Perfect Credit Score

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perfect credit score

Having a perfect credit score can also make it easier to rent an apartment since landlords often perform a credit check after you turn in your application. Perfect credit might even help you during a job search if your employer checks your credit history during the interview process.

You should also check your credit score on a regular basis. Many credit monitoring services not only update your credit score every week, but also provide insights into why your score might have gone up or down. Use those insights to get your credit score as high as possible.

Whether or not a perfect credit score is worth the effort depends on what you hope to get out of your credit history. For a lot of people, having very good or excellent credit will be good enough; you still get nearly all of the benefits of perfect credit, including the ability to access credit cards designed for people with high credit scores.

Some notable traits revealed in the data on consumers with perfect FICO Scores include having a larger than average number of credit cards, lower than average total debt, lower than average credit card balances and higher than average personal loan balances.

And despite the somewhat whimsical comparison, a perfect game of bowling and a "perfect" credit score of 850 have at least a few things in common, such as the need for consistency and discipline. Nonetheless, there are excellent bowlers who've never quite managed a 300 game.

An 850 FICO Score isn't as uncommon as you might think. Statistically, there's a good chance you've attended a wedding, conference, church service or other large gathering with someone who has a perfect score. As of the third quarter (Q3) of 2021, 1.31% of all FICO Scores in the U.S. stood at 850.

Length of credit history is a factor in determining your credit score, and although there may be a few exceptions, there's not much consumers can do to extend their credit history besides remain patient and let it happen naturally. Keeping your credit report blemish-free and continuing to extend the length of your credit history are two main ways to eventually reach the elusive 850.

Exactly 2% of Hawaii residents had a FICO Score of 850 in 2021, a greater percentage of consumers than any other state. The demographics of migrants to the 50th state are similar to the characteristics of a typical consumer with excellent, or even perfect, credit: A significant population of retirees relocate there annually, which requires a certain level of financial security.

Looking at perfect FICO Scores by state, Hawaii had the highest concentration of consumers with 850 scores at 2% in 2021. Mainland states that followed were Minnesota, where 1.87% of people had an 850 FICO Score, then Connecticut and Maryland, both with 1.78% of borrowers achieving the perfect FICO Score. Virginia had the fifth-greatest percentage of 850 FICO Scores, at 1.74%.

Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in California account for four of the top 10 MSAs with the highest percentage of perfect scores in their populations. While that list includes smaller, wealthier enclaves such as Santa Rosa, in the heart of wine country, it also includes very large metros, such as the Bay Area. More than 1 in 50 consumers had a perfect 850 credit score in the San Francisco-Oakland MSA. (By comparison, in Denver, a similarly large metro, 1.49% of consumers had an 850 FICO Score, a percentage more consistent with the national average.)

But, of course, if you aspire to an 850 score, keep in mind that the fundamentals still apply: Open new accounts only when needed, and make sure to manage your debt and payments responsibly. In addition to making your payments on time and keeping your credit usage low, avoid any late payments that result in delinquent tradelines.

A credit score is a three-digit number that is calculated from information on a credit report and generally ranges between 300 and 850. A good credit score is 670 to 739 on the FICO Score range, while a credit score of 661 to 780 is good on the VantageScore range.

A credit score ranges from 300 to 850 and is a numerical rating that measures a person's likelihood to repay a debt. A higher credit score signals that a borrower is lower risk and more likely to make on-time payments. Credit scores are often used to help determine the likelihood someone will pay what they owe on debts such as loans, mortgages, credit cards, rent and utilities. Lenders may use credit scores to evaluate loan qualification, credit limit and interest rate.

In part, this depends on the types of borrowers they want to attract. Creditors may also take into account how current events could impact consumers' credit scores, and adjust their requirements accordingly. Some lenders create their own custom credit scoring programs, but the two most commonly used credit scoring models are the ones developed by FICO and VantageScore.

FICO creates different types of consumer credit scores. There are "base" FICO Scores that the company makes for lenders in multiple industries to use, as well as industry-specific credit scores for credit card issuers and auto lenders.

FICO uses percentages to represent generally how important each category is, though the exact percentage breakdown used to determine your credit score will depend on your unique credit report. FICO considers scoring factors in the following order:

VantageScore lists the factors by how influential they generally are in determining a credit score, but this will also depend on your unique credit report. VantageScore considers factors in the following order:

FICO industry-specific scores are built on top of a base FICO Score, and FICO periodically releases new suites of scores. The FICO Score 10 Suite, for instance, was announced in early 2020. It includes a base FICO Score 10, a FICO Score 10 T (which includes trended data) and new industry-specific scores.

There are scores used more rarely as well. For instance, FICO is slowly rolling out the UltraFICO Score, which allows consumers to link checking, savings or money market accounts and considers banking activity. Lenders may also create custom credit scoring models designed with their target customers in mind.

As a result, the same factors can impact all your credit scores. If you monitor multiple credit scores, you could find that your scores vary depending on the scoring model and which one of your credit reports it analyzes. But, over time, you may see they all tend to rise and fall together.

For example, the difference between taking out a 30-year, fixed-rate $250,000 mortgage with a 670 FICO Score and a 720 FICO Score could be $72 a month. That's extra money you could be putting toward your savings or other financial goals. Over the lifetime of the loan, having a good score could save you $26,071 in interest payments.

Your credit reports (but not consumer credit scores) can also impact you in other ways. Some employers may review your credit reports before making a hiring or promotion decision. And, in most states, insurance companies may use credit-based insurance scores to help determine your premiums for auto, home and life insurance.

Checking your credit scores might also give you insight into what you can do to improve them. For example, when you check your FICO Score 8 from Experian for free, you can also look to see how you're doing with each of the credit score categories.

You may be able to point to a specific event that leads to a score change. For example, a late payment or new collection account will likely lower your credit score. Conversely, paying down a high credit card balance and lowering your utilization rate may increase your score.

But some actions might have an impact on your credit scores that you didn't expect. Paying off a loan, for example, might lead to a drop in your scores, even though it's a positive action in terms of responsible money management. This could be because it was the only open installment account you had on your credit report or the only loan with a low balance. After paying off the loan, you may be left without a mix of open installment and revolving accounts, or with only high-balance loans.

Perhaps you decide to stop using your credit cards after paying off the balances. Avoiding debt is a good idea, but lack of activity in your accounts could lead to a lower score. You may want to use a card for a small monthly subscription and then pay off the balance in full each month to maintain your account's activity and build its on-time payment history.

Your bank, credit union, lender or credit card issuer may give you free access to one of your credit scores. Experian also lets you check your FICO Score 8 based on your Experian credit report for free.

The type of credit score you get can depend on the source. Some services may offer you a version of your FICO Score, while others offer VantageScore credit scores. In either case, the calculated score will also depend on which credit report the scoring model analyzes.

The top five states with the highest percentage of their respective populations with an 850 credit score has remained pretty consistent over the past ten years and that percentage has increased with each state over the time period as well. 041b061a72