Don’t you have a lower credit score if you don’t use credit?
If so, that might be skewing results if more people are using cash.
That may be true but the wife and I put nearly all of our purchases on a mileage accruing credit card. We also pay it off every month. We own all vehicles and houses outright. We owe no one. My credit score can only increase by 4 more points.
I’ve never studied how to increase a credit score. It’s just the way we chose to run our finances.
EC
I pay off my card every month and have a 789 score so it can’t hurt too much. What I don’t understand is how the average American score can be as high as 717 when there are so many irresponsible people, especially people who have declared bankruptcy multiple times.
I thought so too. But, we’re consistently at 850 thru the Wells Fargo (FICO 9) app with only a house payment and monthly payoffs of two charge cards. Barclays Bank (our MasterCards) shows us at 838 (FICO 8). We paid off the truck 6 months ago, but see no change, so far. We were in the 840’s with the credit union that financed the truck. They discontinued showing our FICO score after paying off the truck. Our credit bureau accts have been frozen for probably 12-13 years, with the only new credit of any kind being the truck.
Of course, when they eventually start including our Social Credit Score, I expect our FICO to plummet because I’ve been a bad boy