Thought I'd share something with the community here. I filled out an application on Lending Tree a while back and they've been marketing to me ever since. Today I got an email that something went from good to fair about my credit worthiness and so I clicked. It had my Equifax report up and provided a variety of analyses along with a comment like "good" or "poor," etc. It liked my utilization and my payment history is getting better with time. It showed that I have no negatives on my credit, which is not true (I have some old lates and a couple old paid off charge offs), but I'm guessing it looks over a shorter period of time. It had fewer inquiries than I would have thought, but it seems not that many creditors pull EQ. Wonder why that is? The one it marked me as "poor" on was age of oldest active account, which is 4.9 years. Moreover, it said that measure has a "high" impact on score as opposed to inquiries, for example, which it says has a "very low" impact on score. In any event, the next level from "poor" is "fair" and you can't get to that level until the age of oldest active account is 10 years! Mine is presently at 4.9 years (a capital one that I use almost daily). My actual oldest account is more than 26 years, but it isn't active. For whatever this analysis is worth, it speaks highly of getting some cards you like and keeping them forever. I have some subprime cards I need to tear the bandaid off on and shut down. All are a year or less, so I need to close them quickly it seems. But having to have 10 years on an oldest active account to even be considered "fair" for a category that has a "high" impact on score, does that sound right?!
