You don’t need a perfect FICO score to be an exceptional borrower

The Color Of Money Perfectionists: Stop worrying and fussing about not reaching the top. Keep in mind a credit score is just one factor a lender considers. Even a high score can result in a credit denial if there are other mitigating factors in your risk profile.

WASHINGTON, D.C. » I have been told many times that I’m a perfectionist, but I feel that I’m not perfect enough for such a label.

Yet it’s true that my life is driven by a relentless reportcard-like quest for excellence. This is why I understand people with super-high FICO credit scores who seethe that they have yet to get a perfect 850.

I should note that, depending on the scoring model, scores generally range from 300 to 850. FICO also creates industry-specific scores that allow a deep dive into the numbers to determine a borrower’s credit risk, and these scores can range from 250 to 900, according to Ethan Dornhelm, vice president of scores and predictive analytics at FICO.

But for the free scores given to consumers by many lenders, perfection is typically 850. After writing recently that I had finally hit that mark, I was inundated with emails from fellow perfectionists wondering what they were doing wrong. I could see their obsessive torment from their words.

“Congratulations on having a perfect credit score — if you want to keep it, don’t pay off your mortgage,” wrote Lacy Lusk from Virginia. “My wife and I paid off our mortgage in 2016 and [my] score dropped from 850 to 822 and has stayed there. I guess paying a mortgage payment on time for 45 years does not count for anything.” Actually, the biggest factor affecting your score is on-time payments. It counts big time in your favor. And an 822 score is superb.

Dornhelm and I talked about the angst a lot of high scorers have about their inability to reach the credit-score summit, and I asked him to address a few issues that kept coming up.

Q: My score is over 800, and there is no way to increase it without taking out a