Reducing the number of accounts showing on credit reports

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how to reduce the number of accounts shown on your credit reports?  can you have older ones deleted or do they fall off after so many years when they are closed out.  My reports say that I have too many accounts showing, but of the 44 only 5 of them are accounts that are actually active.

[GFer]

Are they positive tl's?  Even if they are baddies they can still add considerable history/age to your credit file therefore adding points!  If they are all or mostly positive tl's---that's even better! Closed tl's fall off your reports when they are 10yrs. Sometimes that's good and sometimes bad...(loss of valuable history).

[Anonymous]

reino........... in 1998, when I purchased my house, I had 31 open accounts. My lawyer told me to close some of them, which I did. They still show up but as closed. As mentioned previously, you don't want to delete them or you lose the history.

Closed accounts remain for 10 years.

[Junejer]

All of those old accounts are helping your score more than they are hurting it, regardless of the message you receive. As others stated, accounts in good standing can remain on your credit reports for UP to 10 years after closing.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the insight!  All accounts are closed with no negative marks, just thought it might be helpful to shed some of them off.

thanks again

randy