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

(135 Total Comments)

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

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

More is better with the number of accounts. But your score is excellent by all accounts.

CK Moderator

the problem is that you have so many closed accounts. you don't want to close any accounts if you don't have to- they take that as a negative

sarahp84 at 1:37 pm Feb 2

my mom got a bunch of stuff in my name and now i am left footing the bill my score used to be a 670 and now it is a 501 any suggestions out there

fizerfrenzy at 5:33 pm Jan 8

make your mom pay for it.

frugal1 at 6:27 pm Jan 8

Follow the same procedures as for any victim of identity theft (that's you!). The Googles should help.

Definitely put a fraud alert on your credit report to at least keep her from doing it again. And what she did is criminal. Tough when it's your Mom, but she should know better.

j2leclair at 2:25 pm Jan 14

too bad i wasn't more forceful in saying no when my dad decided to take out over a quarter million dollars in my name and left me with the 400 fico score >.> and all that while i was in my late teens

uniquecannon at 9:03 pm Jan 14

Rember this is a transunion based score, not a fico,My score Here is 581 but Fico is 605

wayne6372 at 4:20 pm Jan 4

FICO is simply a brand of credit score.

CK Moderator

my credit is 653 is that good or bad?

ammie0131 at 9:23 am Jan 1

why is my credit score 608 here and on myfico its 633?

TAMMY77777 at 9:10 am Dec 30

This article describes difference in credit scores.

CK Moderator

When I got divorced I closed my joint credit cards and got new ones. The average age of my credit cards is now 3 years 7 months. This has hurt my credit score. I pay off my balance every month. How long will it take to get my score higher than the current score of 740?

winco40tom at 1:22 pm Dec 29

when employers check your credit score and it low..does that generally mean you wont get the job?

sierrayoung at 6:33 pm Dec 21

It is totally up to the employer. There are no steadfast rules.

CK Moderator

I hate to say why is my credit score the first time i joined the sight it said 603.Is this from one credit bureau? Two days later it showed 596 now is this from the next two credit bureaus and which one should i go by? I have one negative account that i'm working on paying off and a high balance that i'm working on paying down.Could that affect my score and if i take care of these two problems could my score go back up?

dneeshea at 8:25 pm Dec 18

paying a negative account will hurt your score for a while,but the impact will eventually go away.So you score might take a slight dip.the older the negative account becomes the less factor it has on your score.

cbard17566 at 5:39 am Dec 26