topic Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years? in Credit Cards

Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

HiLine — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:56:49 GMT

So many people have said that closed accounts are reported for 10 years that this has been taken for granted. But like many other rumors such as the Amex Green being easier to be approved for than the Amex PRG, this needs to be revisited some time since the accuracy of this little piece of info is very important for making credit decisions.

As far as I know, creditors are under no obligation to report tradelines that are closed; they do this voluntarily. If you close an account that has a $0 balance, you are at the mercy of the bank for how long the positive history of the tradeline will stay on your credit history. There is no guarantee they will keep reporting at all. It is my understanding that most banks report positvely closed accounts for several years, but the length of the period seems to fluctuate arbitrarily.

It has been brought to my attention that even a very influential sticky thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/td-p/347190 quotes the 10 years length of time, and that has provided the basis for some posters on this board to close tradelines. I'm hoping to clear up this myth so we can make more informed decisions as well as advice in the future.

Any thoughts?

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:00:25 GMT

It depends on a lot of factors. The account can stay for up to 10 years, but only will stay on for as long as the lender decides to update it. Also, equifax and transunion seems to be pretty digilent with axing old accounts as compared to experian. Disputing a closed account without any delinquencies reported is almost guaranteed to make it fall off. For people whom are dumb enough to believe bumpage still works, it usually results in good closed accounts being removed instead as well.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

fittiger — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:00:42 GMT

I thought once the accounts were closed and paid off, the creditor no longer reports to the CRA's on that account. What would be the need to report on a closed out account, it won't change at that point?

I think it just remains for 10 years until the CRA's remove it at that point. (speculative)

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

jamesdwi — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:39:08 GMT

@fittiger wrote:
I thought once the accounts were closed and paid off, the creditor no longer reports to the CRA's on that account. What would be the need to report on a closed out account, it won't change at that point?

I think it just remains for 10 years until the CRA's remove it at that point. (speculative)

the Credit reporting agency keeps reporting the account for up to 10 years whether or not the creditor actually updates. I have a TL that was for my BestBuy rewards MC I closed it during the transition to CapOne, HSBC never reported it closed, and CapOne isn't updating it because the account is marked closed in their system. So since 6/2012 when the card was closed. It still reports on my credit report as having a $59 balance, which is the AF that was due when I closed the account, the on-line system shows its closed zero balance, since the card has no lates and shows open in good standing I'm just going to let it age untill CapOne gets around to closing it, and then the 10 year time clock starts.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

GatorGuy — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:40:53 GMT

I would love more information on this as well. I would be surprised if creditors do continue reporting a closed account for 10 years.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

flan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:12:46 GMT

@GatorGuy wrote:
I would love more information on this as well. I would be surprised if creditors do continue reporting a closed account for 10 years.

They don't; it's closed, there's not supposed to be anything to report. In general, what creditors report is merely the current information. They do not report what the balance was last month, let alone the whole life of the account The only time historical data is supposed to be sent is if they're correcting an error.

(And, yes, I've got a bunch of old closed tradelines on my reports. Some have been updated to list the bank that acquired the bank that issued the credit; some haven't.)

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

parakleet — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:30:05 GMT

I just pulled my EX report - under the "Status Details" section for all of the closed TLs, it says "This account is scheduled to continue on record until ______" and it has the date that's 10 yrs from the last reported date in the blank.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:37:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It depends on a lot of factors. The account can stay for up to 10 years, but only will stay on for as long as the lender decides to update it. Also, equifax and transunion seems to be pretty digilent with axing old accounts as compared to experian. Disputing a closed account without any delinquencies reported is almost guaranteed to make it fall off. For people whom are dumb enough to believe bumpage still works, it usually results in good closed accounts being removed instead as well.

That's why I don't close any of my old accounts, and the b* indeed works for me.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?M

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:47:42 GMT

So you are saying it works for u when it stopped working for almost everyone else since 1-2 years ago.....?

And the only reason why I used the word "almost" is because there's still a small number of people on other boards that claim it works, contrary to evidence, and at the same time refusing to provide any form of evidence to back their claims up. So their credibility alone is a big question mark.

To make myself clearer, this is what i read as well: some people who tried bumpage might see some inquiries getting bumped off temporarily, but those inquiries seem to still show up in the Leander's copy of the CR, and usually the bumped off inquiries will be back again after a couple days to couple weeks. Timing can vary.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?M

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:06:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So you are saying it works for u when it stopped working for almost everyone else since 1-2 years ago.....?

