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Equifax "You've opened an account recently/You've open credit cards recently"

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ficoforumsjoe
New Visitor

Equifax "You've opened an account recently/You've open credit cards recently"

When checking my Equifax score and report, for several years it has been reporting "What's Hurting Your Score" (under the "Understanding Your Score" tab) as "You've opened an account recently" and "You've opened credit cards recently" with the following statement underneath:

 

"Below are the aspects of your credit profile and history that are hurting your Equifax credit score. They are listed in order of impact to your score - the first has the most negative impact, and the last has the least negative impact."

 

Directly underneath the "You've opened an account recently", it states: "The age of your newest credit account is 5.1 years"; and directly underneath "You've opened credit cards recenty" , it states: "The age of your oldest credit card is 15.0 years".

 

I haven't applied for ANY new credit in at LEAST three years, nor have opened any new credit cards or credit accounts in at LEAST four or more years (I applied for, and was denied, a tire store credit card in early 2010; and I refinanced a Citifinancial/One Main Financial loan in early 2009).

 

When I call Equifax directly, the explanation they give me for the "negative" information makes ZERO sense and they cannot explain to me which credit account is the "recent" or "newest".

 

What do these two statements mean??? I do have a closed auto lease that was an involuntary repossession in 2009 and a charge-off in 2010 (balance owing) that has re-reported several times over the last three years as different statuses, multiple times. Is it possible that the "re"-reporting of this account is showing as "new" accounts, which are further lowering my credit score (in addition to the repo/charge-off information)?

 

How can I get these two statements corrected???

 

Thanks-

 

JA

Message 1 of 3
2 REPLIES 2
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Equifax "You've opened an account recently/You've open credit cards recently"

Welcome!

 

As mentioned, your FICO report will show what hurts the most and what helps the most. It's offering tips on how to improve your FICO but you really can't do anything with the history unfortunately. Where do these comments lie at on the chart? The last 2? The baddies would be first. Even if you edge out a few more years on the length of history and AAoA, you probably would only eek out a few more points. Compared to others with a profile similar to yours, your history is younger on average.

Message 2 of 3
ficoforumsjoe
New Visitor

Re: Equifax "You've opened an account recently/You've open credit cards recently"

Actually, "You've opened an account recently" is #1 on the list (even though it's been over 5 years since opening a "new" account"), followed by "There is insufficient information about mortgage accounts" (which makes sense, since I've never had a mortgage). LIne #3 is "You've opened credit cards recently", followed by #4 "It has been too long since you've had account activity" (strange, since each of my five open revolving credit accounts have at least one transaction on them every month).

 

Even more strange, these are the ONLY four items listed as "Hurting your score", there is no mention of the repossession or charge-off that are clearly listed and reported each month on my credit report.

 

So the item that is most damaging to my credit score is the fact that my most recent credit account is over five years old? Makes zero sense!?!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 3 of 3
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