The advantage of having Discover it cards, is that we have access to our FICO scores for free. Yep, the real score. Not the credit reporting agencies pseudo score.
I vividly remember asking two homes ago what our credit scores were because at the time we had zero debt and were about to sign for our newest mortgage. This was just over 7 years ago. The I response I remember was 815. I now don't remember if that was for me or for my husband. It was the first time I really knew what are scores were and I knew that 815 score was good.
So you want to see what our scores are? We have never filed bankruptcy, we have credit cards which are paid on time in full, the oldest is probably about 7 years old (although we had ones in the past but closed them all at one time), one mortgage and no other debt.
Here's mine:
Here's my husband's:
As you can see from the FICO scale below we are exceptional borrowers. It really isn't hard to be a good borrower. Don't borrow more than you can afford, and no more than you can pay off when the debt is due. Pay on time ALWAYS.
I would also suggest to never max out a credit card. This reason for this is that if you have $5,000 in credit charge $1,000 you are using 20%(1000/5000) of your available credit. If you charge up a balance of $4500, you are now using 90% (4500/5000) of your available credit. Lenders prefer the lower amounts. They refer to this as your utilization rate. The lower the better! In fact, this rate is figured based on ALL of your available credit issued to you. The more credit issued, and the less you use it, the lower your rate.
I've never really been to hung up on our credit scores. I think it is just because we do borrow limited amounts of money. We pay things off and on time. We have ever been denied credit when it was important, such as getting a car or house. However, I am grateful we have the scores we have because I know we pay lower interest rates on our home (2.75% 
) and are able to take advantage of credit card bonus offers.
Do you know your true FICO score? Did you get your score from Discover for free or did you pay a fee? Do you even care what your score is? Are you surprised at our scores based on all the credit cards we have been opening?
Our FICO Scores
February 12th, 2014 at 06:02 pm
February 12th, 2014 at 07:25 pm 1392233155
Ever since having a mortgage, I find it pretty much impossible to hurt our credit scores. With 100% on-time payments. (Pre-mortgage all we had was credit cards, which was not ideal mix for best credit. But I don't know for sure what our credit score was back then).
Credit score is VERY important to me. For my job/career. Secondarily we have always been able to take advantage of credit. (Low mortgage rates/taking advantage of dropping rates over the years, better negotiations with car purchases, borrowing credit cards at 0% and investing in FDIC insured CDs at 5%-6% interest rates, credit card bonuses, etc.).
I am not surprised. I only have 2-3 years of open credit at the moment, and am endlessly applying for credit (as detailed above).
February 12th, 2014 at 08:26 pm 1392236785
So you'd think all these credit card openings and closings must have really hurt my score, huh? Wrong. I got my credit score sent to me in the middle of my rash of opening 4 more cards in my name, and it was at 815 or so. The other two were only slightly lower (NT's the lowest probably because his credit history in the U.S. is short).
I'm not going to stop doing credit card rewards though. It's cost me about $12 in insurance premium but gained me over $10K over the past couple years, and hasn't hurt my actual score a bit.
February 12th, 2014 at 08:35 pm 1392237309
I'd do credit rewards if my monthly card balance averaged above $500, but $170 is the norm.
February 12th, 2014 at 09:48 pm 1392241721
February 12th, 2014 at 11:55 pm 1392249300
February 13th, 2014 at 01:39 am 1392255597
February 13th, 2014 at 01:42 am 1392255734
February 13th, 2014 at 02:53 am 1392260003
February 13th, 2014 at 04:18 am 1392265125
February 13th, 2014 at 02:01 pm 1392300076
@MonkeyMama, my husband's security clearance is dependent on good credit history as well. The government can revoke if they see you might be at risk for selling government secrets for cash to handle your debts.
February 13th, 2014 at 04:58 pm 1392310706
There's been no education/little media about it, and we've recently found out it will be backdated to Dec12, so a lot of ppl are worried, but can't do anything to change the past. We don't get differing interest rates on c/cards - i wonder if that will change?
February 15th, 2014 at 06:13 pm 1392488025
Discover shows mine is at 824 and hubby's is at 840. He was just a bit shocked to see that number...
February 16th, 2014 at 02:21 am 1392517269
February 22nd, 2014 at 09:00 am 1393059637