Length of Credit History Affects Credit Scores

How Length of Credit History Affects Your Credit Scores

How long you've had credit affects your score. But paying on time and not using a lot of your limit matter more.

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Whether you’ve had credit for six months or 20 years can make a difference in your credit scores. A long track record without any major slip-ups suggests that your credit behavior will be similar in the future — and lenders and credit card issuers like that.

How does length of credit history affect credit scores?

Credit scoring company VantageScore combines two things in its scoring models — how long you’ve been using credit and what types of credit you have — into a single factor and considers it “highly influential.” FICO credit scores break it out a little differently, with the length of your credit history accounting for 15% of your score and the mix of accounts making up 10%.

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Length of credit history vs. credit age

The "length of credit history" means how long any given account has been reported open, says Rod Griffin, senior director of consumer education and advocacy for Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus. “Generally, the longer an account has been open and active, the better it is for the credit score," Griffin says. "That’s particularly true for an account with a positive payment history that has no delinquency.” The credit scoring algorithms calculate the average of how long all your accounts have been open. That average age of accounts is your “credit age.” It’s all but impossible to get a score higher than 800 if you’re young, because your credit age likely will be low.

What’s a good credit history length?

While credit bureaus and scoring companies don’t define exactly what counts as a “good” length of credit history, having at least a few years under your belt is helpful. In general, longer is better. It can take decades to reach the highest credit score. FICO has reported that most people with an 850 score have lengthy credit histories, with their oldest account being 30 years old on average.

Credit age matters, but other factors matter more

While credit age matters for credit scoring purposes, the only thing you can do about it is to keep your credit accounts in good standing and avoid closing credit cards unnecessarily. Being an authorized user on an old, established account in which the primary cardholder has excellent credit may help your score a little, but the passage of time during which you build or maintain good credit helps the most. Keep length of credit history in perspective, though: It’s only one element influencing your credit scores, and not the most important one at that. Here's a breakdown of the factors that affect your credit scores: Circle size shows importance—the bigger the circle, the greater the impact on your credit score. The biggest effects on your credit scores come from: Payment history — making sure that you pay all bills on time. Payment history Credit utilization — using no more than 30% of your credit limits, and less is better. Credit utilization If you use credit regularly and lightly, and pay your bills on time every month, you’re doing the two essential things to have a good credit score. Sit tight and the average age of accounts will take care of itself. Explore more on Article sources NerdWallet writers are subject matter authorities who use primary, trustworthy sources to inform their work, including peer-reviewed studies, government websites, academic research and interviews with industry experts. All content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. You can learn more about NerdWallet's high standards for journalism by reading our editorial guidelines. About the author Bev O'Shea is a former NerdWallet authority on consumer credit, scams and identity theft. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Auburn University and a master's in education from Georgia State University. Before coming to NerdWallet, she worked for daily newspapers, MSN Money and Credit.com. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, MarketWatch, USA Today, MSN Money and elsewhere. Twitter: @BeverlyOShea. Does Checking Your Credit Score Lower It? Why Did My Credit Score Drop? 9 Possible Reasons How to Calculate Your Credit Utilization Ratio Use a Credit Score Simulator to Road-Test Financial Decisions What Is Credit and Why Is It Useful? By Amanda Barroso What Is a FICO Score? Here’s What You Need to Know By Amanda Barroso, Bev O'Shea What Factors Affect Your Credit Scores? By Bev O'Shea, Amanda Barroso How to Build Your Credit Score Fast: 9 Strategies That Work By Amanda Barroso, Bev O'Shea The 3 Credit Bureaus and Why They Matter to You By Amanda Barroso, Bev O'Shea