Profile age milestones

[MisterFico]

Where I'm from we have various significant milestones, for example credit profiles are boosted by:

• Age of oldest account passing 6 years
• Being a registered voter at the same address for 8 years
• Being a homeowner
• Having credit cards with a collective limit of about $20k
• Having a single credit card with a limit of about $20k

I'd be interested to learn about US equivalents, in particular to do with age because my oldest checking account is 5yrs 3m, and my oldest credit card here is 4yrs 7m...so are there any big milestones in the next few months or years I can mark on my calendar and look forward to please?

[Realist]

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@MisterFico wrote:

Where I'm from we have various significant milestones, for example credit profiles are boosted by:

• Age of oldest account passing 6 years
• Being a registered voter at the same address for 8 years
• Being a homeowner
• Having credit cards with a collective limit of about $20k
• Having a single credit card with a limit of about $20k

I'd be interested to learn about US equivalents, in particular to do with age because my oldest checking account is 5yrs 3m, and my oldest credit card here is 4yrs 7m...so are there any big milestones in the next few months or years I can mark on my calendar and look forward to please?

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Are these documented milestones in your location?  

[MisterFico]

Absolutely, as is made clear within a free Transunion service provided/integrated in to the online banking systems of at least three banks there. It gives pointers to users, both positive and negative, which it breaks down in to categories it labels 'critical' and 'take note' factors. An example of a (critical) negative pointer it gives is "you have applied for three or more credit products in the last six months".

[GZG]

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@MisterFico wrote:

Where I'm from we have various significant milestones, for example credit profiles are boosted by:

• Being a registered voter at the same address for 8 years
• Being a homeowner
• Having credit cards with a collective limit of about $20k
• Having a single credit card with a limit of about $20k

I'd be interested to learn about US equivalents, in particular to do with age because my oldest checking account is 5yrs 3m, and my oldest credit card here is 4yrs 7m...so are there any big milestones in the next few months or years I can mark on my calendar and look forward to please?

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those things (other than oldest account hitting a certain age) do not impact FICO scoring directly, but they can be and are considered by lenders through credit reports (with FICO scores) pulled by lenders and other credit reports pulled (without FICO scores, say ChexSystems/Lexisnexis) by lenders as well 

ie. an 800 credit score with 3 $300 credit cards is looked upon less than a credit profile with multiple high limit credit cards, a lexisnexus/chexsystems/other CRA showing a stable home address/citizenship status with a real SSN issued for the year of their birth with property they own etc. etc. 

[Total_Synergy]

Hi @MisterFico , I made a note from the FICO Scoring threads found here:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/bd-p/ficoscoring 

My note: (90 months (7.5 years) AAoA max for scoring; going from 6>7yr = +10-20pts).  Hope that helps; check out the link above for months of good homework reading!

[Pppoolboy]

Keep in mind that, in the US, certain types of "milestones" that could work against "disadvantaged groups" are not allowed.  That is to say, consumer lenders can take payment history, length of established credit, etc. into account for lending, they can't take many other things such as what consumers own (such as a house), where they live, their occupation, voting registration, citizenship, etc.  Therefore, credit reporting agencies cannot ask for, nor report, that type of information.

And this is why I'm always frustrated by people here stating that "the FICO scoring algorithm is not regulated by the government."  Actually, yes, it is.  Perhaps not explicitly other than for 2, 4  and 5 which absolutely are because they're used by the Feds to purchase mortgages.  But ALL the FICO and Vantagescore algorithms are indirectly regulated by the government because if they discriminated against people, you can bet your sweet ass the feds would go after them in a heartbeat.  The Congressional [Whoever] Caucus would be initiating congressional hearings if they thought certain people were being disadvantaged by any scoring algorithm.  You can bet ALL scoring algorithms are vetted to accomplish their stated purpose before being used on the public.  FICO and the major CRAs do NOT want to be sued by the feds.

This is why FICO uses "score cards" rather than pure machine learning ("AI") to initially segregate consumers.  Scorecards are less accurate than machine learning but machine learning would inadvertently "redline" certain blocks of the population and would not stand up to scrutiny with regard to governmental overseers.

Please read this for more information...

https://www.fico.com/blogs/evolving-landscape-machine-learning-relative-fico-score

...and really understand this paragraph:

"The scoring algorithm also needs to be explainable and credible for humans and should be expeditiously developed and deployed. Fairness, privacy, and compliance are non-negotiable requirements. Tradeoffs may exist between certain objectives where they may oppose each other. Striking the responsible balance is a fundamental requirement for the FICO® Score."

I'll translate: "Our scoring algorithm could be more accurate if we used pure machine learning, but we don't want to be sued for discrimination."

Interestingly, while consumer credit reports can't report on home ownership, it can report on whether the consumer has a mortgage.  That, to me, is an "end-run" around the ownership category and I find it rather hilarious.

As far as average age of account milestones, there's an excellent writeup here about it... somewhere