Lenth of credit history on scoring

[Anonymous]

One of the negatives affecting my score of 681 is indicated to be the length of credit history, which is 24 years 10 months, and average length of credit accounts which is 10 years.  Should these numbers really seem to be a negative and affect my score?  A credit history of almost 25 years doesn't seem short.  Actually this should be closer to 35 years.

[llecs]

The FICO formula is fairly complex. One component that makes up your score are called scorecards, or buckets as we call them here. Basically, all the people who have derogs are lumped together and are compared to each other, all the folks with super long histories like yours are compared together, and so on. And there are several of these. If you remember back to school, there are some professors that graded on a scale. The person with the highest grade at 80%, for example, would have an "A". Basically, you are low-man on the totem pole and of those who have a long history, you happen to have the shortest.

[RobertEG]

Nothing negative about those numbers!

[smallfry]

OP what is your utilization? With history that long there is no reason you shouldn't be in the mid 700's at least.

[Anonymous]

How do I go about making sure that my credit history actually reflects the 35 years I have as opposed to the almost 25 years they are reporting.  I assume the extra 10 years would boost my score?

[llecs]

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swrdfc wrote:
How do I go about making sure that my credit history actually reflects the 35 years I have as opposed to the almost 25 years they are reporting.  I assume the extra 10 years would boost my score?

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Is not your oldest "open date" 25 years old? Is there an account that shows an open date from 35 yrs ago on that report?

[RobertEG]

Your CR does not reflect all of your prior credit history.

Once you close an old account, the FCRA doesnt mandate how long the CRAs must continue to include it in your CR, and thus how long it may continue to be included as either your oldest account, or factored into the calculation of your AAoA.

The CRAs literally get millions of data inputs from creditors daily. They dont have infinite storage capability.

From input from others on this site, it seems to be standard practice for the CRAs that they retain credit history for ten years from the date of CLOSING of an account.  That is not unreasonable, and is certainly not regualated by statute.

So an account that has been closed for around ten years may disappear as your oldest account, and also may cease to factor into your AAoA.  Thus, the mantra, dont close an account!

Message Edited by RobertEG on 06-03-2009 08:19 PM

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the clarification, I didn't realize that it only scores for open accounts.

[llecs]

Closed accounts play into AAoA and length of credit history too, in a big way.

Does this 35- year old TL show on your CR? If so, does the open date say "1974"?

[smallfry]

681? Unless there are other negatives or high utilization the score must be higher. Age stated like the way OP says sounds like it is off the FICO report. Transunion says history since 1974 for me although any account opened then is long gone. Gotta be something else going on here.