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Closed accounts and average age of credit

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badassmonkey11
Valued Member

Closed accounts and average age of credit

Can anyone tell me if an an account is closed if it is still used in your average age of credit? I have 3 paid in full charge-offs that are due to fall off in 2014 at different times, but I have no idea if they are still being utilized with my average age of credit. I sent goodwill letters and have been disputing information like crazy with the credit bureaus (in hopes the creditors just ignore everything since the accounts are due to fall off soon and they have been paid), but i have only requested them to remove negative info and not necessarily the account itself.

Message 1 of 22
21 REPLIES 21
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

Only the negative annotation will be removed by the CRAs at 7.5 years.  It would be up to the creditor to delete the entire TL. 

 

You shouldn't dispute accurate information.

 

Yes, they do count in AAoA.  The only ones that do not are CAs and PRs.

Message 2 of 22
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

It's a common misconception that "OC acounts fall off" based on exclusion of an adverse item, such as a charge-off, that has been reported under an account.

 

Expiration of a credit report exclusion period only prevents that individual item of information from continuting to be included in any credit report issued by a CRA.

Nothing is actually deleted from the consumer's file.  All OC accounts, open and closed, continue to be scored in your AAoA.

 

An OC account can be deleted in only one of two ways.

Either ther creditor reports actual deletion of the account, or the account has been closed for approx ten years, at which time the CRAs do subjective purging of their records.

Message 3 of 22
badassmonkey11
Valued Member

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

Ok I need some clarification because i am just having more questions, so I apologize if i seem to be having some dumb moments Smiley Happy. In all of the years since all of this happened I can never find the SAME answers. I always hear it both ways:

 

"Expiration of a credit report exclusion period only prevents that individual item of information from continuting to be included in any credit report issued by a CRA.

Nothing is actually deleted from the consumer's file.  All OC accounts, open and closed, continue to be scored in your AAoA."

 

Isn't this contradictory? If the purpose (and by law) it is no longer to be included to be VIEWABLE to creditors, how can it legally be allowed to be continued to be scored? Don't get me wrong because if that is the case negative or not all open or closed tradelines (revolving in this case) are of benefit. That would mean the only real downfall of someone closing a credit card (their own free will) would be that they have lowered their credit utilization ratio.

 

With all of my research in regards to the law, the CO accounts must be removed 7 years and 180 days (no longer) from the date of first delinquency--not the date of last payment or last activity. It would make no sense to me if they only removed the negative info and not the tradeline when the 7yr 180dy concluded.

 

Have you had any personal experience? I have found the only way I am truly learning what I am now is by actually seeing how certain instances affect my reports and credit rating. Otherwise, it is just a guessing game.

Message 4 of 22
badassmonkey11
Valued Member

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

When you say negative annotation are you referring to "Paid in Full/Was a charge-off" only or all of the late payment annotations that go along with it as well?

Message 5 of 22
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

Once an item is excluded from your credit report, it is no longer available for scoring.  The exclusion applies to those accessing for scoring as well as creditors.

Any normal request for a credit report bounds the CRAs to the exclusion requirements of section 605(a).

 

The distinction between exclusion from your credit report and deletion from your credit file is best exemplified by the provision of FCRA 605(b).

That section provides that ALL of the normal credit report exclusion provisions of section 605(a) are exempted in certain rare situations, such as creditors requesting a credit report for an application for credit or insurance involving a principal amount of $150K or more.  They can, by separate request and certification to a CRA, request a consumer credit report that includes all of the otherwise excluded adverse information.  It is still not factored into your score, as that does not make it available to the FICO algorithm, but it can then be used by the creditor as part of their manual review.

 

Section 605(b) would have no meaning or relevancy if credit report exclusion = credit file deletion.

Message 6 of 22
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit


@badassmonkey11 wrote:

Ok I need some clarification because i am just having more questions, so I apologize if i seem to be having some dumb moments Smiley Happy. In all of the years since all of this happened I can never find the SAME answers. I always hear it both ways:

 

"Expiration of a credit report exclusion period only prevents that individual item of information from continuting to be included in any credit report issued by a CRA.                                                                                          The CO

Nothing is actually deleted from the consumer's file.  All OC accounts, open and closed, continue to be scored in your AAoA."

 

Isn't this contradictory? If the purpose (and by law) it is no longer to be included to be VIEWABLE to creditors, how can it legally be allowed to be continued to be scored? Don't get me wrong because if that is the case negative or not all open or closed tradelines (revolving in this case) are of benefit. That would mean the only real downfall of someone closing a credit card (their own free will) would be that they have lowered their credit utilization ratio.

 

With all of my research in regards to the law, the CO accounts must be removed 7 years and 180 days (no longer) from the date of first delinquency--not the date of last payment or last activity. It would make no sense to me if they only removed the negative info and not the tradeline when the 7yr 180dy concluded. The CRA is required to removed the negative annotations from the account, not the account itself.  After 7.5 years the CO comment will be excluded.  The account itself will still be there looking like it did pre CO.

 

Have you had any personal experience? I have found the only way I am truly learning what I am now is by actually seeing how certain instances affect my reports and credit rating. Otherwise, it is just a guessing game.


 

Message 7 of 22
badassmonkey11
Valued Member

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

As long as all late payments and negative annotations (aka CHARGE-OFF) are removed I could care less if the rest stays on because it actually helps my average age of credit! that is why in my goodwill letters I am just seeing about removing negative info and not the tradeline. Either way it is a longshot and if I have to wait another 12 months for all the negative info to "fall off" then I guess i have to wait.

Message 8 of 22
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

Late payments aren't removed only the CO comment.  Even with the lates it will still factor in your AAoA.

Message 9 of 22
badassmonkey11
Valued Member

Re: Closed accounts and average age of credit

That makes no sense. That tells me late payments haunt you for the rest of your life. That cannot be.
Message 10 of 22
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