“I’m an engineer by trade, so everything has to be perfect,” Michell told the Wall Street Journal.
A good credit score, according to Experian, is a FICO® Score of 700 or above. This three-digit number, derived from the details in your credit reports, helps lenders assess your likelihood of repaying borrowed money.
Many factors can influence a credit score. For instance, maxing out your credit cards can lower it, while opening additional credit cards might actually improve it. Although credit scores are often seen as a reliable measure of financial health, did Michell truly experience any benefits for having a perfect score?
Figuring out the system
For more than two decades, Michell maintained good credit by paying his mortgage on time and avoiding credit card debt. Yet, despite his diligence, he couldn’t reach 850.
Determined to crack the code, Michell started experimenting. After closing a few retail credit cards and addressing his "high credit card balances" flagged by his Bank of America app, he took a more strategic approach. He found that keeping a small balance — between 0.5% and 1.5% of his available credit — was more effective than carrying no balance at all.
John Ulzheimer, a veteran of the credit industry, explained, “No one has figured out how to hack the system. The credit scoring system has now trained people to act like lower-risk consumers.”
This aligns with Experian’s finding that the 1.54% of U.S. consumers with perfect credit scores tend to manage their credit by having lower credit-card balances and only using a small fraction of their available credit.
Michell’s persistence finally paid off in the summer of 2023. When he logged into his Bank of America app, he was greeted with a message he had been waiting years to see: “Congratulations! You have the highest FICO score possible. You are doing an excellent job managing your credit.”
Is it worth it?
A good credit score comes with undeniable benefits. For example, if your score is 700 or higher, renting an apartment may be smoother, as landlords often favor applicants with strong credit.
Bruce McClary, spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) says another advantage of having a good credit score is that it can help you get the best rates on car and homeowners insurance. Nationwide Insurance, for instance, claims that credit-based scoring offers a fair assessment of a driver's risk, lowering premiums for about half of its customers.
