Many people believe that when they are in the credit repair process, they should automatically close out older accounts.  That is a huge mistake and ends up costing people well over 30 – 50 points on their credit score. 

Here’s the thing, when you close out these old accounts, usually credit card accounts, you immediately lose out on the credit history for that account. 

Let’s say for example that you had a credit card for 8 years, but haven’t used it in over 6 months.  What that means is that you have a good payment history with that account for 8 years.  The moment you close that account, you immediately shave off 8 years of credit history. 

So while most so called professionals tell you to close out old accounts when you’re trying to repair your credit, the best solution is actually to keep the old ones and get rid of brand new accounts, under a year, if at all possible, since those have the least amount of credit history.

In conclusion, the older the accounts (with good payment history of course), the better it is on your credit.

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