When does a positive become a negative?

[atlastontheroad]

At the beginning of this little FICO trip, EQ said that this was a positive.  In green.  Dark green, even.  Long account history:

Your oldest account was opened
23 Years, 4 Months ago

FICO High Achievers [?] opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average. Average age of your accounts
9 years

Most FICO High Achievers [?] have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

One hundred seventeen points later EQ says this is a NEGATIVE (short account history):

Your oldest account was opened
23 Years, 4 Months agoFICO High Achievers [?] opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average. Average age of your accounts
9 yearsMost FICO High Achievers [?] have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

So, is this an issue related to having been rebucketed?   I'm a math person, I can take the brutal truth.

Honest.

atlast.....still working on the finer points of credit Zen...like waiting for Godo....er...Scorewatch alerts... 

[haulingthescoreup]

Wow, that's crazy! I got that too, but it was because my average age dropped pretty dramatically. Your average age is 9 years, and it's a negative?

Did your average age used to be 10 years and dropped with new accounts or something?

[atlastontheroad]

HTSU, those are the exact images from my first (02/20/08) and most recent (05/04/08) FICO EQ's.  I added one new account, that's it, in March, 2008. 

Odd, isn't it, that they are exactly the same?  You'd think they'd have aged three months or so, eh?

Driving me nuts, now that I'm looking at things from a micro view....

atlast....

Message Edited by atlastontheroad on 05-11-2008 10:31 PM

[Anonymous]

Please list all accounts open and closed currently. Might be that you cleaned it all up but are missing the minimum of open accounts with history if you went through a clean up stage.

[smallfry]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Please list all accounts open and closed currently. Might be that you cleaned it all up but are missing the minimum of open accounts with history if you went through a clean up stage.

---

Nah. EQ is just nuts.

[MidnightVoice]

Gor this last year:

---

MidnightVoice wrote:

Good stuff from my EQ report - What’s helping your FICO score

You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened 20 years ago

Most FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.

Average age of your accounts 8 years

Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years

Bad stuff from DW's EQ report - What’s hurting your FICO score

You have a short credit history.

Your oldest account was opened 20 years ago

Most FICO High Achievers  opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.

Average age of your accounts 8 years

Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years

---

[atlastontheroad]

Ok, I don't feel so lonely in EQ-crazyland.

TU is my cleanest and is what gets pulled for the only planned credit event in the next year or so.  With any luck, paying three small (all less than $75) balances in the last couple weeks to zero  and paying down UTI to <20% will bump scores up to the next lower IR band with my CU.

So I'm just going to let it be.  EQ is what EQ is.  TU doesn't hate me, EX positively loves me.  By the end of summer, at least one score over 700 is my new goal. 

Once June has come and gone, the garden is gonna lay fallow until next March.  Unless I get an offer I can't refuse.

atlast....

[smallfry]

---

@atlastontheroad wrote:

Ok, I don't feel so lonely in EQ-crazyland.

TU is my cleanest and is what gets pulled for the only planned credit event in the next year or so. With any luck, paying three small (all less than $75) balances in the last couple weeks to zero and paying down UTI to 20% will bump scores up to the next lower IR band with my CU.

So I'm just going to let it be. EQ is what EQ is. TU doesn't hate me, EX positively loves me. By the end of summer, at least one score over 700 is my new goal.

Once June has come and gone, the garden is gonna lay fallow until next March. Unless I get an offer I can't refuse.

atlast....

---

Are you one of the lucky few who gets TU pulls for Chase and Citi? I always get the 25 month special EX pulls for those two issuers.

[atlastontheroad]

---

smallfry wrote:

Are you one of the lucky few who gets TU pulls for Chase and Citi? I always get the 25 month special EX pulls for those two issuers.

---

I don't know, to be honest.  I've opted out and am in credit repair mode since 2/16/08. 

My CU pulls TU and I'll be apping for a small-ish car loan in a couple of weeks.  With four month old lates (the very last ones EVER) I'm going to be holding my breath and praying that they can see the upward trend rather than the old issues.

After that, no apping until the last late is over a year old and I'm over 700 on all three CRAs.  I'll just have to live vicariously here.

atlast....

[RobertEG]

This is just one of many, many examples of the ludicrous and contradictory explanations that are routinely offered in the comments portions of your CRA reports.  I have learned to simply ignore their pure stupidity.  The CRAs us algorithms unrelated to the basic FICO algorithm to generate these stupid comments.  This forum is replete with examples of such contradictory statements.

Under all guidelines released by FairIsaac, an oldest account of 23 years is well above average, and an average age of 9 years is average.  No problem there in scoring at all.

If I were you, I would not be looking at the asinine comments, but rather at what can happen to your account ages based on the FICO algorithm. 

Changes in your oldest account and in your average age of accounts can be affected by two things.  First, if you open a new account, obviously, your avg will decline.  And secondly, if any of the old accounts that are currently being used in your FICO scoring reach a point where they have been closed for 10 years, then they may drop from your CR, and thus no longer be included in your FICO score.  So you can lose the 23 year oldest account, along with its affect in your avg age, if the CRA drops it.  That is your concern, not the comments unrelated to your scoring itself.