@Eliae wrote:
Closing the account will not hurt your FICO score, especially if it makes up only a small portion of your total revolving availability. All accounts you've ever had will remain on your credit report indefinitely, including all good information regarding an account. Bad information (late payments, derogatory accounts, etc) will fall off of your report after 7 years. Closing the account will still allow that account to be a part of your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) and will still be listed as your oldest account when a lender is looking over your report. The only impact would be on your utilization ratio and if the amount is only 0.8% of your total revolving limits, you shouldn't see any impact whatsoever.
Save yourself some money and close out the account. Make sure you talk to someone about any additional fees or interest charges that could possibly roll in after the account is closed and monitor it for at least a couple of months afterwards to ensure it stays clear.
Best of luck,
- Eliae
All accounts you've ever had will remain on your credit report indefinitely,
This CAN happen because there is no regulation that requires CRA's to remove closed accounts at any time. However almost always the closed accounts in good standing will drop off at about 10 years. A few people here have reported exceptions to this but very, very few. In all the years I've had a credit history I've only had one closed acount that stayed longer than 10 years.
Bad information (late payments, derogatory accounts, etc) will fall off of your report after 7 years.
Here is how and when derogs drop from you CR, and are thus no longer included in FICO scoring.
Monthly delinquencies under an OC account drop at 7 years from their individual date of delinquency. FCRA 605(a)(5). The date of first delinquency (DOFD) has nothing to do with these drop-off dates. They drop from their own individual dates. So look at each prior OC reported monthly derog date, and simply add 7 years.
If the OC subsequently reports their account as a charge off, that is a totally different and additional post to your CR. Their post as a charge-off will remain in your CR for 7 1/2 years from the DOFD on the OC account, which is the first 30-day delinquency you had on the account, and disregards any later 60/90+ delinquencies that followed. That is one single date-certain, and cannot be reset. FCRA 605(c).
If the OC then refers the account for collection, and a CA posts to your CR, the drop-off date of their collection reporting is the same as that of a CO. It is 7 1/2 years from the same DOFD on the OC account, and the CA cannot reset this date. Again, FCRA 605(c).
From a BK years ago to:
7/09 TU-742 EQ- 779
8/09 TU-765 EQ- 783
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
You can do the same thing with hard work.
