Age of Credit History

Scoring models look at the age of your oldest account, the average age of all accounts, and how long it has been since you used certain accounts. Together these make up about 15% of a FICO score.

Why it matters

Age is the one factor you cannot buy or hack - which makes protecting old accounts the cheapest scoring move most people never make.

Key facts

• Closing an old card does not immediately erase its age - closed accounts in good standing keep reporting for up to 10 years - but it does cut your available credit now.
• Every new account lowers your average age of accounts; opening several at once compounds the effect.
• An authorized-user slot on a well-aged account can add that account's history to your file.
• Time is the input: there is no legitimate way to make a young file look old.

In practice

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