closing credit card accounts

[Anonymous]

Negative items on credit report:

00006 TOO MANY CONSUMER FINANCE COMPANY ACCOUNTS                                                      

00014 LENGTH OF TIME ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED

Assuming these are all credit cards....I know in general it is a bad idea to close accounts, but I'm wondering if in this case it would be beneficial to close one or more of the newest cards?  

All cards have zero balances and clean payment history.

Thanks!!!

[smallfry]

Sounds like you got these comments from a source other than FICO. Where did you get them? 

[Anonymous]

From CitiMortgage - they listed credit scores from all 3 big agencies, so I'm not sure exactly where the information came from.

[llecs]

The "consumer finance company" or CFL could be caused by something on your CR that is being read as such. Examples can include payday loans or other "financial" companies like Wells Fargo Financial or CitiFinancial. That comment will remain so as long as that TL reports, open or closed (at least for FICO comments anyway). CitiMortgage isn't likely the curprit.

The second comment refers to the time separation between app time and the time you last opened an account.

Message Edited by llecs on 06-17-2009 04:38 PM

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I wasn't clear..... in applying for mortgage through CitiMortgage, they provided a credit score. We asked for comments from credit report to determine why score was lower than expected, and those were two of the negatives.

I understand closing some newer CC accounts will not affect the average age, but would it effectively address the "too many consumer finance accounts open" issue? Or would that have minimal impact on the score, such that they should be left open for future management of utilization percentages?

[llecs]

There's nothing you can do to get the comment removed, other than to get the TL deleted. Closing it won't help any. The CFL comment is also likely on your FICO report(s). From what I read, there really isn't any damage per your score.

The comment would be geared towards installment accounts only, I think. Once you PIF, you can't reopen it. Based on what I mentioned before, do you have any consumer finance accts open?

[Anonymous]

I thought there was only one (auto loan) but I could be wrong. This is not for me personally, I'm trying to help out a friend.

Sounds like number of credit cards isn't the issue, and there isn't much he can do with regard to these two items to help his score?

[llecs]

Nope. Not much. Only time can heal the second. Tell him not to app for anything as that can renew the comment. The CFL comment can only be fixed by removing any CFL acct. Again, damage there is super minimal.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!!!