How to get perfect credit

FORMULA FOR PERFECT CREDIT

The path to gaining a perfect credit score has been made clear. The formula to achieve it is listed below.

What is credit payment history?

40% payment history – on time payments is the largest variable that’ll help you boost your credit score. Trick here is to automate every payment you have and obviously insure you have the funds to cover costs.

Is it possible to get an 850 credit score?

Yes, according to a study done by Experian less than 1% of Americans have a perfect 850 credit score. That being said, it is possible. It takes years of prefect credit behaviors to achieve the status of perfect credit score. Anything over 800 would be considered perfect and at that point the best thing to do qualify for more is to increase your income. 

Credit Bureaus like when you maintain lines of credit with balances. Oddly enough when you pay off completely a credit line it actually be detrimental. Just be sure to understand that there are good credit and bad credit lines. A credit card or open line of credit is a lower quality line of credit to have. A good line of credit is an asset that is backed by something of value like a home. The more lines of credit backed by assets you have the higher quality of credit increase you can have. 

Do I have a good credit score?

Here is a scale to know if you need to work on your credit score or not. That being said it will always benefit you to improve your score and be sure to maintain it well. It is good to know where you sit in the world of credit score. Be sure to compare and plan accordingly on how to improve your credit standing. 

• Poor: 300-579.
• Fair: 580-669.
• Good: 670-739.
• Very good: 740-799.
• Exceptional: 800-850.

Benefits of perfect credit score

When you have exceptional credit you will be given access to lower rates when taking out loans. You will also be given access to be able to take out more in loans. The awesome part about this is that when you have huge lines of credit available your score benefits so the results basically are compounding. The higher your score the easier it is to maintain and continue growing your score. That being said it all hinges on your ability to pay on time your debts. 

How to keep your credit safe

Aura is a service that keeps you protected from unwanted credit usage. They monitor credit checks, protect from fraudulent usage, keep you safe from identity theft but most importantly keep you and your family safe from cyber attacks. 

Since using their services they've found places on the dark web where my data was found and helped me add a layer of protection by offering a solution. I was notified almost instantly when I made changes to my own credit limits while speaking with my credit card companies. 

Their phone app has a super clean interface that is easy to use and understand. I use it as a password manager as well as a VPN service that keeps my mobile and home usage protected and secure. 

This isn't a paid link, I am just a big fan of what they are doing to keep people safe and can't recommend their services enough. 

Definition credit history

21% credit history – This one is referring to how you manage your debts. Do you pay them off? It also tracks the types of debts you have. For example I recently refinanced my house only under my wife’s name and my credit score dropped 20 points. I’ve slowly built it back up but the types of debt you currently have affects your score. Having a mortgage boosts your credit because it shows you can make mortgage payments.

What is credit usage?

20% credit usage – Having 6 maxed out credit cards will look bad. If you are making minimum payments every month this will also negatively affect your score. This variable tracks your ability to take out debt and pay it off.

Credit Balance 

11% total balance - I’ve got my credit score to 812 by keeping my total available credit usage under 6%. So if I have a credit card with a $10,000 credit limit I generally only put $600 of debt on it a month. Trick with this one is to have a high available credit limit. You can call your credit card people and ask for higher limit even if you never intend on using it. This will help boost your credit over time.

How does a credit check affect my score?

5% credit check – this one is clear, every time you get your credit ran it negatively affects your score. But the percentage it affects you is minimal but be aware that if you’re applying for credit cards, and cars and mortgage it’ll negatively affect your score generally for a year after the check.

How does credit availability change my score?

3% available credit – I previously mentioned this one, but having a lot of available credit helps your score. It basically shows you are trustworthiness to manage more debt. I’ve only done this a handful of times and I tried to do it with all my open credit lines in the same year.

Credit boost secrets

Bonus tip #1: having a credit card isn’t necessary to build credit. There are other tools you can use. My favorite is having a line of credit at my credit union. I have a $10,000 line of credit with them and it’s been open for 8 years. It started out at $500 and last time I bought a car using my credit union I asked them to increase the limit on that since they had just ran my credit. Two birds, one stone. This is a long term play.

Bonus tip #2: if you’re married chances are one of you has a higher credit score. Let’s say the wife has better score and the husband needs improvement. If the husband becomes an authorized user on the wife’s credit card, husband will get a boost in credit score. This’ll give you a nice short term increase in score without much work.

If you found that useful, check out my article on how Inflation Erodes The Dollar Compounding.

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