Here’s What Happens When Your Credit Score Hits 850

WSJ Your Money Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Business News

3.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

About 1.5% of Americans have a perfect credit score, according to credit reporting firm Experian. But how much weight does an 850 score carry? Wall Street Journal reporter Imani Moise joins host J.R. Whalen to discuss how much this grade of financial health really matters and what happens when you reach it. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	TNB Tech Minute gives you the day's top tech headlines, from the big names in Silicon Valley to the halls of power.
0:07.0	If it's making news in tech, we've got it.
0:09.5	Check out TNB Tech Minute in the Tech News Briefing feed from the Wall Street Journal.
0:17.7	Here's your money briefing for Monday, January 13th.
0:20.8	I'm J.R. Waylon for The Wall Street Journal.
0:26.0	The average credit score in the U.S. is 717.
0:30.1	So what does it take to boost your score to a perfect 850?
0:34.3	It's become an everyday obsession for some Americans, including one man who spoke to our reporter
0:40.0	Amani Moise.
0:41.4	The first thing that he tried was closing some old retail credit cards, but that was actually
0:46.0	a mistake because when you close old cards, you lower your utilization, which could actually
0:50.6	decrease your score.
0:52.4	The next thing that he did was that he zeroed in on his credit card balances,
0:55.9	trying to keep his utilization within a golden range so that he can perfect his score.
1:01.2	So what happens when you reach a perfect credit score?
1:03.9	And doesn't really matter.
1:05.6	Amani will join us to go through the numbers after the break.
1:25.6	Thank you. through the numbers after the break. The credit reporting firm experience has about 1 and a half percent of consumers have a perfect credit score.
1:32.6	How much does hitting that milestone really matter?
1:35.8	Wall Street Journal reporter Amani Moise checked in with a Texas man about that, and she joins me.
1:41.2	Amani, you spoke with Steve Michelle, who achieved a perfect score. Why was that important to him?
1:46.7	Well, usually people care about their score when they're about to buy a house or maybe buy a new
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.