- Credit Intel
- Credit Score
- What Is the Highest Credit Score?
The highest credit score you can get is an 850 – by both FICO and VantageScore standards. Keeping it isn’t easy but aiming for a high credit score is still beneficial.
By Michael Grace | American Express Credit Intel Freelance Contributor
5 Min Read | May 2, 2022 in Credit Score
At-A-Glance
The higher your credit score, the better your chances of obtaining more favorable interest rates and loan terms.
A perfect credit score is achievable, though only a small percentage of Americans do so at any given time.
Getting – and maintaining – the highest possible credit score requires adhering to several important financial best practices.
The Highest Credit Score Possible
The highest credit score you can get is an 850, regardless of whether it’s FICO or VantageScore – the two most commonly used credit scoring models – doing the algorithmic computations.
Should your FICO score equal 850, congratulations: You’re one of the 1.6% Americans to achieve a perfect credit score, according to an April 2019 report by FICO.1 It’s unknown what percentage of the population has a perfect VantageScore, but it’s worth noting that FICO scores seem to be used in the majority of lending decisions.
How Getting the Highest Credit Score Possible Can Benefit You
The higher your credit score, the more a lender trusts your ability to pay them back. Since this, in turn, implies less risk, the more likely the lender will be to offer larger loan amounts. What’s more, higher credit scores tend to result in lower interest rates tend to result in lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms. Think about the amount of savings that could equate to on a mortgage, car loan, personal loan, or student loan – as much as tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the principal amount.2
Many credit card companies will offer higher credit limits to those with the highest credit scores, in addition to lower interest rates and potentially more favorable promotional rates and welcome offers.
Furthermore, some lenders will only work with people with high credit scores – think, 700 or better. If you have the highest credit score possible, you’re automatically part of that group.
Maintaining the Highest Credit Score Can Be Challenging
I keep a magnet on my refrigerator that reads, “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.” It’s a nice reminder that, hey, not every day is a winner, but I can still appreciate the joy in things I hold dear.
The same applies with credit scores. Is a perfect credit score attainable? Yes. Is a perfect credit score sustainable? Not so much. But that’s OK.
Here’s why. A credit score acts as a financial snapshot of a current timeframe; thus, it can change from day to day. While your goal may be set on reaching the highest score possible, “settling” for an excellent credit score will provide very similar access to the best loan rates, terms, and credit limits possible.
In fact, there’s nothing wrong with “exceptional” credit – that’s good news for the 23% of Americans with exceptional FICO scores of 800 or higher.3 Better yet, in most cases, experts agree that having a score of at least 760 is enough to put you in the same range of rates as those with perfect scores.4
The average FICO score was 716 as of April 2021.5
What Factors Make Up a High Credit Score?
To get – and maintain – the highest credit score you can, it’s important to understand what factors go into a calculating a score. FICO and VantageScore each factor in roughly the same categories of information. These include:
1. Payment history: If you’re chasing perfection, be careful not to miss or make a late payment. Plenty of helpful technology – like autopay – can ensure that you never miss a minimum payment on or before its due date.
- Makes up 35% of your FICO score; VantageScore considers it “moderately influential.”
2. Credit utilization rate: How much of your available credit is in use? Experts recommend keeping your credit utilization ratio below 30% to benefit your credit score. Asking for a credit limit increase can help grow your total credit limit and help lower your utilization rate – provided you don’t increase your spending as well.
- Makes up 30% of your FICO score; VantageScore considers it “extremely influential.”
3. Length of credit history: Have an old credit card with a zero balance? As long as a steep annual fee isn’t costing you money, don’t close that account. Closing it can shorten your credit history – a key component of your credit score – and reduce your credit utilization rate. Consider using credit cards of this nature for small recurring autopayments – like for a streaming service – to prevent account closure due to inactivity.
- Makes up 15% of your FICO score; VantageScore considers it “less influential.”
4. Credit mix: Does your debt comprise only credit cards, or do you have a diverse mix of installment loans, a mortgage, credit cards, and more? A greater credit mix indicates your ability to manage different forms of debt – a plus in the eyes of credit scoring agencies and lenders.
- Makes up 10% of your FICO score; VantageScore considers it “highly influential.”
A thought worth considering: You’ll probably feel a sense of accomplishment and relief when you pay off a loan – and you should enjoy that feeling – but it reduces your credit mix (and sometimes length of credit history). Therefore, it can briefly knock back your credit score a few points.
5. New credit: When you apply for a new line of credit, be it a credit card or loan, the lender will make a “hard inquiry” into your credit history. Hard inquiries can lower your credit score by a few points – and the more new credit you seek, the greater the impact. These inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to two years, but their impact lessens over time.
- Makes up 10% of your FICO score; VantageScore considers it “less influential.”
However, shopping around for a loan or credit within a short time frame – 14 days or so – can lessen the impact to your credit score. Why? Some credit scoring models count multiple loan requests made within a short window as a single hard inquiry.
The Takeaway
The highest credit score you can get is 850. While landing that 850 credit score can be gratifying, this isn’t the Olympics. There are no gold medals for achieving a perfect credit score, and staying perfect is something of a futile exercise. However, the steps you take in your pursuit of excellence will likely help you maintain the highest credit score you do reach – which may be enough to qualify for the same lower interest rates and better loan terms as those who hit that elusive 850.
Michael Grace is a personal finance and technology freelance writer based in New York.
All Credit Intel content is written by freelance authors and commissioned and paid for by American Express.
The material made available for you on this website, Credit Intel, is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, tax or financial advice. If you have questions, please consult your own professional legal, tax and financial advisors.