As many Americans know, a credit score Opens a New Window. can meaningfully impact the ability to carry out many important financial transactions Opens a New Window. , like buying a house or taking out a loan.
That can seem daunting for some looking to build up their relationship with a financial institution, but who may not have had a lot of time to do so.
Stronger credit scores tend to be associated with older people who have a long history with financial institutions, but new research shows cracking that 800 level is not out of reach for young Americans or people with short credit histories.
According to LendingTree, here’s what people with short credit histories, but credit scores of 800 or above, all had in common.
Credit histories under 10 years
The key among all people with exceptionally strong credit scores appeared to be making payments on time – 100 percent of people across all categories did so. For payers with credit histories under 10 years, monthly bills came out to an average $1,133.
The age of the oldest active account for people in this category was about 7.5 years, while they had about 7.4 open accounts. The average credit limit is $54,578, while revolving credit utilization is 3.6 percent.
These people also tended to have less than two credit inquiries over the past two years.
The highest sources of debt were mortgage ($83,866), auto loan ($9,282) and student loan ($2,768).
People under the age of 35
A number of young adults, under the age of 35, had exceptional credit, too.
The age of the oldest active account for this group was slightly less than 170 months – or a little more than 14 years. As LendingTree noted, parents may have added their children as users on accounts.
The average number of open accounts was 8.7, while the average credit limit was $61,480.
Monthly payments were about $1,223.
In terms of debt, the average under-35 individual with an 800 credit score had about $92,065 in mortgage debt, $2,447 in credit card debt, $9,941 in auto loan debt, $9,966 in student loan debt and $2,272 in personal loan debt.
Like all people who had high scores, all of these individuals made payments on time.
