Understanding Credit Scores: Length Of Credit History

The 'Length of Credit History' accounts for 15% of your FICO credit score, emphasizing the age of your accounts and the average age of all accounts on your report. The authorized user strategy can help improve this by being added to an older, healthy account, but there are risks involved, such as the potential negative impact of a high utilization ratio or late payments. Purchasing authorized user spots from strangers can lead to fraud allegations. Credit line increases are based on a full credit profile, not just timely payments, while checking your credit does not affect your score. Disputes can potentially improve scores if inaccuracies are found.