Will I get approved if I...

[Anonymous]

I'm looking to close my Capital One cards (Furniture row and capital journey) and Sears citicard to increase my AAoA and I was wondering if I had a better chance of being accepted by Chase Freedom if I close those 3 accounts or do they go by the inquiries? It'd be awesome if they could replace my 3 (useless) cards with the Freedom card, to be honest. 

[OmarGB9]

Not sure how closing a card would increase your AAoA. As far as Chase and the Freedom, it doesn't matter what accounts you close. What they care is that you didn't open more than 5 new accounts in the past 24 months. Even if you opened them and then closed them, they'd still see that and most likely deny you.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking to close my Capital One cards (Furniture row and capital journey) and Sears citicard to increase my AAoA and I was wondering if I had a better chance of being accepted by Chase Freedom if I close those 3 accounts or do they go by the inquiries? It'd be awesome if they could replace my 3 (useless) cards with the Freedom card, to be honest. 

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I think you've been misinformed: closed accounts still count towards your AAoA as long as they show up on your credit report.  Closing your accounts will actually "hurt" your AAoA since you'd be losing out on the extra time you can grow your accounts in the future.

As for Chase's 5/24 rule, Omar is correct: they only care about the number accounts that have been open in the last 2 years, not the current state of those accounts.

[Anonymous]

Oh I see.. thanks for the information guys. Good thing I asked before closing them. 

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking to close my Capital One cards (Furniture row and capital journey) and Sears citicard to increase my AAoA 

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Take a look at the Closing Credit Cards threads linked in the Helpful Threads sticky.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was wondering if I had a better chance of being accepted by Chase Freedom if I close those 3 accounts or do they go by the inquiries?

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All creditors consider your entire credit profile -- not just score or just one factor.  It all matters.  Inquiries are a relatively small factor but they can have a bigger impact for those with thinner credit profiles and/or profiles in poorer shape.

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking to close my Capital One cards (Furniture row and capital journey) and Sears citicard to increase my AAoA and I was wondering if I had a better chance of being accepted by Chase Freedom if I close those 3 accounts or do they go by the inquiries? It'd be awesome if they could replace my 3 (useless) cards with the Freedom card, to be honest. 

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Like others said your AAOA will not be helped or hurt by closing accounts. It doesn't change anything until 10 years post closure when the accounts fall off, at which point your AAOA may shorten.

The 5/24 rule is pretty much set in stone, at least for the Freedom and CSP products (some have been able to get Slate but that's likely because it's a no frills card). They are counting accounts opened in the last 2 years. Whether they are still open or not is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking to close my Capital One cards (Furniture row and capital journey) and Sears citicard to increase my AAoA...

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Closing accounts does not increase AAoA because the closed account still remains on your credit report for 10 years. Nice thinking, but no go.

If you have 5 or more accounts opened in the last 24 months, your Chase Freedom application would be immediately rejected. Take notice that there were people with 4 new accounts opened in the last 24 months and were rejected due to too many recent new loans.