reported just on the credit utilization. 

[Russell Brazil]

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

Russell do you go for those high limits for a rainey day or use those funds to bridge your rehabs for pay cycle then pay them off so your not paying interest ?  Just curious why .. I have not asked for a raise on mine I get pretty big ones out of the gate LOL.

As for Fico when i had a bunch of mortgages that reported to the fico I had a hell of a time getting even above 700.  I think I had 14 of them not including my home.. Now that I have paid them all off and ONLY have my one home mortgage I actually saw my first 800 score when i dropped a big commercial loan I had my banker send me the report. We carry no balances and have no car payments and only one mortgage.. So I guess thats how we finally got there. :)

 That's interesting - my commercial loans don't show up on my credit reports. If I am applying for a mortgage for anything I have to self-report these loans. I do all of my commercial business with my credit union so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I have several of these mortgages so I suspect it would probably drop my score a little if they were reported just on the credit utilization. 

 Yeah my SBA loan and commercial line of credit are not on my peraonal credit report even though each is in my personal name. 

[Dan H.]

800 is definitely possible.   It certainly is not on debt to income as my 2023 is over 200 to 1.   It is also not too affected by credit card spending as my credit card spending averages over $30k/month (which is pretty close to my 2023 income for the year).  Pay on time for years will get you over 800.  When you are consistently above 820, you may occasionally hit 850.    This was the only time I have seen mine at the 850 which is why I told the screen shot (it was last June).

Good luck

[Paul Cijunelis]

Mine is over 800 so yes. Possible.

It's not only about paying your bills. Your credit will drop if you don't use credit. It's a credit score. the best way to build credit is to have credit, use it liberally and use it properly.

[Marcus Auerbach]

800 is not important, getting over 720 matters. 

I am in the low 800s and don't know of any tangible benefits to be at 800+. Credit scores are a reflection of someone's ability to learning and understanding the rules of the game and haveing the discipline to play by them.

If you already have good credit, already pay everything on time (autopay), then increaseing your limits will probably help you the most, because it gets your utilization down, ideally under 10%.

Higher hanging fruits are average credit and account age (just have to wait for that I guess) and inquiries, which are sometimes unavoidable as real estate investors.  

I sometimes use my HELOC or BLOC to buy a property, do some work, rent it out and then get a loan and when the balance jumps up that kicks me back into the high 700s, but it recovers quickly, even before the balance is paid off again.

Just google: how to improve my fico.

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Pay your bills for years.

Use a low % of available credit. This can be juked a little by having very high credit limits. I have about $400,000 in available credit on my credit cards. So it's pretty hard to break 5% utilization.  I request credit limit increases every year on all my cards. 

Russell do you go for those high limits for a rainey day or use those funds to bridge your rehabs for pay cycle then pay them off so your not paying interest ?  Just curious why .. I have not asked for a raise on mine I get pretty big ones out of the gate LOL.

As for Fico when i had a bunch of mortgages that reported to the fico I had a hell of a time getting even above 700.  I think I had 14 of them not including my home.. Now that I have paid them all off and ONLY have my one home mortgage I actually saw my first 800 score when i dropped a big commercial loan I had my banker send me the report. We carry no balances and have no car payments and only one mortgage.. So I guess thats how we finally got there. :)

 That's interesting - my commercial loans don't show up on my credit reports. If I am applying for a mortgage for anything I have to self-report these loans. I do all of my commercial business with my credit union so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I have several of these mortgages so I suspect it would probably drop my score a little if they were reported just on the credit utilization. 

my loans were back in the day before the GFC and were done by wells fargo and that other big nationwide lender that went out of bizz.. I bought 14 homes in a short period of time for gozone tax bene's those are the same as the benes that people search out for cost seg these days.. except they were much easier you did not need a cost seg report.. And you simply deducted lot value then you got to write off 50% of the balance year one.. and there was no recapture after a sunset period.. this was the gulf opportunities act post katrina.  So those were all on my Fico.. my Bank loans from my commercial banks dont show up IE: development loans  vertical construction loans.. Loans on commercial building and MF. If I had to add all those in I would be a 400 fico :)

[Nathan Gesner]

I think my wife and I have been over 800 for close to 15 years.

Use less than 30% of your available credit. Pay the balance before it's due. Hold on to the cards forever (closing accounts or opening new cards can impact your score). Ask for higher limits so your available credit ratio is higher.

[Paul Novak]

Quote from @Lorraine Hadden:

What are some strategies you have used to improve or rebuild credit?

