I have several accounts that are open but the stores are no longer around. These are OLD accounts and last DOLA maybe 98. Should I get them removed? They are 0 balance and positive,so not sure if removing them will do anything to my score. I just thought I would clean up my reports. Also I have a credit line that is reading open and with a balance still as I owe about 2K more on a 20K line of credit. Should this be reading closed from the OC as it was closed even though I am paying it off?Would this be better for my scores. Oh and one more thing. I just read my credit score and from last month till today it has gone down 40 points! Now I have no idea why this should have happened as I owe LESS than I did last month and I have not been late on anything. Have not opened an account,closed and account etc.I see nothing changed from one month to the other in my credit reports (hard copies) BTW both were FICO scores as I get the TU one free thru Washington Mutual. Why do you think I have gone down so many points? Thanks Woofer
I don't know why your scores have gone down. As far as the accounts, if they're positive, leave them alone. They're adding to your history. No reason that they should be deleted. In fact, sometimes removing old positives lowers your score. Did you maybe have an old positive that fell off that could account for your score drop? You have to look at EVERYTHING, not just current stuff. Losing old positive history can reduce the length of your history and lower the score. If the credit like is positive leave it alone, too. As an open account it's computing in the ratio analysis. You're showing only 10% utilization, which is good. A "closed by credit grantor" can be a negative. If you have lates or something on it I might change my mind, but if it's entirely positive leave it be.
I agree w/Hedwig, leave anything positive alone. The older the accounts, the better it is for your history. A longer history helps your credit score significantly. As for the 40 point drop in your score, something must have changed. As Hedwig suggested, it may be that an old account dropped off, this could cause a 40 point drop. But, review both reports line for line, there is something somewhere. Also, just to be certain, were the scores both from the same source?
