What is a perfect credit score?

A "perfect" credit score will be a different number depending on who pulls your score. There are hundreds of scoring systems out there. The lender is legally obligated to tell you which scoring system they used and what the scale is.

An 827 is excellent on almost every scale, though, as most scales go up to 830 or 850. I worked for the credit bureau for over a year (in a department that could see people's scores) and trust me, after seeing the credit reports and scores of some very wealthy people, I know that it is impossible to get the highest score possible. According to the scoring system that my bureau used (I worked for one of the "Big Three", and they can only use the scoring system that they own) you are as good as it gets, so don't fret.

If there is a chance that your score can increase, you can find out by pulling your credit report online through one of the bureaus' available monitoring services. In this day and age it's a good idea to have monitoring anyway (I even monitor my children's ssn's), but also, they should give you a breakdown of what is good and bad about your score and exactly what can be done to raise it when you get that "house" report.

Also, you can pick up a totally free copy of your report - no strings attached - at www.annualcreditreport.com This is a website set up by the government for people to get the free report they are entitled to every twelve months. If you live in Georgia, you are entitled to a free report every 6 months. This is THE ONLY WEBSITE you can get a free report from without having to agree to something. Though it will not give you your score for free, you can check your credit report and make sure everything is accurate. And since that site pulls directly from each bureau, you can dispute inaccuracies should they appear on your report.

If you choose to order a score from each bureau, it will tell you what the scale is and what risk category you are in. It is very wise to pull all three credit reports because lenders are not obligated to report to all three. They can report to none, one, two, or all if they choose. So you will have different information and a differet score at each bureau.

And also, since you have different information at each bureau, if you want to compare your scores at each bureau, make sure you order the Vantage score because that is the only score available that all three bureaus can use, so it is the only scoring system that you can compare all credit reports with. If you get the "house" score from each bureau, you cannot compare them to eachother because they all have different scoring systems and different scales.