« Mutual Fund Fees Jump | Main | Money’s Tips For Raising Your FICO Credit Score »
My FICO Score is 794. What’s Your Credit Score?
By JLP | August 20, 2009
After reading an article in the latest Money magazine about credit scores, I decided to check my wife’s and my score. I used myFICO.com found out my score was 794. Pretty good. It said that the only thing hurting my score was that I had 4 accounts with balances. One of those is our Visa Rewards Card and another is a Best Buy Card for a TV purchase we made at 0%, which will pay off in October. No big deal. Another account is a car loan that will pay off next May.
I then ran my wife’s number and found out it’s 802! GEEZ…
My wife has two accounts with balances, which helped her score. The only thing hurting her score was that she has 35 accounts. I’m going to look into this one. They don’t give much information on how to fix this one.
So, what’s your score?
Topics: Credit, Credit Cards | 17 Comments »
August 20th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Checked my FICO about a month ago….787.
Unfortunately, I think Obama is going to take 150 points from my score and give it to some deadbeat with a 560.
August 20th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Last time I checked – sometime last year, I was in the mid-700s and my husband was in the upper 700s. We were very pleased by that.
August 20th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Mike, thanks for the chuckle!
When we refinanced this spring I asked about our scores. They pulled 3 for each of us…and yes, my score was higher than my husband who outearns me by a factor of 10-to-1. (I thinks it’s my long payment record from 1988 w/Discover that seals the deal!) I think my score was around 805. And yes, we too had the comment about too many accts. Oh well. I love to spread my debt around!
Now we’re pretty much down to our Upromise CC (main household CC–large bal, but pay off this and all monthly) and the occasional few-hundred dollar balances on Target, Carsons and/or Macys.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:05 am
Last time I checked, it was at 812…no debt besides a nearly paid-off mortgage loan and I have never paid a cent of interest on a credit card.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:19 am
Dang Mark…that’s impressive. My goal is to get mine above 800 by the end of the year (or sooner). It shouldn’t be too hard once my BestBuy card is paid off.
I guess people with really low FICO scores aren’t reading AFM.
August 21st, 2009 at 1:26 am
Wow. Everyone’s numbers are quite excellent.
My husband and I are both in the mid-700s. When we checked the reason why, it said that the credit history is too short (earliest card we opened was 4 years ago). Does anyone know what counts as (minimum) long enough? 5 years? 10?
August 21st, 2009 at 8:08 am
My credit score is 763 and my wife’s is 778. We are still paying off some credit card debit we incurred when we had our 85 year old house re-wired.
August 21st, 2009 at 10:31 am
I used to get my monthly FICO score free through my Washington Mutual account, but when they got bought out by Chase last year that perk was dropped. Last couple times I had seen it though, it was floating between 798 and 812.
Nikki – You usually have to have a card open for 7 years before the “credit history is too short” ding goes away. I think mine jumped about 20 points once I finally reached that benchmark (got my first card in 2001).
August 21st, 2009 at 11:19 am
Mine was 812 about 6 months ago. I have never owned a single penny and usually hate debt. About 9 months ago I started looking to buy a house. Since then I have had about 6-7 inquires (for possible loans and pre-approvals). My credit score now stands at 730 :–( Nothing else has changed. Without a cent of Debt I’m not sure how these idiots define an inquiry should be punished with lower scores…help!!!
August 21st, 2009 at 11:41 am
Marcos,
Something doesn’t sound right. For instance, I looked up inquiries on the myFICO.com website and this is what they say:
“If you apply for several credit cards within a short period of time, multiple inquiries will appear on your report. Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto, mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score.”
UPDATE: I also found this:
“Inquiries can have a greater impact if you have few accounts or a short credit history. Large numbers of inquiries also mean greater risk. Statistically, people with six inquiries or more on their credit reports can be up to eight times more likely to declare bankruptcy than people with no inquiries on their reports.”
You can find this information here.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:19 pm
My wife just canceled her Home Depot card because of the way they were treating her. I agree on principle, but now it will ding her credit score because of the cancelled card – and hers is higher than mine! I have a new free ebook to help folks understand this mess, called “Your Credit Sucks” feel free to check it out. http://ratenerd.com/your-credit-sucks
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:41 am
My Score is 748.
What really hurts my score is the length of credit – average is only 1 year 10 month.
I open about 5 cards a year and close 5 cards a year – yes sign up bonus – I’m addicted.
I have had credit cards for over 20 years and never paid credit card interest – I love credit cards – tax free money.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:00 am
When we bought our house in Novemeber my husband’s was 810, mine was 813 – pretty funny since I don’t work. This is the last loan we’re taking out – ever, so I could care less where it goes from here. I wonder what it is now since we have $390k in debt we didn’t have in November? PRobably hasn’t changed much since we still had a mortgage payment, then, too, albeit smaller.
As long as you make the payments you have on time and for the amount due you’ll have a good score, even if you have quite a bit of outstanding debt.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
Mine is 790, it was 802 a and a half ago the it dropped to 776 all to getting a new mortgage. I just in the last month or so had the jump back up. I am watching to see it go back up over 800 not for any particular reason, just because.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Thanks JLP. I looked up the website and contacted the credit agencies as well. Here is some more info:
- I have only 4 open credit card accounts. I hardly ever use them a I prefer to pay mostly in cash.
- Recently Chase decided to unilaterally close one of my account due to inactivity.
- Length of my credit history is not a problem as I have had credit cards since 1993.
- Another interesting thing they mentioned was that 2 of my credit cards do not report the max limit (I have one from citi with 50k high limit and another from discover with 100k). Since they report the max limit to be 0, it is generally considered a dent to overall credit report.
- I had an auto loan which I paid off in 3 months (around 56k). This also does not seem to help as the length of successful payments is also a factor in overall scores.
Bottom line, I think the way determine overall credit scores is not the most accurate way of assessing risk and credit worthiness.
I am 37 and have never paid anything late or owe a single penny to anyone. Overall, my assets are about 900k (including my 401k). I am planning to buy a house in San Francisco soon (first time buyer) and I am unable to secure a good rate on my mortgage due to these “inquires” and my credit rating in low 700s. Needless to say I am deeply deeply disappointed!
I wish I could just pay for the house in cash too but home prices in CA will take me another 4-5 to save that much.
Anyways, I have been a long time reader of this website and keep up the good work! I really enjoy reading all the articles and helpful information to keep my finances in order.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I found out mine is 735 and please with that, too bad for the first comment (Mike) that his IQ is not as high as his Credit score.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Haven’t checked my score since last October..When I did, the average of all 3 credit scores was 806. Been checking it usually once a year, and gets better each year which is good. No debt except for a mortgage.
2003 – 757
2004 – 766
2006 – 786
2007 – 800
2008 – 806
–Jason