By John Campbell

The length of time you’ve had open credit accounts is taken into consideration by the credit bureaus when they compute your credit score. How long you’ve been using credit accounts for roughly 15 percent of your overall credit score.

When you first start out building a credit history it will take you at least a few years for the new credit accounts you open to have an impact on your credit score. The more accounts you have that reflect a positive payment history, the faster your score may rise. On the flip side, if you open too many accounts too quickly your credit score could actually be lowered. New accounts lower the average age of your accounts and can indicate financial instability if your newer accounts outnumber older ones. It’s a good idea to open no more than 2 credit accounts a year.

If you’ve opened several credit accounts in a short period of time and worry about your score dropping, simply closing some excess accounts may not have any effect on your credit score. Closed accounts will be listed on your credit report and could still factor into your credit score. Time is the only thing that can fix a credit score that has been brought down by too many new accounts.

The one catch in building a credit history is that you must make use of the lines of credit granted to you if you want to influence your credit score. Opening an account and not making use of it will do nothing to improve your score. Maxing out your available lines of credit is also not a good idea. Future lenders will want to see that you can use credit responsibly before offering better interest rates and money saving deals.

Time may not seem like it’s on your side when you try to build a respectable credit history for yourself. It may take up to several years of responsibly using your available credit to get your credit score within the excellent range of 750 or above. Use your credit wisely and it will pay off in the long run.

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John Campbell is the writer and editor of CashBuzz, A financial portal for the rest of us. Check out cashbuzz.com for the latest articles on money management and tips and tricks that can help improve your finances. This article may be reprinted on your Web site if the copyright, author information and active link are included.