Credit Trends

Trends by Age

Based on our data, there is clearly a relationship between age and average credit scores. Generally speaking, younger individuals will have lower credits scores on average.

There is a very good technical reason for this phenomenon. The length of your credit history is a factor that goes into the credit score calculation. Since younger individuals will have shorter credit history, they will tend to have a lower credit score all else equal.

The depth of your credit is probably lower with younger individuals as well. The combination of the two effects lead to the lower averages for younger people.

Keep in mind the chart does not mean you can't have high credit if you are young. It just points out the correlations and averages. There are dozens of factors that affect credit scores. Being aware of all the factors is important to being a well informed consumer.

Comments

(152 Total Comments)

My score is not very good right now i have a lot of collections if i pay them all off how long will it take for my score to change"

jtm413 at 4:07 pm Mar 16

Hey im 19 and i want to build up my credit so that in 2 years i can finance a car, any tips?"

missileanax3 at 1:40 pm Mar 15

Yes. Pay your bills on time. If you don't have a credit card, get one or two but use it/them responsibly (pay in full every month so you pay no interest) and you'll build a history. If you have student loans pay them on time."

atc919r1725 at 11:37 am Mar 16

It would be nice if there was a way to get help when you need help to keep your credit from going bad."

granny6 at 7:04 pm Mar 10

Too many worshiping at the alter of the great FICO. It is an I love sebt score, not a representation of your true financial stability. I paid off my house last month, have no consumer debt at all , this month by credit score fell over 100 points! I have $3500 per monthin extra income and able to pay cash. Do you need any more evidence to understand you are chasing a number by staying in debt?"

pacificmento at 11:59 am Mar 8

Amen to that! We should not build our financial life around a high credit score. We should build wealth for our own benefit, as well as the benefit of our entire nation."

jdking17 at 6:24 pm Mar 12

Hi my score is 671 but have never missed are been late on mortage are car notes is it true utility bills can bring down the score because it doesn't seem to be going up. And why are the other scores higher then transunion scores?"

macadoo50 at 11:21 am Mar 8

Get a copy of your full reports (a free one is available at annualcreditreport.com once per year) and see what's on them. Utility bills would only bring down the score if they're reported as being late or in collections."

Scores are different based upon which report is used (and the info on it) and what scoring method is used. They tend to be about the same from one to another but there is variation, especially if there is different info on different reports.

atc919r1725 at 11:40 am Mar 16

AnnualCreditReport.com

CK Moderator

Does signing up for this site treat the consumer the same as if they went to governmental site when it comes to a credit inquiry on their respective credit reports (ie., annualcreditreport.com is not treated as a "hit" to the credit score as that from a bank/financial institution as if you were applying for credit). Last I knew one had to pay to get the scores on the govt site."

tritchie at 5:16 pm Feb 16

That is correct, all credit pulls are "soft pulls" and do not effect your credit score.

CK Moderator

How long does it take to bring your score back up and how many points do you accrue with certain transacions?"

leowakil at 6:45 am Feb 14

I did not read through all of the comments. What is dragging down your score? I have found (financial employment) that a score will drop 70-100 points, overnight, with the very first 30 day late payment showing up at the credit bureau. With everything else perfect it will take 6-9 months to float back up (and/or longer to get back to the same score as before). This will depend on the amount of tradelines being reported today, the more reported on time the shorter the duration on a float up."

tritchie at 5:07 pm Feb 16

Is it possible to get a paid-off car loan taken off your credit report? I ask because I went through some tough time in the middle of a 6 year car finance. I have about 8 or 9 different 30 day late marks on this account. Towards the end of it I started paying on time and extra money. I heard you can call the bank and have them remove it from your report after you completely pay it off and that it should bring your score up. Is that true?"

dgarcia002 at 4:24 pm Jan 15

Not true. If information is accurate, lenders are under no obligation to remove data. With that said, you can ask the lender to remove the late payment information.

CK Moderator

The bank wont do it for you but you can go to a credit expert to help you."

whosyourdadd at 3:30 pm Feb 6

no. Your credit report is a history of your payments. Just because a lien has been released does not change how you paid on that loan."

gmulholland at 6:22 pm Feb 15

Forget about credit and credit scores, do an old fashion debt to asset personal balance sheet. This is what will give you a clear picture of how your doing financialy"

rickettsv at 5:26 pm Jan 14

Far be it from me to dispute what the "CK Moderator" writes, but my report shows an 53 total accounts, with only 4 open, and I received an "A" under number of accounts. Evidently, they did not judge my 49 closed accounts as a negative."

frugal1 at 9:27 pm Feb 2

I have a good overall credit score (782), but I would like to figure out how to improve it. The one area that is scored less than an "A" by Credit Karma is my number of accounts. I have 16 - 9 open, the others closed. I can't figure out if they are saying I have too many accounts, or not enough?"

jad150271 at 12:28 am Jan 12