Credit Score Timing Question - Wife's Score Vs Mine

Does she have existing credit cards that you can request a credit limit increase on? A credit limit increase should bump her score up and wouldn't come with the ding of an inquiry / new account.

Having a higher amount of available credit on revolving accounts with low utilization helps with score.

Th

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Does she have existing credit cards that you can request a credit limit increase on? A credit limit increase should bump her score up and wouldn't come with the ding of an inquiry / new account.

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The only credit card we have is a Chase card where we both have cards with our names on them. I suppose I should do a full credit report on her and see what specifically shows up under her name. Obviously with the big discrepancy between our ratings, something I have isn't showing up in her name. Just not sure what had such a big impact.

I wonder if the dealership still has access to the full report? Might be worth hitting up the manager I dealt with and see if he can kick that info my way.

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If you have Chase, go on the Chase app and under your credit card look for the Credit Journey tracker thing. You can look at a lot of your credit info without actually ordering a credit report that may ding your credit. You should be able to see all of the accounts that are on your credit via that...even the non-Chase accounts.

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I see my accounts and history, but I'm blind to hers. I suspect the way it is set up, she just an authorized user on my account.

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Does it really matter?

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in the scope of things, probably not. It was more a surprise that hers wasn't in the 800s.

A perfect FICO score is 850. That’s the highest anyone can score, and it’s extremely rare.

Sorta relevant to your general question but another factor would be to try and be intentional with the amounts you keep on the credit cards themselves and the dates the card company reports the balance to the bureaus, not your payment date as thats usually different.

There's a number on the back of your cards that you call for customer service or whatever. Call and ask what your reporting date is (let's say its the 20th of each month). This is the day the company reports the balance to the bureaus. Ideally being at 10% of your credit limit on this date is preffered. So if your limits 1k, carry a $100 balance 3 days or so before this date and park it there (jic the reporting date falls on a weekend). This way the cards show use, but nothing that affects the score negatively. If your balance gets reported at over 30% it could have a negative effect.

Also be super wary of allowing a dealership to run your credit. Worst I ever saw as a lender was 27 pulls in 3 days trying to get a deal done. They'll shotgun the shite outta your credit not necessarily trying to find the best deal for the customer, but for the dealership.

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Me and my wife have zero debt

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solid, but when it comes to the scores theres such a thing as "good debt" to have. length of history/good payment history helps to build.

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I make like 4x what she makes

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income doesnt sway the score one way or the other but i hope she appreciates you big dog

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I get decreased every month when I pay off the 5k credit card bill.

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w/o actually seeing your credit report i really feel like the reporting date on your revolving accounts, specifically the balance on the reporting date not the payment date, could be a factor here. revolving accounts have such a large influence on the scores. at least a third. another third would be length of history.

just for fun id tell you to investigate what that reporting date is and try what i posted earlier out for 2 or 3 months just to see if things start to swing your way. intentionally report 10% (you said 5k so $500)over that reporting date window. show the kinda usage that says "i use this, but i dont need it"

also, length of history on your credit accounts amount for alot as well. say for instance you decided to cancel a CC because you had a shitty customer service experience on an account youve had for 8 yrs or so. losing the length of history could cause a severe dip in score. ive seen paid off vehicles have a negative effect as well because they lost "good credit history", especially with people that dont have the # of accounts that im assuming you and your wife have. young homebuyers for instance.

one more thing would be that the higher your score is, which btw youre definitely doing well, the lower your margin for error is. mistakes (general delinquency/high credit limit usage reportings) cost you more points, and the things you do right start to mean less in terms of gained points. hence why length of history becomes so important.

i convinced myself long ago the reason for the obscurity around how credit scores work and the general ignorance of people is its just more lucrative for the government/cc companies. were more valuable as a whole getting 6-7% FHA loans than qualifying for conventional. otherwise why in gods name would there not be a financial wellness class in high school that taught you how it works? or how to get a mortgage? or finance a car? or how it affects your insurance?

its like cancer, why have a cure when treatment is the gift that keeps on giving? not that theres really a "treatment" in this scenario but you get what i mean. hope this helps somebody.

Is she not on your credit cards as an authorized user? If not, put her as an authorized user on your credit cards, but just don't ever tell her that (or you could and you give) don't give her a credit card.

Now do the same on her credit cards, meaning you be put on hers as an authorized user. But at the end of the day you said you don't need no credit and so why even worry about it? But if you wanna give her the bump, then you can do those things I've said if they ain't already is be done.

Also how does she pay the bills on her credit card? She ideally should be asking for credit increases on all her credit cards at every chance she can, think its you wait 6 months or something after they give it the bump before you can do it again. Also she should ideally be using 30% or less of her credit utilization come due date. Also I'm assuming she is paying her credit cards off in full every month? Other wise, she don't need to be using a credit card if she can't pay it off every month.

Once you are at 775 there is no difference between that and 850. People get too hung up on credit scores. I paid off my house and my score immediately went down 60 points. They punish you for being responsible and reward you for being an idiot.