And the only reason why I used the word "almost" is because there's still a small number of people on other boards that claim it works, contrary to evidence, and at the same time refusing to provide any form of evidence to back their claims up. So their credibility alone is a big question mark.

To make myself clearer, this is what i read as well: some people who tried bumpage might see some inquiries getting bumped off temporarily, but those inquiries seem to still show up in the Leander's copy of the CR, and usually the bumped off inquiries will be back again after a couple days to couple weeks. Timing can vary.

B* is just not as easy as it was several years ago, it still works for the overwhelming majority of people as far as I know.

Yes, some may bounce back on TU, while other inquiries don't, and still, according to what I see, a relatively small portion of people see these things. As of the lender see different CR with you? I havn't heard of any news about this. I will just ask them how many inquiries they see next time I recon for something.

I do see about ten inquireis fall off from my TU since I started the exercise last month. Not on EQ yet, because it will take about 60 days to effect.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?M

GatorGuy — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:20:10 GMT

Would you mind me asking what is bumpage?

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

FocusedAndDetermined — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:29:35 GMT

I have 1 or 2 accts (depending on CBR) that are over 10 yrs closed and still appear, even though they have not been updated in ages.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:34:04 GMT

@HiLine wrote:
So many people have said that closed accounts are reported for 10 years that this has been taken for granted. But like many other rumors such as the Amex Green being easier to be approved for than the Amex PRG, this needs to be revisited some time since the accuracy of this little piece of info is very important for making credit decisions.

As far as I know, creditors are under no obligation to report tradelines that are closed; they do this voluntarily. If you close an account that has a $0 balance, you are at the mercy of the bank for how long the positive history of the tradeline will stay on your credit history. There is no guarantee they will keep reporting at all. It is my understanding that most banks report positvely closed accounts for several years, but the length of the period seems to fluctuate arbitrarily.

It has been brought to my attention that even a very influential sticky thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/td-p/347190 quotes the 10 years length of time, and that has provided the basis for some posters on this board to close tradelines. I'm hoping to clear up this myth so we can make more informed decisions as well as advice in the future.

Any thoughts?

It doesn't matter whether the creditor reports the TL or not. Once an account is closed and in positive standing, it can stay for up to 10 years at the descretion of the individual CRAs. As a matter of fact, the Credit Reporting Resource Guide states that once an account is paid in full and closed that it shoud not be reported for more than 3 months. That does not mean it will be removed.

Creditors are under no obligation to report ANY tradeline, open, closed, good or bad. The only thing they are obligated to do is report accurate information.

Where are you getting information to call it a myth?

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:34:46 GMT

@fittiger wrote:
I thought once the accounts were closed and paid off, the creditor no longer reports to the CRA's on that account. What would be the need to report on a closed out account, it won't change at that point?

I think it just remains for 10 years until the CRA's remove it at that point. (speculative)

You are correct.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

HiLine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:37:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It doesn't matter whether the creditor reports the TL or not. Once an account is closed and in positive standing, it can stay for up to 10 years at the descretion of the individual CRAs. As a matter of fact, the Credit Reporting Resource Guide states that once an account is paid in full and closed that it shoud not be reported for more than 3 months. That does not mean it will be removed.

Creditors are under no obligation to report ANY tradeline, open, closed, good or bad. The only thing they are obligated to do is report accurate information.

Where are you getting information to call it a myth?

The bolded part is very interesting ... Would you mind sharing the source so I can peruse a little?

Enough people have reported their accounts being dropped in less than 10 years to make the rumor that closed accounts are reported for 10 years a myth.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?M

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:39:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
B* is just not as easy as it was several years ago, it still works for the overwhelming majority of people as far as I know.

Yes, some may bounce back on TU, while other inquiries don't, and still, according to what I see, a relatively small portion of people see these things. As of the lender see different CR with you? I havn't heard of any news about this. I will just ask them how many inquiries they see next time I recon for something.

I do see about ten inquireis fall off from my TU since I started the exercise last month. Not on EQ yet, because it will take about 60 days to effect.

Um, so you're saying you just somehow coincidentally managed to know a lot of people who got it to work?

With regards to the part I highlighted red, this is another post made by you:

@Anonymous wrote:

Yeah, there used to be 26 and 25 on EQ and TU, respectively. But now all got B* by me.

