Average Age of Revolving Accounts

Anonymous · ‎01-07-2013

I know everyone talks a lot about the Average age of Accounts(AAoA), but my question is about average age of REVOLVING accounts.

I linked a screen shot of the Understanding Your Score section of my report. If you notice under number 3 of the negatives it states I have not established a long revolving credit history. It shows my oldest account but under the detailed description it goes on to state, "EITHER your oldest revolving account was opened recently OR the average age of your revolving accounts is relatively low."

It doesn't say which one is hurting me and it does not say what the average age of my revolving acounts actually is. Everyone I talk to continues to think I am talking about the AAoA, even a representative from myFico didn't answer my question and addressed the AAoA when I emailed them. They talked about the oldest revolving account affecting my score. This ambiguity is frustrating me. It's hard enough to understand ever aspect of your report but when the scoring system can't even tell you which one is hurting you it can be quite annoying.

I'm trying to find out more information about this. Is such a thing as average age of revolving accounts? and if so does it include both open and closed accounts etc. At what point does it not hurt your score anymore. There are accounts I want to close but I dont want to hurt this average age. My AAoA lists 5 years as a positive. The AAoRA if there is such a thing would be over 5 years with closed accounts, and 3.6 years with only open accounts. My oldest revolving account lists at over 7 years, could this 7 years still be too young that it is hurting my credit score?

Thanks in advance, any insight into this area of the score would be appreciated!

Mike

llecs · ‎01-08-2013

It's seldom talked about in here, but FICO does look at the AAoA for revolving, installment, etc. each individually. It's a very minor scoring factor though in relation to your overall AAoA. It includes both opened, closed, good, or bad revolving TLs.

That #3 slot is very minor per FICO scoring. It's just saying that if you had CCs of 10-20 years reporting, then that length of history wouldn't be a drag on your score. I know with my 12-yr history with my oldest CC at 6 years, then adding a 10-yr old CC would help my overall history and AAoA and therefore stand to see a couple points gained at least. I also had that same comment showing. In other words, in comparison to everyone else within your scoring bucket, more people have over a 7-yr+ history. As your CCs age, then that comment will go away, only to be replaced with something else.

Anonymous · ‎01-08-2013

@llecs wrote:
It's seldom talked about in here, but FICO does look at the AAoA for revolving, installment, etc. each individually. It's a very minor scoring factor though in relation to your overall AAoA. It includes both opened, closed, good, or bad revolving TLs.

That #3 slot is very minor per FICO scoring. It's just saying that if you had CCs of 10-20 years reporting, then that length of history wouldn't be a drag on your score. I know with my 12-yr history with my oldest CC at 6 years, then adding a 10-yr old CC would help my overall history and AAoA and therefore stand to see a couple points gained at least. I also had that same comment showing. In other words, in comparison to everyone else within your scoring bucket, more people have over a 7-yr+ history. As your CCs age, then that comment will go away, only to be replaced with something else.

Thanks for the response. This make a lot more sense than what the CSR from myFico emailed me.