Account showing as closed on experian report affect FICO?

[Anonymous]

Hello, my oldest account (Federal Student Loan) finally turns 6 months tomorrow. Which means I should have a FICO score. 

Issue is, today, I checked my report and it shows my student loan as closed...It is not closed as I still have not graduated and it is still active. Will this delay my score being generated? I also have two credit cards that are three months old each.

[Anonymous]

The requirements are:

    *  At least one account opened for six months or more, and
    *  At least one account that has been reported to the credit bureau within the past six months, and
    *  No indication of deceased on the credit report (Please note, if you share an account with another person this may affect you if the other account holder is reported deceased).

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/questions/requirement-for-fico-score.aspx

That first bullet simply says "account" -- not "open account."  So I am pretty sure you will be fine.  For example, suppose you had a credit card you used regularly for 10 years and no other accounts.  Then you took out a car loan and opened a 2nd credit card.  Four months later you close your 10-year old credit card.  I don't think that closing would cause your reports to stop generating FICO scores -- you'd still have an account (a closed credit card) on your reports that had been opened over six months ago.

I am not sure how many days after it turns six months old you'd need to wait before trying to pull your score.  Personally I'd wait a solid week before trying.  The $1 free trial from CCT strikes me as a good way to go, since you don't know for sure that you'll see your score.

[Anonymous]

First thing I would contact whoever your student loan is through and have them report it accurately to the bureaus.  But even if they don't, technically even if you opened your student loan and paid it off the day after you opened the account (and closed it) the account would still report, and should continue to be on your reports for 10 years since it was an open account at one point.  Open or closed, at the 6 month mark like you said a score should be generated.

[Anonymous]

Good point about taking action to ensure that the student loan reports correctly.  The only tweak I'd make to that advice is "unless you deem that the false record helps you more than it would if it were corrected."

For example, suppose you have a 10k student open loan, which erroneously states that it is paid off and closed.  You might benefit much more from leaving it reporting as closed, and then using the SS Loan Technique to create a history of having open installment debt that is mosty paid off.  If it were corrected, you'll end up with an installment utilization that is very high.