I recently checked my FICO credit score: 719, the highest FICO score I've ever had! I've got plenty of debt: credit cards, student loans, car loan--which tempers my excitement about my credit score. But if you're going to play the debt game, might as well play the game right!
I'm still renting, so every bump to my credit score should translate to a lower interest rate when I'm ready to own, if I decide to buy a $1,000,000+ home.
When will I be ready to own? Not any time soon, that's for sure. I understand all the benefits of owning a home, but I really can't stomach the idea of paying a bank $x,xxx,xxx for the principal, and another $x,xxx,xxx in interest charges for a mortgage. Just doesn't seem fair to me. So, if I do well with my businesses, I am hoping to have enough to just buy a decent-sized condominium for about $150,000 in the same neighborhood where I am living now (thankfully, I've seen a few in my price range recently.)
As if on queue, I'm starting to receive some highly attractive credit card offers from the major providers. Heretofore, the credit card offers I've been receiving have been good, but not spectacular. Now that my FICO credit score is 719, the offers are much better.
Just yesterday, I received an offer for a Chase® branded Visa® Signature credit card. With this offer, I have the option of transferring my other credit card balances, and pay no interest on the transferred balance until October, 2007! Now that's
hot (apologies to Paris Hilton, for stealing your catch phrase.) Furthermore, the go-to rate for this card--the annual percentage rate (APR) I would pay once the interest-free period terminates--is a sexy fixed rate of 8.99%! To give you some perspective on how great an 8.99% APR is, we'll probably have a national
Prime Rate of 8.5% after August 8TH of this year. A credit card with an APR that's a mere 0.49 percentage point above Prime is...well...hot!
Of course, if you were smart enough to get a credit card with a fixed APR when the
Prime Rate was 4% back in the summer of 2003, and your credit score was high, then you're probably one of the lucky few who now owns a credit card with an APR that's below the
current Prime Rate. My credit score wasn't good enough to qualify for an ultra-consumer-friendly credit card offer back then, but, in early 2004, I was able to buy the car I've always wanted, and I was able to secure a 6% APR on that loan. Good stuff.
Well, folks: the game continues. My new goal is to have a FICO credit score that's above the 800 mark by the time the nation is ready to vote for a new President. Wish me luck (I'll need it!)
My Charted FICO Credit Score
For your viewing pleasure, I've posted below a screen capture of my charted FICO credit score:
When I lookup the reasons why my score is 719, I'm seeing the same two items:
- The amount owed on your revolving/charge accounts is too high.
- The proportion of balances to credit limits on your revolving/charge accounts is too high.
The second item is kinda' annoying, because I'm not even close to being maxed out with any of my credit card accounts. No big deal, really, but it's annoying to see it there.
That's it for now, boys and girls. I'll post more about my adventures with debt ASAP. Thanks for reading.
Labels: credit_card_debt, credit_cards, credit_score, fico, FicoScore
