Euliscool

hmmm never thought about how long your credit history is... i have a over 700 FICO, but my history is about 5 years old... is dat too short? would i need to talk to dad for help on the purchase?

Shoofin

Anything over 700 is good, but some banks want you to have previous auto lease/loan experience for them to approve you, if you don't have any previous auto experience, even with the best credit, they may not approve you..
Ed

6speed

700 is good ...... highest is 800 (I think). Anyone here that high. They checked mine when I got my TL. I am 763.

frozenpenguin

Highest is 850. I am right around 800. Never made a late payment in my life....

Hybrid

Credit ratings are very strange things. Some things that you'd think would increase your rating decrease it instead. For example, if you own you house, and you finally pay it off, your credit rating will go down. Why? Because you no longer have an active home loan. (Even though the paid off loan is still on their record). Never mind that your disposable income is very high because of a paid off house. They don't care.

If you have only a couple of credit cards, and the limits are low, that can be bad. Why? Say the limits are $1000 on each of 2 cards and you have $500 charged to each of them, even though you pay it off completely every month. The credit agencies see that as having 50% of your credit lines used up and rate you down for it because you're using too much credit. It's better to have a reasonable number of cards, have high credit limits, and have only a small percent of that charged at any time.

A longer credit history helps your score. So does always paying on time, of course. Utility payments don't seem to count or appear on credit records. (Maybe they do in cases of default).

VQ35DE

But as a rule, if your revolving debt balances (credit cards) are < 50% of your limit on no more than 4 credit cards, you'll be OK.

The 5 year history will be a slight factor against you but so long as its a good history you should be OK. checkout: www.myfico.com

I'm at 725 and my wife is 788. Like Shoofin stated, pretty much anything above 700 (very good) will make the better rates available to you.

TLXLR8S

wher did you get this info from?

nick79

i am 803 and 24 years old. woohoo.

never missed a payment in my life.

Formula 350

And where are you getting these scores?

Do you have to pay for them?

mspence3

Equifax.com. If you want anything fast and useful, you pay.

Ken1997TL

788, 22 years old. I've sold cars and worked for the US Congress and paid off 3 cars. I think that all might have helped

moeronn

If you want your FICO score, go to www.myfico.com. I think they charge ~$13 per score from each of the credit tracking agencies. You best bet is to just get two - Equifax and Experian, as they seem to be the most widely used.

I wasted some money by getting my PLUS scores through Experian and they were ~50 points higher than my FICO score (just under 700) and are useless.

One thing that can really ding your SCORE is the number of times you applied for credit in the last 2 years. My score dropped from 777 to 69x since I bought my condo. I tood advantage of a few "no payments/no interest" store charge cards, a refinance and a HELOC - each one of those dinged my score. rate shopping for home loans will usually just count as one "inquiry", but getting credit cards from a few stores a few months apart will hurt you. They say the average person has only 1 inquery a year, so having 2 in two years is acceptable. After that the points come off.

digital_b

if the fico and plus scores are so close in range [they are, I checked] how can there be 50 points difference? high fico is 850 and high plus is 830.

eaRL

FICO will be the score that is closest to what the lender will see when making a decision. Length of credit history is an important factor also. Ten years is better and 20+ is optimal. Length of time at your current job and debt to income ratio are both important as well.

Credit card balances above 50% of your high credit limit on multiple cards is a very bad thing. As others have mentioned, if you have applied for other types of credit very recently (like in the last few of months) it can indicate that you are more of a credit risk than you appear to be on paper even if you have always payed your bills on time. But, paying those credit card balances off completely, or at a minimum reducing the balances on all cards to below 50% of your high credit, can give you an instant 12-24 point boost in your FICO score.

I'm glad to see people actually getting this information and understanding it. Being armed with this information "before" getting into a firefight with the finance manager at the dealership is key.

It's usually not a question of "will you be able to get this car or not" but "what finance rate will you receive" and "how much bargaining power do you have based on your credit profile".

Car dealerships will sell almost anyone a car. In most cases, they are not even loaning you the money. They are just pushing paper. The important thing is to know where you are on the credit "food chain" so you will be able to tell the difference between a good finance rate and a "not-so-good" finance rate.