In the middle of a refinance right now, and the lender has sent me a copy of my credit report from Transunion. My score is pretty good - 811 out of a possible 839. They have a section titled “key factors that adversely affected your credit score,” and two of the items made sense:
TIME SINCE MOST RECENT ACCOUNT OPENING IS TOO SHORT (OK, I started a new credit card in January) TOO MANY ACCOUNTS WITH BALANCES (I have four credit cards, two of them with a balance that get paid off every month)
but two of them didn’t:
INSUFFICIENT LENGTH OF REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORY INSUFFICIENT LENGTH OF CREDIT HISTORY
Um, I’m 42. I’ve had one or more credit cards at all times since I was 18, and I’ve paid off a couple of five-year vehicle loans. How is it that my credit history, revolving or otherwise, could possibly be of insufficient length? :dubious:
Do you still have the same accounts from when you were 18? I believe the “length of credit history” type things are only deduced from the age of your accounts. If you have a bunch of old ones you paid off and closed, they eventually drop off your report, just like the bad stuff that might be on there.
Sounds reasonable. So if I continue taking good care of my credit, when I get to be 60 or 70 years old, will I see “INSUFFICIENT LENGTH OF CREDIT HISTORY” removed as a reason for my not-quite-perfect score?
I work at TU and I’ve seen one perfect score in 19 years: My wife.
Multiple cards since she was 18. Multiple mortgages 5x over. Mutliple installment accounts. Multiple everything – all under limits, but all had high credits that were paid down.
Deep, high-dollar credit of every facet.
I’m low 800’s to upper 700’s.
Just keep analogies in mind. Even a ‘perfect game’ in baseball could be better. So, over 800 is getting pretty darn perfect, and will always net you the best rates on everything, but if you have a perfect game, it can be better: 27 up and 27 down on all strikeouts: Wow – perfect, right? Maybe that would still fall short:
Too many pitches thrown
Too many balls in the dirt
It always says that on my credit report as well and my score is pretty effn’ high. I think all they’re saying is that that’s one of the things that’s pulling you down from a perfect score. But you’d think after a certain point it wouldn’t matter how long the account’s been open. IOW, I can understand that an account that’s been open for 2 years is different then one that’s been open for 5, but does it really matter if it’s been open for 25 years or 35? I would think at some point it would pass a threshold and the “length of credit history” thing would max out.
At one point (and it must have been a strange glitch since it disappeared right away) it said “Not enough mortgage accounts” So, one mortgage isn’t enough?