Since this is the section of the forum where we talk about understanding FICO scoring, I wanted to report in on a recent change in my EQ report and what it did (or, rather didn't do) for my score.
I was surprised when I got a recent EQ ScoreWatch report, and my number of accounts dropped from 35 to 23. Quite a difference! What I discovered is that EQ removed a lot of my "extra" school loan accounts. I am finishing grad school, so I am not in repayment yet. These loans have always seemed to have a life of their own. The number of reporting accounts kept soaring as they were originated each semester and then transferred around (without any input from me). Sadly, I also had one of my oldest accounts drop off. An old credit card account that was originated in 1989 and closed in March of 2000 dropped off. (Sure hate to see those old ones go.) So, in all, I lost one very old account and 11 newish ones.
Bottom line is that my AAoA increased from 6 years to 8 years. I had about the same utilization (<1%) and now have one less account showing a balance. It is now 8 accounts of 23 showing a balance vs. 9 accounts of 35. Also, I now "only" have 5 accounts under a year old vs. the 7 new accounts that I did have (two of the new accounts were school loans).
I guess I expected a bigger score bump going from an AAoA of 6 years to 8 years. I went from 753 to 762, and I think that 5 points of that 9 point difference seems to happen when I have 3 of my 7 credit cards reporting vs. only the 2 that are reporting now. I should say that I have an account history of 26+ years.
I'm just sharing this in case it helps someone else who can use any of this info. I saw an AAoA go from 6 to 8 with barely an impact. I think that when you have a long, established account history and very busy reports that it takes an awfully lot of good to move it on up.
