topic Re: How To Determine AAoA? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

How To Determine AAoA?

pozativelyliving — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:42:45 GMT

How do I figure out my AAoA? Is it something that is shown on my credit report or do I have to look over each account, figure out how long it's been open, come up with a total then devide that by the total # of accounts?

Thanks!

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

amercnchopz34 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:45:06 GMT

there is total utlitzation ....amount owed divided by cl's x 100 thats for total...then u can do each card individually the same way

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

OptimasPrime — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:47:31 GMT

pozativelyliving wrote:
How do I figure out my AAoA? Is it something that is shown on my credit report or do I have to look over each account, figure out how long it's been open, come up with a total then devide that by the total # of accounts?

This is how to calculate. However, credit karma will calculate an aaoa for you which might save you some time. If you buy a score from myFico, I believe they'll tell you your aaoa as well.

If you pull a credit report directly from one of the three bureaus they will not give you your aaoa

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

CreviceTool — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:58:43 GMT

OptimasPrime wrote:
However, credit karma will calculate an aaoa for you which might save you some time. If you buy a score from myFico, I believe they'll tell you your aaoa as well.

CreditKarma lists an "Average Age of Open Credit Lines". That's not the same as the FICO AAoA, which is based on ALL credit lines, not just the open ones.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

OptimasPrime — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:00:21 GMT

Good point. Doing it manually is the most accurate method.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

gettnthere — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:09:57 GMT

CreviceTool wrote:
OptimasPrime wrote:
However, credit karma will calculate an aaoa for you which might save you some time. If you buy a score from myFico, I believe they'll tell you your aaoa as well.
CreditKarma lists an "Average Age of Open Credit Lines". That's not the same as the FICO AAoA, which is based on ALL credit lines, not just the open ones.

+1, credit karma isn't really accurate when it comes to calculating AAoA, it actually has mine off by more than an entire year.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

pozativelyliving — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:52:46 GMT

Do CRAs go by the average of open credit lines or all credit lines? And if it's all credit lines, do they include accounts that were closed because they weren't being used and also accounts that were included in a BK?

If it's open accounts, that will be fairly easy to do. If it's ALL accounts, that will be a project!

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

creditnocash — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:58:44 GMT

yes it would be a project since accounts that were closed in good standing report for 10 years.

as for aaoa i think my fico rounds because mine says one year but its less then that...

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

jamesdwi — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:01:41 GMT

CreviceTool wrote:
OptimasPrime wrote:
However, credit karma will calculate an aaoa for you which might save you some time. If you buy a score from myFico, I believe they'll tell you your aaoa as well.
CreditKarma lists an "Average Age of Open Credit Lines". That's not the same as the FICO AAoA, which is based on ALL credit lines, not just the open ones.

Oh good I like the number that EQ credit report shows... its 16 months higher that CK. 1 year vs 2 years and 4 months... big win.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

Wolf3 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:01:44 GMT

Equifax CR shows AAoA. The others do not.

It is calculated on all accounts (open and closed).

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

OptimasPrime — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:04:21 GMT

Wolf3 wrote:
Equifax CR shows AAoA. The others do not.

It is calculated on all accounts (open and closed).

Does eq backdoor show aaoa? Or just myFico report?

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

bichonmom — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:05:09 GMT

AAoA includes ALL accounts -- open or closed -- that appear on your CR. So, in effect, you have to calc your AAoA separately for each CRA, unless you happen to have all 3 exactly the same.

Here's an Excel s/sht that was posted by another poster at an earlier time. I just cut and pasted it into Excel and it has worked for me just great. Here's the post that I saved:

**********************************************

I had some spare time so I decided to create an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my credit accounts (CC's, loans, etc) and it turned out quite nice. The way I have it set up is that after inputting the CC information (e.g., opening date, balance, CL), the "Age" and "Util" values will automatically be generated. Also, the formulas toward the bottom of the sheet calculate overall util four different ways (util across all accounts open and closed, util on all open accounts, util on all open and closed revolving accounts, and util on only open revolving accounts). Also, oldest account age and AAoA are calculated and displayed in months and years.

Rather than emailing the spreadsheet, I have copied the formulas in a Microsoft Excel 2007 format and pasted them below. You should be able to copy and paste the below information directly into Excel 2007 (I don't know if it will work on earlier versions). When you first paste it into Excel, it will look pretty funky, but if you click the clipboard icon that appears at the bottom right corner of the area you pasted and click "Match Destination Format", it should look much cleaner then. For the final touches, you'll want to change the format of the "Date Opened" column to a month/year format and then change the "Util" column to a percentage format (right click the top of the column and select "Format Cells").

