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I think the time is due to investigate one of the biggest mysteries about credit cards: the length of the period in which creditors report closed accounts. Some people say it's 7 years; some others have said 10 years. We do know that there is no guarantee about either, and it is possible that the policy varies from one creditor to another. If you have experience with closed accounts, could you please answer the following questions:
1. When did the account get closed?
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible.
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor?
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card?
5. Any other information and stories about the card?
Feel free to skip questions if you're unsure about the answer.
If we have big enough of a sample size we'll be able to draw some conclusions. Let's kick it!
Just looking at closed accounts on my EQ report.
Bank of America credit card
Opened Feb 1989
Last Activity: Oct 2003
Status Date: Dec 2004
Since the status is closed, it's been closed since Dec 2004 (or earlier), so that's been there 8.25 years at least. I closed this card
And also Eastern Bank, which must have been an auto loan:
Open Jun 2000
Last Activity Jul 2003
Status date: Sep 2004. So that might drop off earlier. This was paid off and closed with zero balance.
And more confusing to me, a GAP card:
Opened May 2003
Last Activity Jul 2003
Status Date: Feb 2013 This says Closed or Paid account, zero balance. Clearly not used for quite a while but I don't know when it was closed. However, the EX report shows Paid OK up to 2008, so maybe this stayed open for a while
Here's what I collected from my friends back in January:
1. When did the account get closed: October 2012
2. How long did account reporting last after that: 3 months + (at least 3 months)
3. What card is it: GECRB, Banana Republic
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card: creditor
1. When did the account get closed: May 2008
2. How long did account reporting last after that: 4 years and 8 months +
3. What card is it? Some BofA card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card: consumer
1. When did the account get closed: June 2006
2. How long did account reporting last after that: 6 years and 7 months +
3. What card is it: Some Chase card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card: consumer
More:
1. When did the account get closed: Jun 2004
2. How long did account reporting last after that: 8 years, 7 months +
3. What card is it: Comenity Bank, Express Next store card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card: consumer
1. When did the account get closed: September 2004
2. How long did account reporting last after that: 8 years and 4 months +
3. What card is it: some Citi card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card: consumer
@bs1234 wrote:
And also Eastern Bank, which must have been an auto loan:
Open Jun 2000
Last Activity Jul 2003
Status date: Sep 2004. So that might drop off earlier. This was paid off and closed with zero balance.
And more confusing to me, a GAP card:
Opened May 2003
Last Activity Jul 2003
Status Date: Feb 2013 This says Closed or Paid account, zero balance. Clearly not used for quite a while but I don't know when it was closed. However, the EX report shows Paid OK up to 2008, so maybe this stayed open for a while
Hmm, good points. To me, as long as an account appears on your credit report, it is still being reported, and the Last Activity date is also the closing date. Not sure what the status date and the subsequent payment history imply though. Can someone chime in on this?
Accounts are reported for 10 years to life; however, this is not the creditor's doing. The FCRA dictates how long positive history stays on the credit report (10 years to life). If your account continues to show positive payment history, then lucky you. Ultimately though, the numbers used in scoring are going to be open to close dates for the account.
Sorry, hit post too soon. To add on to above - the open and close dates will affect the length of account history, though an account may be closed and continue to be reported if there is a balance left and payments to be made. If there is no balance for payments to be made, and the account is closed, the runoff positive marks won't make a difference.
Status date is the date of the latest status of the account from the creditor.
FCRA § 611(a)(6) sets the upper limit on the length of the period of time in which negative information is reported. AFAIK, FCRA does not require creditors to report for any minimum amount of time following the closing of an account. Let me know if you find something else.
I've got a Citi card that's scheduled to fall off this year, after being closed for ten years. It's going to kill my AAoA. Closed it back when I was in college and didn't know anything about credit.
Hi,
I have a Citi card on EX that I closed in 2005. It was opened in 1993 and the report itself has a line that says it is scheduled to fall off in 2015 so mark one in the 10 year box. It is reporting as inactive/never late although I can't remember if I was late at some point beforehand. All my other reports have no mention of this card. In 1993 I opened this card, a chase card, amex green, and an MBNA card and this is the only one still reporting. I, not so surprisingly, have not been able to pull my EX fico score other than fakos. I got one off a Chase denial letter and was self deluded into thinking it was a fico score but when I went back and looked at it, the letter said that the scale it was reporting on went to 990 so I now believe it was a vantage or other fako or proprietary Chase score from my EX file. Thus, I am not sure whether this card is contributing to my AAoA.
One of my goals is to obtain an Amex green before this card rolls off my report and get them to backdate it til 1993. That would replace this card as my oldest AAoA contributor.