cancelled greenie resurrected 18 years later

[score_building]

i had a cancelled greenie from almost 2 decades ago with a marginal balance.  at first i thought if i paid i would be penalized but because of the limitation i was prompted to pay to clear it and request redating of my current accounts with amex.  amex agreed.  assuming they fully report the new info., how would member since 2007 now updated to member since 1990 on my current amex cards reward and/or penalize me with respect to fico scoring?  currently my oldest acct. is about 6.5 years and my avg. age of accts. is deemed "not good".

apparently a few others here at the forums have resurrected old cards in just this way to great fico effect...  but almost sounds too good to be true and i find the scoring methodolgies a bit hard to grasp at times with modifiers like rebucketing also impacting outcome.  Thoughts?

Message Edited by score_building on 08-02-2008 10:40 PM

Message Edited by score_building on 08-02-2008 10:41 PM

[Anonymous]

You will move into a bucket with a much higher scoring potential - probably 840-850 versus 790 - yet you will be graded against people with much more impressive credit profiles.

If your average age isn't considered good in the 5-7 year credit bucket, it may not be good (depending on how amex's added age will affect your average age) in the new bucket.

The new bucket is also much more likely to be pickier on # of accounts reporting a balance and likely utility. It is much more important to be under 9% (under 3% is ideal) to maximize your score. If you are satisfied with your scores and aren't applying for a loan anytime soon, you likely won't have to worry as much about those factors.

[score_building]

thanks a bunch for the v. informative, detailed rejoinder debtisgood.  I'm currently in paid down mode. i have 4 of 10 accounts zeroed out and am working litigiously to paid down the others to zero.  unfortunately, it will be several months b4 i get there so i think my timing may have been off on the action i took.  my util is currently an unacceptable over 50 percent on the accts. that have balances.  i'm not apping, at least not any time soon, but am not happy with my scores which are hovering around 650 due primarily i'd imagine to high util on my accounts that have balances and newness of accounts- all of my accts. except the 6.5 card are under 2.5 yrs. and about 1/2 of those are under 18 mos. old. i just hope my scores don't go fully into subprime in the lofty new bucket.  besides that it may be nice to have a cushion if things head south, i can't really see the utility of scores above 760. so i hope i didn't shoot myself in the foot with the timing of this payment. ultimately of course i would have eventually wanted to clear it with them as a matter of principal (even though i had already paid it through collections more than a decade ago) and to get it off their record once and for all.

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debtisgood wrote:

You will move into a bucket with a much higher scoring potential - probably 840-850 versus 790 - yet you will be graded against people with much more impressive credit profiles.

If your average age isn't considered good in the 5-7 year credit bucket, it may not be good (depending on how amex's added age will affect your average age) in the new bucket.

The new bucket is also much more likely to be pickier on # of accounts reporting a balance and likely utility. It is much more important to be under 9% (under 3% is ideal) to maximize your score. If you are satisfied with your scores and aren't applying for a loan anytime soon, you likely won't have to worry as much about those factors.

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Message Edited by score_building on 08-03-2008 11:58 AM