Unexplained Length of Credit

[villemiami]

When I go to https://creditscorecard.com , I see that under Length of Credit, my oldest account has been open for 15 years, 3 months.

But I really started to use credit cards only since 2016.

I remember that in the past, my parents, who don't understand English, opened a JC Penney credit card in order to get discounts. Maybe they gave my name and the credit card was never closed?

When they say "my oldest account has been open for 15 years",  does it mean that it is still open? If yes, is there a way to know which account it is?

[Anonymous]

Yes.  The way to find out is called "pulling your credit reports."   You can find out what a credit report is here, along with what the Big Three credit bureaus are, etc.:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/creditreport.asp

There are free methods of getting your credit reports every month.  Any number of people here can explain further if you like.

[Anonymous]

OP, you stated that you only began to "use credit cards" in 2016, but that's different than saying you only began to "use credit."  Any credit account outside of credit cards such as a student loan for example would start your credit history and could be your oldest account.  Whether an account is open or closed doesn't matter.  If it's on your credit report (even if closed) that account is being viewed by your age of accounts factors.

I would suggest signing up for Wallet Hub, which will give you daily updates to your TU report.  On there you can see all of your open accounts and also "view closed accounts."  By skimming through this you should quickly be able to see which account on your credit report was opened ~15 years ago.

[villemiami]

In Wallethub - credit analysis, I see "your average account age is 0 years, 3 months".

In "credit report", "previsously confirmed events", the oldest thing I see is "New Address Added

The following address was added to your credit report on Apr 1, 2003", then there is my old address.

Is it what I was looking for? It's not a credit card or a loan.

[Anonymous]

I would say that has to do with it, but there should be an account associated with the address.  Addresses land on credit reports because they're tied to credit accounts.  Was there something in 2003 that could have been put on your credit report?  If it was closed quickly after being opened, it could have fallen off your report in 2013-2014, making the account not visible today but the address would still remain.

[Anonymous]

Our OP starts his initial post based on something from creditscorecard.com.  That website gets its data from Experian.  I therefore suggest that our OP look at his Experian report.  He can get that once per month from Experian at:

www.creditscore.com

He needs to print out the full report and look at each account on it.  One of those accounts will have a date opened of a little more than 15 years ago (e.g. March 2003).

He then needs to get comfortable with the the idea of what a full credit report is, what the the three bureaus are, and needs to repeat this process for TransUnion and Equifax.  The reason we are having this conversation is because he doesn't yet understand what a credit report is.  If he did, he would have pulled it and looked.

Best of luck....

[villemiami]

Thank you! I found it using creditscore.com

The closed account is SYNCB/JCP . So it's JC Penney like I thought initially. The credit card has been opened in 2003. I probably used it once or twice, and never thought about closing it, until I closed it in 2012. The highest balance was $87.

I never understood why I went to car dealers and they checked and saw that I had good credit, while for me, I almost never used a credit card, until 2016.

Was it a good thing for my credit score that this card was opened in 2003, even if I almost never used it?

[Thomas_Thumb]

Unfortunately if it closed in 2012 it will drop off your report in 4 years

[Anonymous]

---

@villemiami wrote:

Was it a good thing for my credit score that this card was opened in 2003, even if I almost never used it?

---

Yes.  You now have a much higher "Age of Oldest Account" than you otherwise would have.  Age of Oldest is an important scoring factor.

[Anonymous]

OP, in roughly 4 years your AoOA will be ~19 years, which is top-notch for AoOA.  At that time when it drops off, your AoOA will drop to ~6 years, as your 2 year old account(s) current will be around that age at the time.  A drop from 19 years AoOA to 6 years is pretty significant, so you may see a score drop at that time.