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Average age of credit or length of credit

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ycart
Member

Average age of credit or length of credit

Is there a certain threshold of years that will make scores improve more 5, 10, 15? I was curious if there are certain thresholds of time that define when scores will go up related to age of credit or length of credit.  For example if a person has 5 year old age of credit with the same amount and type of accounts how would they compare to someone with 10 year old credit? Assume everything was the same on the credit other than the age.  Thanks

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
annielorie
Valued Contributor

Re: Average age of credit or length of credit

 15% of your fico score is determined by length of accounts so its important but not nearly as improtant as clean file and utilization as to a specific number  unless u work for fico and understand the algorithum no real way to tell, however I have noticed on many credit sites they stack users in 2yeR INCREMENTS 


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Message 2 of 7
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Average age of credit or length of credit

YMMV. Your score can certainly improve as accounts age and AAoA improves. The levels are YMMV because it would be different for everyone based on their scoring bucket. You might see an increase as AAoA hits 5 yrs, for example, but drop back to 4 because you added new credit or lost an older acct. Hitting 5 again might not produce an increase the second time around because you could be in a different bucket.

Message 3 of 7
ycart
Member

Re: Average age of credit or length of credit

Can you explain the buckets?  I am not sure I understand.  If i had two credit cards a car loan and a mortgage how would my score vary at 5-10-15 years of average age?  If all the accounts were good (no delinquency) and low balances on credit cards (like 10% of limit) how would the scores vary?

Message 4 of 7
thom02099
Valued Contributor

Re: Average age of credit or length of credit


@ycart wrote:

Is there a certain threshold of years that will make scores improve more 5, 10, 15? I was curious if there are certain thresholds of time that define when scores will go up related to age of credit or length of credit.  For example if a person has 5 year old age of credit with the same amount and type of accounts how would they compare to someone with 10 year old credit? Assume everything was the same on the credit other than the age.  Thanks


Stands to reason that,if your AAoA lengthens in any way, your score would improve.  To what degree remains unknown to all except the FICO gurus!  I should have a better answer at the beginning of December when I get my November statement from Experian.  That's the one of most interest to me right now, I have 5+ year history, but my oldest accounts are 2 AMEX accounts from 1991 and I recently added a third AMEX to the mix, which will also backdate to 1991.  My EX statement gives me more detailed info and (hopefully) an improved EX score. 

Message 5 of 7
nois
Regular Contributor

Re: Average age of credit or length of credit


@ycart wrote:

Is there a certain threshold of years that will make scores improve more 5, 10, 15? I was curious if there are certain thresholds of time that define when scores will go up related to age of credit or length of credit.  For example if a person has 5 year old age of credit with the same amount and type of accounts how would they compare to someone with 10 year old credit? Assume everything was the same on the credit other than the age.  Thanks


I noticed something interesting with TU's report section called "understanding your score" where it lists the factors hurting your score in red and those helping in green.  When the time since my first revolving account was opened was 12 years, 1 month ago, this was listed in red as a factor hurting my score: "You have not established a long revolving credit history".  What is interesting is that when this time reached 12 years, 2 months ago, it now listed in green as a positive factor helping my score: "You have an established revolving credit history". Another thing I noticed was that on both of these reports, a separate positive factor was "You have an established credit history" - so TU apparently makes a distinction between revolving accounts and credit accounts in general. My TU score did rise 18 pts, but it is not clear what impact reaching 12 years, 2 months had in itself because two other factors had also improved. Now with EQ, the report listed 9 years, 8 months ago as a positive factor: "You have an established credit history". 


FEB 2014 EQ: 798 EX: 780 TU: 798
Message 6 of 7
vanillabean
Valued Contributor

Re: Average age of credit or length of credit

I have seen some mention thresholds at 3, 5 and 8 years, but I haven't personally noticed any of them, and I have passed all of them. As for whether you have an established revolving credit history, I don't think that reaching 12 years and 2 months would matter; something else is going on, and no one seems to know what it is.

 

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