How Does Credit Age Affect Your Score? (2025)

When building strong credit, most people focus on paying bills on time and keeping balances low. While those are key factors, another element plays a quiet but essential role: the age of your credit. So, how does credit age affect your score? It turns out that the length of your credit history—meaning how long your credit accounts have been open and the average age of all your accounts—can significantly influence your overall score.

Credit scoring models, like FICO and VantageScore, use this data to gauge your experience with managing credit. The longer your history, the more trustworthy you may appear to lenders. In this article, we’ll explain why credit history duration matters and what you can do to make the most of it. Plus, you’ll discover how Beem’s credit monitoring tools can help you manage this factor as part of your credit-building journey.

What Is Credit Age and Why Does It Matter?

It refers to how long your credit accounts have been active. It reflects your credit experience over time, giving lenders a window into your history of managing debt and payments.

Think about it like your financial resume: the longer your credit accounts have been open and in good standing, the more confident lenders feel about your ability to handle credit responsibly.

Credit scoring models like FICO® incorporate credit age to assess the risk of lending to you. Longer credit histories typically correlate with lower risk.

How Is Credit Age Calculated?

It is not just a single number—it’s evaluated through several metrics:

1. Oldest Account Age

This is the date when your very first credit account was opened. If you’ve had a credit card or loan for many years, this number will be high, positively influencing your credit score.

2. Average Age of Accounts

This metric calculates an average based on the age of all your credit accounts. Opening new accounts lowers this average, even if your oldest account is ancient.

3. Age of Newest Account

The age of your most recent account matters because opening many new accounts quickly reduces your average age and signals risk to lenders.

Among these, average account age tends to carry the most weight in credit scoring models.

Why Is Credit Age Important?

It accounts for approximately 15% of your FICO® Score. While this may seem smaller than payment history (35%) or utilization (30%), it’s still a meaningful factor, especially for people with limited credit history.

Lenders use credit age to:

Gauge your credit experience: Longer histories suggest you understand how to manage credit over time.
Evaluate risk: New credit users or those with many recent accounts may be seen as riskier borrowers.
Predict future behavior: Consistent, long-term credit management implies financial responsibility.

A strong credit history duration can help improve your score even if you have a few blemishes, while a short credit history can hold your score back despite perfect recent behavior.

How Credit Age Interacts With Other Credit Factors

It doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It interacts with other critical components of your credit profile:

Payment History: Good payment behavior over a long period can outweigh a short credit history.
Credit Utilization: A low utilization ratio and a long credit history boost your score.
Credit Mix: Various credit types over extended periods signal responsible credit management.

Together, these factors create a comprehensive picture of your creditworthiness.

The Impact of Opening New Accounts on Credit Age

Opening new credit accounts can be a double-edged sword:

Positive: New accounts can increase your available credit, potentially lowering your utilization ratio.
Negative: They lower your average, which can temporarily reduce your credit score.

Because the average age weighs heavily in your score, opening multiple new accounts at once can cause a noticeable dip.

Example Scenario:

Imagine your average is six years. If you open two new credit cards tomorrow, your it might drop to 4 years instantly, even if you manage those cards responsibly.

What Happens When You Close Old Accounts?

Closing unused credit cards is a smart way to simplify finances. But closing old accounts can:

Reduce your available credit, increasing your credit utilization ratio.
Lower your average credit age, especially if the card is one of your oldest accounts.

Both effects can cause your credit score to drop, even if you pay everything on time. If the card has no annual fees or risks, it’s often better to keep it open and occasionally use it to maintain activity.

Special Considerations for Young or New Credit Users

If you start with credit, the length of your credit history will naturally be short. This can make it harder to achieve a high credit score initially, even with perfect payment habits.

Strategies for New Credit Users:

Start early: Apply for your first credit product sooner rather than later.
Keep accounts open: Avoid closing your oldest accounts.
Become an authorized user: Ask a trusted family member to add you to their older credit card account to gain benefits.
Use credit-building products: Secured cards or credit-builder loans can safely establish a positive credit history.

Over time, your number grows, allowing your score to improve with consistent management.

How Long Does It Take to Build a Credit Age?

Building a long credit history naturally takes time. The age of your oldest account increases by one year every year you keep it open.

While you can’t ‘speed up’ credit age, maintaining accounts responsibly without closing them helps your average number increase steadily.

How Beem Helps You Monitor and Improve Credit Age

Beem’s credit monitoring platform is designed to help you understand and manage your age of accounts along with other vital factors:

Track the age of each credit account and your overall average length of credit history.
Receive alerts when you open new accounts or close existing ones that affect your the age.
Use the Score Simulator to forecast how new credit actions might impact your credit history duration and overall score.
Get personalized insights on credit-building strategies tailored to your profile.

With Beem, you gain clarity and control over your credit age, empowering you to make smarter financial decisions.

How to Balance Credit Age With Other Credit Goals

While preserving how long you’ve used credit is essential, it’s also crucial to balance it with other credit goals:

Don’t avoid new credit if it benefits your utilization or credit mix.
Open new accounts strategically and only when necessary.
Keep a mix of credit types, but avoid too many accounts that could overwhelm your management capacity.
Use Beem to analyze trade-offs before applying for new credit.

Common Myths About Credit Age

Myth 1: Closing old credit cards improves your score

Reality: Closing old accounts reduces the length of credit history and available credit, usually lowering your score.

Myth 2: You can speed up credit age

Reality: It grows naturally over time; you cannot speed it up but maintain it by keeping accounts open.

Myth 3: Opening new credit is always bad for credit history duration

Reality: New accounts lower average credit history duration temporarily but can improve credit mix and utilization when used responsibly.

Real-Life Story: How Credit Age Changed Maria’s Score

A young professional, Maria opened her first credit card at age 25. After a few years, she applied for multiple cards to build credit quickly, lowering her average credit age from 5 years to 1 year.

Her credit score dropped significantly despite a good payment history. Once Maria focused on keeping her oldest accounts open and spacing out new applications, her average grew, and her score recovered steadily over the next two years. This story illustrates how long-term credit behavior is a slow-growing but decisive factor.

FAQs: Understanding Credit Age

What is credit age, and why is it important?

It measures how long your credit accounts have been open. It is essential because it helps lenders gauge your experience managing credit over time, with longer histories generally indicating more reliability.

How is it calculated?

It is typically calculated as the average age of all your open credit accounts and your oldest account. Opening new accounts lowers the average age while keeping old accounts open maintains it.

Can opening a new credit card hurt my credit age?

Yes, opening a new credit card lowers your average long-term credit behavior, which can cause a temporary dip in your credit score. It’s best to apply for new credit only when necessary and space out applications.

Should I close old credit cards to improve my credit age?

Usually not. Closing old cards reduces your average and total available credit, negatively affecting your score. It’s often better to keep old accounts open, especially with no annual fees.

How can Beem help me improve my credit age?

Beem tracks your credit account ages and average over time, alerts you about changes, and offers tools to simulate how new credit decisions might affect the length of your credit history and score.

Credit Age Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

It is one of the foundational pillars of your credit score, reflecting your long-term financial reliability. While it takes time to build, nurturing your long-term credit behavior through smart decisions can yield lasting benefits.

With on-time payments, responsible credit use, and low utilization, the age of accounts can unlock better loan approvals and interest rates.

With Beem’s monitoring and guidance, you can understand the credit history duration, anticipate its effects, and manage your credit profile proactively—paving the way to stronger credit and financial freedom. Download the app here.

How Does Credit Age Affect Your Score?

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