Percentage of consumers with perfect credit score up slightly

WASHINGTON >> The Connecticut Audubon Society launched a rare-bird alert system this summer, texting people when a special species had been spotted.

For some people, a perfect 850 credit score is like a rare-bird sighting. You’ve heard there are consumers out there with this top number, but you just haven’t met one yourself.

FICO credit score ranges from a low of 300 to a high of 850. FICO also creates industry-specific scores, such as for the auto industry, to determine how risky a borrower may be. These score versions have a slightly wider range, from a low of 250 to a high of 900. But for general purposes, it’s the 850 that is the target to reach.

Get your score over 700, and you’ve entered good credit territory. The national average credit score recently hit an alltime high of 706, according to FICO, the company that created the scoring model used by most lenders.

But once you pass the mid700s, you’ll find yourself in an excellent credit tier that results in the best lending deals. Keep in mind that your credit score is just one factor lenders consider. But, all things being relatively equal, a consumer with a 850 score wouldn’t get a better deal than one with an 790.

Still, perfection is a sought-after accomplishment for some.

As of April 2019, about 1.6% of the U.S. scorable population had an 850, up slightly from the 1.5% last year, according to a recent report from FICO. Only 0.85% of consumers had a perfect score in April 2009, a period in which the U.S. economy was in a recession.

Although you don’t need to be perfect, here’s how the rare consumer has been able to join the elite 850 club.

• They pay their bills on time — all the time: Thirtyfive percent of your score under FICO constitutes your payment history. People with an 850 basically have no reported history of missed payments, collections or derogatory information, according to Tom Quinn, vice president of scores at FICO.

• They have debt, just not a lot of it: Thirty percent of your score is derived from looking at how much you owe. The creditscoring algorithm looks at the utilization rate for each individual active account, as well as at your total credit usage. The credit-card debt you carry over month to month can drag down your score.

The average revolving utilization for consumers with an 850 score was just 4.1%, FICO says in its recent analysis.

You’ve probably heard that you shouldn’t use more than 30% of your available credit