 An 800 credit score it achievable as I have had one for years but I will say maintaining it while doing real estate has been a challenge only because when taking out mortgages they show up as hard inquires which impacts your score.

Number one thing is to not miss or be late on any payments.  The biggest impact to your credit is payment history.

Next biggest impact is your credit card utilization.  Work to always keep this at or below 10%.  Two things help you with this.  Having a high available credit and then not using it.  When I was a kid I had one credit card with a $500 limit.  I'd have $250 charge to it and my utilization was at 50% which killed my credit.  My wife had $25,000 available credit with $2,500 charge to it and her credit was actually better because she was only at 10% which is nuts but how it works.  Having high limits with low utilization is the way to win in this category.  My other feedback to keep you limits high is to not let credit card accounts close.  I have one main credit card that I use.  Others that I have acquired over the years I charge a small amount on at New Years, pay them off in full that week, and put them away to not be used again for another year.  This way they don't lapse out and close.

Next thing is don't have anything go to collections.  Derogatory Marks are a high impact and once something goes to collections it stays on your report for 7-10 years.

Then comes credit age.  You want to have your accounts open for a long time.  Again why I like keeping credit card accounts open.  With real estate investing this again becomes hard because every time you take out a new mortgage it drives your average down because it's a new account.  Having your average accounts at 9+ years is best.

Now into low impact categories but they still impact your score, total accounts.  They like to see that you can manage credit responsibly and the more accounts you have had success with the higher the score.  Old and active accounts count towards your total accounts.

Lastly comes hard inquires every time you apply for credit and a pull is done on your account.  You want to keep this at 0 to have the highest credit and these stay on your account for 2 years.  

Hope this helps, if you have any other questions let me know.

[Roy Logan]

Quote from @Scott Trench:

I've got one. It takes about 10 years of never missing a payment, using light leverage relative to your income, and using a tiny fraction of your available credit card limits.

 Same - your reasonings to achieve are spot on!

[David Dachtera]

Possible? Certainly.

Probable? Huh-uh. The posts here are those folks whose credit history is exceptional. That said, I'm 6 years out of bankruptcy and on fixed income. My FICO-8 score is in the low-700's.

One of my credit mentors said it this way: "A credit score is a tool, not a trophy".

[Stetson Oates]

I have had a credit history for 20 years, paid as agreed, paid off many lines, have plenty of available credit on CCs and I sit at 730-750.  My wife has 1 Bank of America CC that has never had a balance on it.  Thats all she ever had reported in her name, her score is 800+ every time we check it.  We went awhile back to look at financing an auto and she blew me outta the water with a 1/4 page credit report and an 830 score LOL.  They never even blinked an eye, they only look at the score and care less about anything else.  

[James Hamling]

To add-on to what @Russell Brazil detailed, there is some important life changes that can fast-track things. 

First is forget the monthly thing. Pay BI-WEEKLY. 

Next is use credit as a transactional tool. For example, I purchase nearly everything on CC, for security reasons and convenience, and I pay it off in full every 2 weeks. 

Yes, sometimes there is big buys or whatever and a bit of a balance is carried but I NEVER, N-E-V-E-R get cozy with carrying a balance, paying at minimum or holding a financed balance for 90 days or more. Never never NEVER. 

You need a mindset of consumer debt is DEATH. I ONLY carry performing debt, debt that pays me to hold it. Everything else is LAVA! 

If you're not in financial position to live these rules, that's ok, it is important to start thinking these rules, living them in thought. Your thoughts become your reality, so mindset is of great importance. 

And EVERYONE can start on bi-weekly. It changes things. 

I struggled with debt management until I incorporated this pay bi-weekly "law". It started as a goal, turned into a rule, now it's a law I very happily live. I save untold thousands annually thanks to it. 

[Kyle Luman]

Quote from @James Hamling:

I struggled with debt management until I incorporated this pay bi-weekly "law". It started as a goal, turned into a rule, now it's a law I very happily live. I save untold thousands annually thanks to it. 

 I haven't heard of the bi-weekly credit card payment idea. I see how that would keep your utilization percentage down (and thus help your credit score a small amount), but I don't see how it saves you actual money.  Can you educate me?  Thank you.

[Matthew Paul]

Its easy , just pay it off in full every month .

[Bud Gaffney]

Yes. I have it. 

[Bud Gaffney]

Never miss a payment. Pay all your bills. Pay all your CC's in full. I think that'll get you 800+

[Deal H.]

Yes. After years of struggling with a sub 500 score, I've averaged an 830 FICO across all three credit bureaus for the past 10 years or so. Its certainly possible, but it takes discipline.