Here's the post from FICO explaining why my score is low. You figure it out: Length of credit history : You opened your first credit account 18 years and 3 months ago. This may not include accounts you closed more than 7 years ago. This is making your score lower. Having had credit accounts for a long time is a positive factor because your credit history allows lenders to evaluate how you typically use credit and repay your debts. Credit reports with approximately 30 years of history are considered optimal. Meanwhile, up to 7 years of history may be considered short, and less than 3 years of history is often considered too little. It is worth noting that your accounts may have been open longer than your credit reports suggest, as lenders can be slow to report new accounts to the credit bureaus. What matters is how long your accounts have been recorded in your reports.
30 years optimal?! So it looks like those of us who haven't even been around for 30 years are being discriminated against
I have been getting this message too. They HAVE to find something to say! In another 15 yrs I will have 30 years of history. Michelle
I think what this is actually indicating is that according to the data used by FICO in calculating the relative risk you present to lenders, statistically, consumers within the database analized that had a similar credit composition, had credit histories that optimally averaged 30-years. For this reason you were not assessed as many points in certain categories as would a consumer against who you were effectively bench marked! Is that the way it should be, no, but FICO was not designed for you or I - it was designed make it easier for lenders who pay for the service to be able to make better decisions with regard to their credit products. Michael
I wish I would have seen this thread before I attempted to apply for a AMEX Delta Skymiles card today. I got a "System is unresponsive" message which means the same as we can't give you instant approval based on your information. Even though my FICO is 750+, my oldest credit card is less than a year old. And my auto loan is 3.5 years old.
