<prompt> Human: Im 25 years old, and just now applied for my first credit card. Everyone always says to get a credit card to start building up your credit card, and I stupidly assumed that it was the monthly payments being on time that built up your credit. Since I already had student loans I was paying off, I decided I didnt need or want a credit card so I have never signed up for one.Now Ive learned the real reason. Your credit score is affected by the average age of your credit accounts, and I had just cut down my average age in half by signing up for a CC with only one other active credit account. I have a 6 year old Student Loan that Im 2 weeks away from finally paying down Yay for being debt free finally! so after that is gone my average credit account will be 2 months old, bringing my score down by possibly 50 points. Going from 6 years to 2 months is a pretty big blow.Im pretty upset that this is how they measure credit. Ive had Perfect on time payments with no negative marks on my credit for years and years, but Im still not going to have an excellent credit score for years now. I really wish I had learned more about this earlier, so I just want to tell my story so anyone else not aware of this can be. Sign up for a couple of credit cards as soon as you hit 18! You dont even have to use them, but as long as they are active they are helping your credit. If you wait forever to open up a permament credit account than there is no easy way to make up for it later, all you can do is wait. Please learn your lesson from my mistake and not your own when its already far to late.  <response>: Your student loan will stay on your report for another 10 years once its paid off - your average will therefore not go down! 