Account Name	Date Opened	Age	Balance	Limit	Util	Type	Status
card	40645	=IF(B2<>"",(TODAY()-B2)/31, "")	284	3900	=IF(E2<>"", D2/E2, "")	Revolving	Open
card	38443	=IF(B3<>"",(TODAY()-B3)/31, "")	0	12500	=IF(E3<>"", D3/E3, "")	Revolving	Closed
card	39173	=IF(B4<>"",(TODAY()-B4)/31, "")	0	5500	=IF(E4<>"", D4/E4, "")	Revolving	Open
card	39753	=IF(B5<>"",(TODAY()-B5)/31, "")	0	4000	=IF(E5<>"", D5/E5, "")	Revolving	Closed
card	39814	=IF(B6<>"",(TODAY()-B6)/31, "")	0	5850	=IF(E6<>"", D6/E6, "")	Revolving	Open
card	38657	=IF(B7<>"",(TODAY()-B7)/31, "")	0	2900	=IF(E7<>"", D7/E7, "")	Revolving	Open
card	38657	=IF(B8<>"",(TODAY()-B8)/31, "")	0	2900	=IF(E8<>"", D8/E8, "")	Revolving	Open
card	38657	=IF(B9<>"",(TODAY()-B9)/31, "")	0	3900	=IF(E9<>"", D9/E9, "")	Revolving	Open
card	40026	=IF(B10<>"",(TODAY()-B10)/31, "")	0	6000	=IF(E10<>"", D10/E10, "")	Revolving	Closed
card	40391	=IF(B11<>"",(TODAY()-B11)/31, "")	8500	8500	=IF(E11<>"", D11/E11, "")	Installment	Open
		=IF(B12<>"",(TODAY()-B12)/31, "")			=IF(E12<>"", D12/E12, "")
		=IF(B13<>"",(TODAY()-B13)/31, "")			=IF(E13<>"", D13/E13, "")
		=IF(B14<>"",(TODAY()-B14)/31, "")			=IF(E14<>"", D14/E14, "")
		=IF(B15<>"",(TODAY()-B15)/31, "")			=IF(E15<>"", D15/E15, "")
		=IF(B16<>"",(TODAY()-B16)/31, "")			=IF(E16<>"", D16/E16, "")
		=IF(B17<>"",(TODAY()-B17)/31, "")			=IF(E17<>"", D17/E17, "")
		=IF(B18<>"",(TODAY()-B18)/31, "")			=IF(E18<>"", D18/E18, "")
		=IF(B19<>"",(TODAY()-B19)/31, "")			=IF(E19<>"", D19/E19, "")

		=IF(B21<>"",(TODAY()-B21)/31, "")			=IF(E21<>"", D21/E21, "")
		=SUM(C2:C21)	=SUM(D221)	=SUM(E2:E21)	=AVERAGE(F2:F21)	(all accounts)
					=AVERAGEIF(H2:H21,"Open",(F2:F21))	(all open accounts)
					=AVERAGEIF(G2:G21, "Revolving", F2:F21)	(all revolving)
					=AVERAGEIFS(F2:F21, H2:H21, "Open", G2:G21, "Revolving")	(open revolving)

		=MAX(C2:C21)	Oldest (in months)
		=C22/COUNT(C2:C21)	AAoA (in months)
		=C27/12	Oldest (in years)
		=C28/12	AAoA (in years)

NOTE: For the overall util formulas to calculate correctly, the value under the "Type" column should be either "Revolving" or "Installment" and the value under the "Status" column should read either "Open" or "Closed".

I thought this would be helpful to others so I'm just passing it along. Let me know if you have any problems getting it to work.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

creditnocash — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:22:08 GMT

what is the opening date? 40645?

like for example july of 2012? what would i put in?

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

bichonmom — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:28:26 GMT

I didn't make the s/sht. All I did is copy and paste the OP and it has worked just the way it was in Excel. The only thing I did was to add my CC names in the left column and the acutal date they were opened in the appropriate column. The age automatically calculates based on today's date, which is in the formula somewhere. The other thing you need to do is note in the right col if an acct is open or closed, since that affects the formula somehow.

I always put the month/date/year. So, for July 2012, I would put 7/1/12, since AAoA is calc based on entire month.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

jamesdwi — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:44:42 GMT

creditnocash wrote:
what is the opening date? 40645?

like for example july of 2012? what would i put in?

it looks like its treating your date as a number, right click the cell, and format cells-> number catagory-> date

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

supersam101 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:58:54 GMT

So you calculate ur average age of account based on the date the account is open or the first statement ?

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

creditnocash — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 02:07:03 GMT

jamesdwi wrote:
creditnocash wrote:
what is the opening date? 40645?

like for example july of 2012? what would i put in?
it looks like its treating your date as a number, right click the cell, and format cells-> number catagory-> date

this worked. THANKS!!.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

CreviceTool — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 02:14:33 GMT

creditnocash wrote:

as for aaoa i think my fico rounds because mine says one year but its less then that...

They round up if you're less than one year, but not once your average is above one year.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

maiden_girl — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:18:49 GMT

My AAoA was 1 year and 9 months but I recently opened three new credit cards (at different times this year) and now my AAoA is 9 months. I have a feeling its going to drop even more soon once my latest credit card starts reporting.

Re: How To Determine AAoA?

llecs — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:59:24 GMT

maiden_girl wrote:
My AAoA was 1 year and 9 months but I recently opened three new credit cards (at different times this year) and now my AAoA is 9 months. I have a feeling its going to drop even more soon once my latest credit card starts reporting.

I was appropriately corrected once, and I'll pass this forward, but your AAoA didn't change. FICO rounds down to the nearest who number so your AAoA was 1 year. But what I didn't know until recently was that FICO will always score you with an AAoA of 1 year. So, at 9 months, it doesn't round down to "0", but your AAoA remained at one year. No AAoA change for you. On the flip side though, if you hadn't opened up those CCs, in 3 months it would turn 2 years. Now it will take a year and 3 months before it hits a year. On the whole, one or two years doesn't make a big difference. It's all good.