Okay, I admit it, I’m confused and annoyed with credit reports. Mainly annoyed at being “stuck” at a Credit Karma credit rating of 788 for the year I’ve been following it. My score takes a transient dip to 763 or 765 or so a month after an app-o-rama but it always recovers quickly to … 788. Wondering why I can’t get higher than that.

I’ve been using credit cards for about 30 years, make an income in excess of $100K, never missed a payment, mortgage holder for almost 30 years, refinanced (paid off) several times, current mortgage payment is small part of income. The main “hit” on my credit rating is large numbers of accounts, about 150 total, 50 in the past 4 years and the accompanying credit inquiries. Opened and closed 18 accounts last year. Currently deployed overseas with the military, with virtually no credit card spending. Went from about 15 open accounts and over $180K available credit 6 months ago to 5 open accounts with $40K available 2 months ago in preparation for deployment.

Credit Report Card Overall Grade: A
Credit Card Utilization 0% Grade: C
Percent of Payments Made On-Time 100% Grade: A
Age of Credit History 8 Yrs 7 Mos Grade: A
Total Accounts 68 Grade: A
Credit Inquiries 4 Grade: C
Derogatory Marks 0 Grade: A

My number of credit inquiries has varied from 2 to 5 over the past 2-3 years and does NOT seem to affect my overall score. Average age of accounts vary from 4 years to 9 years with no apparent effect. Interesting that now my utilization is at 0%, which seems to be hurting me. However, my utilization is always low, nears 10% only occasionally, perhaps once a year, and is about 2-4% the rest of the time. I pay all credit card bills immediately and completely. It’s very unlikely that I’ll have any applications for the next 6 months so hopefully the number of inquiries will get lower.

I realize it’s just a number, and an “unofficial” one at that, but I’m curious why I can’t get over 800. Is there something I can do to get there? Thanks.

Probably. But who cares? It's a FAKO, so it's irrelevant, and a score around 788 is going to qualify for anything anyways.

I wouldn't worry about it. My CK score has been hovering in the low 700's and as of Saturday it was 724 but my actual score on TU just pulled for a refi yesterday was 782.

In contrast my CS score is 784 but my real EX score is 760.

CK and CS are nothing more than ballpark numbers.

Agreed - trying to game a number that just doesn't matter to lenders doesn't make any sense to me.

With that said, you should report a small balance to maximize your real FICO score - the ideal utilization is 1%.

One thing that you can do to raise your CreditKarma score now is let only one card report a $2 balance. A utilization between 1-4% is most optimal when talking about FICO scoring. Like chrisj500 said, 1% is ideal. But CreditKarma's scoring should be almost identical in this case since utilization is a simple calculation.

Why $2? A $1 balance will be seen as 1% util regardless of the amount of credit you have. If you have $100,000 of available credit and let $1 report, your util will be 1% (not 0.00001%). The reason you should let at least $2 report is credit card companies forgive debt with a balance <= $1.99, meaning you're not obligated to pay it back so it won't report. Discover for example will write it off when a new statement hits. For most it's $0.99. Citi won't even forgive $0.01. It's a variable amount between banks.

Look at the statement dates for all your cards and let a $2 balance report on the card that has a statement anniversary coming soonest. The sooner the better. If a new statement gets posted 3-4 days from now (leaving time for a new transaction to post), you'll be able to get another CreditKarma update next week with the updated util. That's if that particular credit card company updates credit reports on the statement date, but most do.

I bet you'll get a higher FAKO if you get your util to 1%. Grade should become an A.

Very good advice for FICO scoring. But CreditKarma doesn't round up utilization percentages. So those of us who don't let a balance report of 1%+ of actual reporting credit limits will see utilization of zero. And since it's a FAKO, that's fine.

OP, my CK score never goes about 796. I've tinkered with the score estimator at length when bored, and found the perfect scenario for my max score: The estimator says I can get to a score of 813 with a CLI on one card totaling $407517. If they CLI me $407516, my estimated score would be 812. Damn you CK and your black credit heart!

Aside from that, the estimator says I'm stuck at 796. Ah well. At least my FICO 08 score is 833. CK is just a hater.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I understand that it’s a fake number but it is based on something and it is the only one I follow. I understand about reporting some balance and that should be happening in the future. My monthly ongoing charges (home phone and internet, internet here in theater, miscellaneous charges, recently paid auto insurance, Mom’s day flowers) on one card vary monthly between $200 and $700 and there is usually at least one or 2 charges between statement date and full payment so the balance is rarely zero.

I did make the mistake of paying more than the balance a couple of months ago (and thus having a credit balance for a few weeks) when I thought I might not have internet access for a couple of weeks and I didn’t want to risk missing a payment. That’s unlikely to happen again.

Thanks again.