Warning: Super Stupid--- Question for those with "Excellent" Credit Scores

[TiredX2]

Any (easy) ideas on how to bump my score just a bit?

I don't need a loan or anything... I just want it to go up a bit.  Yes, totally unnecessary.  It's not even theh "real" score (just off credit karma).  The last time I knew my real score (Jan 2005, actually) it was over 800 but my credit karma score is under 800 and, well, I'd just rather it was over.

Like I warned, I know it's stupid!

:)

[Juvysen]

i dunno.  I heard that anything over 750 is considered an excellent score.  What i was told, years ago, was to build your credit score, you buy things on credit (obviously) and pay them off asap.  Sooooo... like, buy something big on a credit card that you have cash for, and pay your credit card company immediately.  From how it sounds, though, your score is excellent and you really shouldn't bother worrying about it.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by Juvysen 

i dunno.  I heard that anything over 750 is considered an excellent score.  What i was told, years ago, was to build your credit score, you buy things on credit (obviously) and pay them off asap.  Sooooo... like, buy something big on a credit card that you have cash for, and pay your credit card company immediately.  From how it sounds, though, your score is excellent and you really shouldn't bother worrying about it.

Oh, I *know* that there isn't a difference in credit "worthiness" between my score and 800+.  I just really liked it being over 800.  That's why I called it "super stupid"--- it's all in my head.  It's annoying, though, because I don't think we've become *less* credit worthy over the years, but the score has slowly gone down.  I wonder if we "should" owe more on the house?  Oh well! ;)
 

[MeepyCat]

TiredX2, at the level you're at, it's very hard to move your credit score, and IMO, it ain't worth it - it could cost you cash money, and the extra few points won't make any bit of difference to lenders.

Last winter, my husband and I refinanced, and a credit report with FICO score was part of the refinance paperwork.  Our rating is excellent, but I wondered if, nonetheless, we could improve and obtain better interest rates.  When I spoke to the bank about what we might do to make a difference, I was told that we were already getting their best rate, but that we might try not to use so much of our available consumer credit lines.  They had no issue with the *amount* of credit we had, they were surprised we hadn't taken out more cards or bugged our card issuers for higher limits, but they had some issue with the fact that we were using about 75% of our available credit (even though we pay off our cards in full every month).  So we could hypothetically improve our credit score by convincing a credit card company to offer us more credit, either by applying for more cards or by switching to credit card products with annual fees.  In other words - for about $100 bucks a year, we could *see* if *maybe* the needle twitched a teeny bit to the north.  So not worth it.

[texmati]

In the past, I have called up my current card, and asked them to raise the limit. I don't know if it would be so easy in the current climate, but at the time it just took one phone call.

[flightgoddess]

From the way it ws explained to me, it is a lot easier to make your score jomp points when you are at a lowere level, say 600 to 700. But once you are in the excellent rating, getting points is so much slower. If you are basically doing everything right already, then the only other way to add points is with time/lenghth of credit history.

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by texmati 

In the past, I have called up my current card, and asked them to raise the limit. I don't know if it would be so easy in the current climate, but at the time it just took one phone call.

Getting your limit raised is easy, up to a point - there's a limit (used to be $5K, but this was a loooong time ago) to how high you can go before they have to switch you into a "gold" card, or other higher level program.  Those tend to come with fees.

[velochic]

That's a tough one.  I would agree with some of the others that your credit to debt ratio would be the one factor that moves the score fastest. 

We had a deal a little while back where we were trying to decide to keep our mortgage or pay it off or refi (we keep a mortgage by choice) and when we decided to redo a 12 year refi, they were doing some credit checking and getting our numbers.  Our numbers usually are around 810 - 813 and they came back at 798, 796.  I was wondering why for a moment, then it dawned on me that we had just gotten back from a trip abroad and the whole of that trip was still on our credit card (which we paid in full, but still...).  It was because our debt to credit ratio was wonky from the credit card balance being high.  Our scores went right back up when we paid the bill.  We have long-established credit, no dings on our credit report, no late payments, so the whole of our score is affected by this ratio, it seems.

I wouldn't worry too much about the fluctuations.  They are just little snap-shots in time.  You can't keep it a consistent score because your finances change daily.

[GardenStream]

Ours dipped below 800 this summer. We decided to get a pool and wanted to pay for it with a CC (lots of cash back). Anyway, I had to call the CC company and request an increase on the card limit. They had to run a credit check to give us the increase. We got the increase, but the pool company gave us a 5% discount for paying cash which was much better than the 2% we would have received from the CC.

Anyway, we decided to refinance the house this fall. Our credit score was under 800 and DH and I were both shocked. It has never been below 800 since we were married. The loan officer told us it was no big deal, but the credit check by the CC company was enough to knock it down about 10 points which got us under 800.

