How many is too many?

[Anonymous]

Sorry, let me clarify, I would close any recently opened store cards (opened in the last year) that I don't use --- and make some space on your portfolio for some better prime cards with poss. higher cls and improved APRs.

Message Edited by pjriverap on 01-23-2008 03:19 PM

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Not to nitpick, but a 10-year old closed account dropping off of a report may very well hurt one's scores even if it's not the oldest account. It will very likely affect the average age of accounts, which is just as important as the age of the oldest account.

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@Anonymous wrote:

OP said he was joint, not AU. Joint account holders will continue to factor in scoring after FICO08 takes effect.

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True, and true. Sorry!

[catzcradle]

Wow, thanks for all the advice guys!

The two cards were opened by my mom when I was in high school so I could start building credit - one is used only as a gasoline card although it carries a Visa logo, and the other is just a plain old Master. So, they are about 7 years old. The oldest account that is mine alone is 6+ years old. My mom and sister both use the gas card still for the rebates, and sister uses the other for clothes, hence the balance.

I have three cards that are less than a year old. One is my general purpose Master, so I intend to keep that, but the other two can go as far as I'm concerned.

If it helps, I did the math. If I were to eliminate the two newest cards, it would make my average OPEN account age 54 months instead of 46 months. (I currently have no closed accounts.)

Is that enough of a difference to bother closing them? They both have perfect payment history - basically I made one purchase to get the initial 15% off, paid in full, and haven't touched the cards since. I think I read somewhere you can ask the company to remove the card from your report entirely in that kind of situation. Did I misunderstand?