I finally broke 800 credit score after 8-9 years… and it still feels overrated sometimes
I got my first credit card when I was around 19 or 20. After about 8–9 years of always paying on time, I finally passed an 800 credit score and I’m sitting at 821 now.
What’s funny is when my wife and I bought her new car in November 2025, I found out her score was actually higher than mine. I co-signed on the loan and we still got hit with around an 8% interest rate, which honestly made me question how much a “great” credit score really matters nowadays.
One thing I learned over the years is that utilization seems to matter a lot. I never max out my cards, and I usually let a small balance report before paying it off instead of showing a straight $0 balance every month. Once I started doing that consistently, my score climbed pretty fast.
Still feels crazy that you can do everything “right” and rates are still this high.