Older account question

[yougoglencoco]

I had an American Express card back in 2009.  It was short lived, only for 4 months. I was on the card with my dad who has had American Express since the 80s.  For some reason, it is still showing on my Transunion.  Balance paid, but closed by credit granter. It is really helping my average age of accounts, but I wonder if the closed by credit granter hurts even though it is old? I assume I could ask to have it removed since the last report date was in 2009.  Thoughts?

Thanks!

[thornback]

It doesn't matter, in the eyes of FICO, whether the account was closed by the consumer or creditor. Only thing that matters is whether it was closed in good standing. Since it was, it will remain on your reports for 10 years after the closing date. So if it closed in 2009, it should fall off sometime this year (depending on the month of closure) anyway. When it does fall off - prepare yourself for a potential drop in score.

[yougoglencoco]

Thank you! I didn't know a good account would last 10 years!

[dynamicvb]

What will be the age of your oldest account and your average age once this one ages off? As already said this could cause you to take a hit when it does if it lowers your average age a lot.

[Acc-Risk]

I left Amex and came back and it picked back up where it left off, and is reporting as a 14 year old account. Just something to consider if you're looking for an average age boost.

[RobertEG]

Removal of accounts from your credit report at ten years from closure is not an exclusion provision under any section of the FCRA or under any federal regulation.  

It is simply an internal business decision made by the CRAs in order to clean up their databases.

Thus, removal at precisely ten years is not required.  The CRA can exclude at any time of their choosing.

Anecdotal posts here in the forum show that the CRAs have removed accounts as early as around 8 years, while some remain for substantially longer.  I personally had an old, closed account remain for 14 years after closure.

Use of approx ten years by the CRAs is apparently to ensure that most, if not all, of the normal adverse items reported under accounts have become excluded, and thus continued inclusion of the account is of little value since it already has removed most, if not all, prior adverse account history.

Dont expect removal at any precise date, and dont expect to be able to dispute any such removals that are made by the CRAs.

[MyDataMyChoice]

The Days of American Express Backdating are long over.  The member date does backdate but credit reports now show that specific tradelines dates

[Acc-Risk]

All 3 of my reports from the 12th show my Amex as nearly 14 years old. Perhaps I was just lucky but I recently got the card so...

[gdale6]

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@yougoglencoco wrote:

Thank you! I didn't know a good account would last 10 years!

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Its up to 10 years, looks like FNBO removes them after 2 years post closed and there are others around too that do. EX is the only one that keeps them the full 10 years as long as they are not deleted by the creditor themselves.

[simplegirl]

According to google any Amex account before March 2015 will be backdated because they stopped backdating after March 2015.