For EX, there are about six inquiries on March, five on April, eight on June, five on Oct. of 2012. So that's about 29 inquiries on EX, 1 within six months, when I started my app spree in April, 2013, still no problem for getting approved.

So you had 26 on EQ, 25 on TU.

And then you also said this:

@Anonymous wrote:
Yep.. But 1-2 inquiry on EQ and TU, respectivly.

So......

I'm very confused.

26 - 2 = 24 inquiries bummed off (for EQ)

25 - 2 = 23 inquiries bummed off (for TU)

And may I ask where did you read about the "60 day to take effect" rule? This is the first time I'm reading about this.

Anyhow, now you're saying 10 inquiries fell off TU, none fell off on EQ?

So what's the story exactly.............

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Dubious — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:41:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
So many people have said that closed accounts are reported for 10 years that this has been taken for granted. But like many other rumors such as the Amex Green being easier to be approved for than the Amex PRG, this needs to be revisited some time since the accuracy of this little piece of info is very important for making credit decisions.

As far as I know, creditors are under no obligation to report tradelines that are closed; they do this voluntarily. If you close an account that has a $0 balance, you are at the mercy of the bank for how long the positive history of the tradeline will stay on your credit history. There is no guarantee they will keep reporting at all. It is my understanding that most banks report positvely closed accounts for several years, but the length of the period seems to fluctuate arbitrarily.

It has been brought to my attention that even a very influential sticky thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/td-p/347190 quotes the 10 years length of time, and that has provided the basis for some posters on this board to close tradelines. I'm hoping to clear up this myth so we can make more informed decisions as well as advice in the future.

Any thoughts?
It doesn't matter whether the creditor reports the TL or not. Once an account is closed and in positive standing, it can stay for up to 10 years at the descretion of the individual CRAs. As a matter of fact, the Credit Reporting Resource Guide states that once an account is paid in full and closed that it shoud not be reported for more than 3 months. That does not mean it will be removed.

Creditors are under no obligation to report ANY tradeline, open, closed, good or bad. The only thing they are obligated to do is report accurate information.

Where are you getting information to call it a myth?

I think HiLine's idea with this thread is to gather data points to see how often, or if, tradelines stay the full 10 years. They can stay "up to" 10 years but on average do they usually stay 10 years, or less?

I personally don't have any closed accounts to draw conclusions from.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:43:02 GMT

@HiLine wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It doesn't matter whether the creditor reports the TL or not. Once an account is closed and in positive standing, it can stay for up to 10 years at the descretion of the individual CRAs. As a matter of fact, the Credit Reporting Resource Guide states that once an account is paid in full and closed that it shoud not be reported for more than 3 months. That does not mean it will be removed.

Creditors are under no obligation to report ANY tradeline, open, closed, good or bad. The only thing they are obligated to do is report accurate information.

Where are you getting information to call it a myth?
The bolded part is very interesting ... Would you mind sharing the source so I can peruse a little?

Enough people have reported their accounts being dropped in less than 10 years to make the rumor that closed accounts are reported for 10 years a myth.

I stated the source.

There is no hard and fast 10 year rule. It is UP TO 10 years. I have an account that has been reporting for well over 10 years and has not been updated/reported by the creditor for just as long.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

HiLine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:44:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It doesn't matter whether the creditor reports the TL or not. Once an account is closed and in positive standing, it can stay for up to 10 years at the descretion of the individual CRAs. As a matter of fact, the Credit Reporting Resource Guide states that once an account is paid in full and closed that it shoud not be reported for more than 3 months. That does not mean it will be removed.

Creditors are under no obligation to report ANY tradeline, open, closed, good or bad. The only thing they are obligated to do is report accurate information.

Where are you getting information to call it a myth?
The bolded part is very interesting ... Would you mind sharing the source so I can peruse a little?

Enough people have reported their accounts being dropped in less than 10 years to make the rumor that closed accounts are reported for 10 years a myth.
I stated the source.

There is no hard and fast 10 year rule. It is UP TO 10 years. I have an account that has been reporting for well over 10 years and has not been updated/reported by the creditor for just as long.

Cool. And I don't dispute the "up to 10 years" part. If you have the impression I did, feel free to refer to my unedited original post.

Re: Are closed accounts reported for 10 years?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:45:39 GMT

Isn't it a good thing if a CRA leaves an account on for way more than 10 years? Assuming it reports positively. That would help AAoA. Right?