[Ellien C]

This is a timely thread for me. Apparently our combined score is 765 but mine alone is over 800. We do not qualify for the lowest rate at 765 and would need to be at 810 or something. I have about $2500 on my Credit Card which could be paid off with savings. DH has a similar amount. Think it will make a difference?

[mamaofprincesses]

Keep in mind, too, that there have been changes made to how a credit score is calculated. http://moneyover55.about.com/od/managingdebt/a/creditscore.htm

So that could explain the difference, if you hadn't checked since then, and it may change what you do to improve it (not that I think you need to improve it, but you seem committed to the idea :))

[Carson]

Ellien C - well it could or it could not.  Credit scores are such intense calculations.  I would say it probably couldn't hurt, but the amount it helps depends on your total credit line.

If your balance is 2500 / 20000 available credit, that's not much.  If your balance is 2500 / 5000 that might help a lot.

Of course having a huge available credit amount could actually hurt you - lenders look at it as a risk that you could go out and run up all that debt.  Crazy, right?

To the OP, DH and I have 'excellent' credit too but and the only thing we are lacking at this point is overall length of credit history.  The overachiever in me wants it higher though.  Nothing you can do about that!

[Ellien C]

Thanks for the replies. I believe we definitely have over 20K in available credit so it probably won't make that much difference. DH is very disappointed we didn't qualify for the higher loan rate (actually now he's spiralled into convincing himself that we won't qualify for the re-fi at all, but that's another issue).

[TiredX2]

 

Originally Posted by flightgoddess 

From the way it ws explained to me, it is a lot easier to make your score jomp points when you are at a lowere level, say 600 to 700. But once you are in the excellent rating, getting points is so much slower. If you are basically doing everything right already, then the only other way to add points is with time/lenghth of credit history.

Yeah, I know.  I was surprised that our score went *down* though, since our credit history is now 5 years longer, kwim.

Originally Posted by GardenStream 

Ours dipped below 800 this summer. We decided to get a pool and wanted to pay for it with a CC (lots of cash back). Anyway, I had to call the CC company and request an increase on the card limit. They had to run a credit check to give us the increase. We got the increase, but the pool company gave us a 5% discount for paying cash which was much better than the 2% we would have received from the CC.

Anyway, we decided to refinance the house this fall. Our credit score was under 800 and DH and I were both shocked. It has never been below 800 since we were married. The loan officer told us it was no big deal, but the credit check by the CC company was enough to knock it down about 10 points which got us under 800.

I looked and we have one hard inquiry.  I have *no* idea what it is, so I'm going to look into it.
 

Originally Posted by Ellien C 

This is a timely thread for me. Apparently our combined score is 765 but mine alone is over 800. We do not qualify for the lowest rate at 765 and would need to be at 810 or something. I have about $2500 on my Credit Card which could be paid off with savings. DH has a similar amount. Think it will make a difference?

Someone already mentioned that it depends on the % of available credit.  We're only using 6% of ours (we pay it off each month, but our balances were 6% at time of inquiry).  Credit Karma lists the categories as 1-20% (A), 21-40% (B), 0% OR 41-60% (C), 61-100% (D), 101+% (F). If your pay off would change your category, that *could* make a difference.
 

Originally Posted by mamaofprincesses 

Keep in mind, too, that there have been changes made to how a credit score is calculated. http://moneyover55.about.com/od/managingdebt/a/creditscore.htm

So that could explain the difference, if you hadn't checked since then, and it may change what you do to improve it (not that I think you need to improve it, but you seem committed to the idea :))

It probably did.  Payment history lost importance and we have great payment history.

 

Originally Posted by Carson 

To the OP, DH and I have 'excellent' credit too but and the only thing we are lacking at this point is overall length of credit history.  The overachiever in me wants it higher though.  Nothing you can do about that!

And we have our winner!  I totally forgot that we closed several credit cards.  Including our oldest card (which would now have been 16 years).  We kept just a few cards, the ones we liked the rewards of.  BUT, our average age of credit went from 91 to 67 months.  And we went from 10 open accounts to 5.  They suggest 21+ for an "A" grade.  No thanks to that.  I'm sure we'll live ;)

[monkey's mom]

Originally Posted by TiredX2 

  And we went from 10 open accounts to 5.  They suggest 21+ for an "A" grade.  No thanks to that.  I'm sure we'll live ;)

TWENTY ONE open credit accounts??    Holy moses! 

Ours jumped after going from mortgage holders to not. That was several years ago and I honestly have no idea what it is now.

We did get slightly penalized years and years ago when we bought our first house for having "too much open credit." We were so stunned to have spent all that time building credit and getting good credit lines that we didn't max out or fill up, and then have it count against us.