credit report

moosely

I just looked at my credit report on Experian and it shows a credit account that i no longer have as i closed it. Does this mean that the account is still open as it is on my report? Or does the credit report maintain info on all of the credit accounts you have had in the past?

It is a credit/store card which i shut down about 3/4 months ago.

lisyloo

Does this mean that the account is still open as it is on my report?

No.
There is a column called "Date satisfied" (or soemthign similar).
If this has a date then the account is closed. If it's blank then it's still open.

Or does the credit report maintain info on all of the credit accounts you have had in the past?

They are kept on for 6 years after closure.
The point of credit "history" is that lenders want to see your past habits.

It is a credit/store card which i shut down about 3/4 months ago.

It's possible it's satisfied and you didn't pick up on it (it's not very obvious if you've never seen it before) or it's possible that it's not been updated yet. Some companies are quite slow. Or it's possible they have made a mistake and not closed it in which case give them a call and make sure the account get closed.

moosely

I used the report from Experian and on my current balance field it says "settled" and there is a settled on date which looks like the date i cancelled. So i guess it is closed.

On another note. I was going to cancel my current credit card in the hope to improve my chance in a new application for a credit card. Any idea how long in general it takes for it to be updated in the credit report?

lisyloo

Any idea how long in general it takes for it to be updated in the credit report?

First the lender has to go through their internal procedure.
It might have to pass certain checks e.g. no outstanding balance.
Difficult to say how long this takes as it probably varies quite a bit.

Then credit reports are updated monthly.
e.g. you might close you card on 5th but they update the CRA on the 4th so it's up to a months delay.

So anything from 1-3 months.