Yesterday's Chicago Tribune had a piece about people who are obsessed with attaining the practically unattainable 850 credit score. These people reminded me exactly of the people who are obsessed with collecting frequent flyer miles and airline status, and they're not unlike coupon collectors, either. In short, they're obsessive geeks just like me.
So, should I jump in and strive to perfect my credit score? It had never occurred to me. I thought that as long as your score was on the high end, that you would have access to the best rates of the day, and that only people whose credit is dinged in some way have to worry about it.
But the people in this article talk as if they could get even better rates by scoring over 800. Is this true?
This Business Week article, which is a few years old, says that you'll get the same preferred rate if you score is " if you score between 720 and 850."
Are there any credit score obsessives out there? Is it worth it?
1 Comment
gotamd said:
You definitely want to have the best possible credit score if you're looking to get a mortgage. However, aside from that it's not all that necessary. If you're getting a car loan, they'll give you a below-market rate (frequently 1.9%, etc.) as long as your score is decently good. The mortgage is really the only place where you can really take a serious financial hit from having a lower score, and even then I'm not sure if having an 800 will get you a better rate than having a 760 or similarly high score.
People frequently tend to think that they should keep their scores high so they can get low interest rates on their credit cards. News flash: if you don't keep a balance on your credit card(s), you don't pay interest anyway. Plus, credit card rates are going to be exorbitant no matter what.
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