Here is an area of your credit score where you have little control – your credit history. The length of your credit history is how long you have had your credit lines available – in short how old are they. The older your trade lines, the better you will score in this section. Remember this tip: It is rarely wise to close a credit account. Sure there are situation when you should, but generally, closing an account will shorten the average length of your credit accounts and lower your score.  If you want to check the length of your own credit history then make a list of every account on your credit report and next to it put when it started and how many months it reported.  The two factors to focus on here are 1) the oldest item which gives you the total length of your credit history, and the average age of all your accounts which tells you the average age of your overall credit profile.

This length of credit history section accounts for 15% of your score.