red flags...

[Anonymous]

So how do I get rid of the red flag that says you have a short credit history?  How long does it need to be?  

And

How do i get rid of the you have to many accounts with balances... How many accounts should there be and does  this include installments, mortgages or just credit cards?

[RobertEG]

LOL!

You simply increase your length of credit history in one of three ways.

1.  Just get older  ( I have manged to do that well)

2.  Dont open new accounts that you dont need, for each new opened account then factors into your length of credit history beginning at zero days, which then goes into the avg

3. Dont close current accounts to "show them."  We all get aggrevated at lendors, and close accounts to "show them."   But closing an existing account instantly deletes its CL in your % util., and starts the clock running when they can delete its entire history,, with its years of consistent paymentsl, in your avg.  . If you are PO'd at them, then just charge and PIF each month.  It will keep it open, and not cost you a penny in interest, and will promote your FICO, at benefit only to you.

If there is one absolute FICO truism that you will ever hear on this site, it is to never, ever, amen, close an existing account for any reason other than to avoid the yearly dues  That is not a FICO issue, so if you are focusing on FICO, dont close anything.

Thus has spoken Robert!  (IMHO!)

Message Edited by RobertEG on 06-13-2008 12:32 AM

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the answer on the 1st question anyone have a suggestion for the second question?

[Anonymous]

For credit cards no more than 1/2 of them should report balances and the balances shouldn't be more than 9% of the utility of each card.

[Anonymous]

well only 5/11 cc have balances on them and it says to many accounts with balances but i have less than half with balances... 

And I know UTIL is kind of high ont hem but that shouldnt have anything to do witht he to many accounts with balances flag only matters for the util flag which total is currently at 43% but waiting for one cli to report to it so hopefully down to 40% or so and then i can pay some more down to get it to 30% hopefully soon!

[Anonymous]

And how long does the credit history need to be for it to no longer show short!?

Thanks

[haulingthescoreup]

Are you talking literally about a flag, or are you talking about negative comments on screen 2, Understanding Your Fico Score? The only screens that I have seen actual flags are on the Credit-at-a-Glance screen and the Accounts screen. On Credit-at-a-Glance, I don't see a place for short credit history, although I do have one for the number of accounts under one year old.

I'm not trying to be picky, I just want to make sure I understand what you're looking at. If it's the list of positives and negatives on screen 2 (which I call the Credit Scales of Death), that's different from the flags, and they can change according to your overall credit profile or score bucket.

For instance, when my oldest account was 18y 11m and my average was 3y 5m, I was praised for long history. One month later, when the oldest account went to 19 years and average went to 3y 6m, this became a negative. Once the oldest account hit 19 years, I started being compared to people with insanely long credit histories, and so that very young average credit age started hurting.

There's another post here somewhere by someone who got a short history message with 23 years oldest, 10 years average, so as you can see, this can get really nutty. Prior to seeing that post, I would have thought that you would be out of the woods at 5 years average, but apparently not.

It's pretty obvious that this message will come and go as you move in and out of new score buckets, and you are compared to different groups of consumers.

What is your current oldest account age and your average age? And do you have any lates 60 days or greater, other serious derogs like charge-offs and collections, or public records like BK's or liens? The combination of these factors is what determines your current score bucket.

[Anonymous]

The question isn't how long will it show on your report, the question is how long will age significantly lower your score.

Like previous posters have mentioned there are scoring buckets. You are scored on a curve with the group of consumers will similar credit profiles based on age, presence of late accounts or bankruptcies, and perhaps the # of accounts on your report. Depending on what bucket you are in, it may be easier or harder to score higher. Generally, clean buckets with longer histories will have more people graded towards the 760+ end of the scale whereas the bankruptcy bucket will tend to be toward the 500s and 600s portion of the scale.

As far as age, we have no definitives but consider the following -

1) It is possible to have a 760+ with between 5-7 years of total credit history - and with a few years of average account age. Thus, if all your others factors are maximixed (perfect payment history, optimum number of accounts, optimum mix of credit), your lack of age will do less than 90 points of damage.....maybe even only a 70 point hit.

2) It seems possible to have 800+ scores with 12+ years of history and perhaps 4-6 years of average age. This doesn't mean that you get an extra benefit on rates over 760 scores, it just means you have to worry a little less about your utility (% of balance to overall credit lines). Thus at this point, even though you have below average age for all consumers, it is costing you 50 points or less.

Thus, even though it may be listed as a negative factor and may be even at 20+ years of age, you won't be losing that many points for this factor and there is nothing you can do besides never open a new account unless you truly need new credit or it makes great financial sense to do so.

It is entirely possible to have terrific FICO scores with only a relatively short credit history.

General Guidelines for PERFECT credit history (there are always exceptions, and this implies your other factors are near maxed out)

>2 years - 720+

>5 years - 760+

>12 years - 800+

[Anonymous]

Thank you to both of you for answering...