Card #1:
1. When did the account get closed? December 2009
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. Still reporting, still paying down the balance. What is that, 5 years and counting.
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? AT&T Universal Card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? Consumer via letter
5. Any other information and stories about the card? This is an account which was on a variable rate, 7.99% with a limit somewhere above $21,540. The balance in Nov/Dec 2009 was $21,000. High balance was $24,000 in October 2008. In late 2009, they sent me a letter stating they were changing the terms (this is before the latest post-crisis financial laws were in effect, so they could do this) from 7.99% interest to 29.99%. Never late, just sending a nice message. That's a bit outside my budget, so I sent the letter closing the account, freezing the terms. Been paying it down since, early on more than the minimum, but at the minimum for the last couple of years as I worked on the other, reporting balances. I left $1,200 on the account to keep it forcing to report, because the card itself goes back to year 2000, so I'll milk it for reporting for another couple of years before it starts to fade away.
The interesting thing I have noticed recently (I've only really started looking closely at my credit reports in the last few months) is that this account seems to be NOT included in any "open account" metrics. It was there on the credit report as Closed, balance of $10,000 recently, but not in my total Open obligations, and I don't think in my Utilization percentages. I still owe the money though, of course, and recently brought it back in to my Open accounts for a 0% BT offer. That appeared today, and my score dropped a few points, but I've made a few other changes recently (including see below) so not sure that is the entire catalyst.
Card #2:
1. When did the account get closed? October 2014. Account opened Feb or March 2014, so not even a year of minimal activity.
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. One month. They just wiped it from all credit bureaus this week. Gone like it never happened.
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? AMEX Delta Sky Miles Platinum card (I still have the Gold SkyMiles card)
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? Consumer
5. Any other information and stories about the card? I opened this Platinum SkyMiles card after stopping in at the GRU airport lounge in February 2014, expecting to be let in like I was in June 2013 when I happened to hold a Business Class / sleeper seat upgrade ticket... and a Gold Delta SkyMiles card (I now realize the Amex didn't get me in, the fortuitous upgrade ticket did). This February, the desk clerk told me I would need "Platinum" to get in, which I took to be Delta SkyMiles Platinum, so as soon as I got home applied and of course was awarded a shiny new, $195 AF card. Reading the fine print, as I tried to cross reference actual benefits, I learned that what he really said was "you need AMEX Platinum" not Delta Platinum. Since the Platinum Delta SkyMiles card is only marginally different from the Gold Delta SkyMiles card, and another AF is coming up, no thanks. I'm not sure why AMEX just wiped it off my report. Maybe because it was less than a year, hardly had any charges on it. In a way, it's a benefit because it won't be cluttering up my CR for a decade with useless information.
@NRB525 wrote:Card #1:
1. When did the account get closed? December 2009
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. Still reporting, still paying down the balance. What is that, 5 years and counting.
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? AT&T Universal Card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? Consumer via letter
5. Any other information and stories about the card? This is an account which was on a variable rate, 7.99% with a limit somewhere above $21,540. The balance in Nov/Dec 2009 was $21,000. High balance was $24,000 in October 2008. In late 2009, they sent me a letter stating they were changing the terms (this is before the latest post-crisis financial laws were in effect, so they could do this) from 7.99% interest to 29.99%. Never late, just sending a nice message. That's a bit outside my budget, so I sent the letter closing the account, freezing the terms. Been paying it down since, early on more than the minimum, but at the minimum for the last couple of years as I worked on the other, reporting balances. I left $1,200 on the account to keep it forcing to report, because the card itself goes back to year 2000, so I'll milk it for reporting for another couple of years before it starts to fade away.
The interesting thing I have noticed recently (I've only really started looking closely at my credit reports in the last few months) is that this account seems to be NOT included in any "open account" metrics. It was there on the credit report as Closed, balance of $10,000 recently, but not in my total Open obligations, and I don't think in my Utilization percentages. I still owe the money though, of course, and recently brought it back in to my Open accounts for a 0% BT offer. That appeared today, and my score dropped a few points, but I've made a few other changes recently (including see below) so not sure that is the entire catalyst.
Card #2:
1. When did the account get closed? October 2014. Account opened Feb or March 2014, so not even a year of minimal activity.
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. One month. They just wiped it from all credit bureaus this week. Gone like it never happened.
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? AMEX Delta Sky Miles Platinum card (I still have the Gold SkyMiles card)
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? Consumer
5. Any other information and stories about the card? I opened this Platinum SkyMiles card after stopping in at the GRU airport lounge in February 2014, expecting to be let in like I was in June 2013 when I happened to hold a Business Class / sleeper seat upgrade ticket... and a Gold Delta SkyMiles card (I now realize the Amex didn't get me in, the fortuitous upgrade ticket did). This February, the desk clerk told me I would need "Platinum" to get in, which I took to be Delta SkyMiles Platinum, so as soon as I got home applied and of course was awarded a shiny new, $195 AF card. Reading the fine print, as I tried to cross reference actual benefits, I learned that what he really said was "you need AMEX Platinum" not Delta Platinum. Since the Platinum Delta SkyMiles card is only marginally different from the Gold Delta SkyMiles card, and another AF is coming up, no thanks. I'm not sure why AMEX just wiped it off my report. Maybe because it was less than a year, hardly had any charges on it. In a way, it's a benefit because it won't be cluttering up my CR for a decade with useless information.
Your card #2 disappeared from your credit reports in a week? That's really odd. 
Disappeared this week (notification from the three-bureau monitoring) after I closed it a month ago. Yes, odd, not expected, not worried about it, but it is unexpected.
Interesting data point, NBR525. Thanks for sharing!
With the number of credit cards people on this board have had, I think we can get more input than this 
1. When did the account get closed? November 2013
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. Still reporting, approximately 1 year and 2 months
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? A card from a local credit union
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? I closed the card
5. Any other information and stories about the card? It is still reporting payment history monthly, so it looks like I just closed it last month. Also, it unfortunately only reports to my EQ (it never reported to EX or TU, and it was my first card. I was young and dumb and didn't know to ask). If I had known to ask, I would have had 5 more years of credit history on all of my other bureaus. 
1. When did the account get closed? December 2013
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. Still reporting, approximately 1 year and 1 months
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? Chase Freedom
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? I closed the card
5. Any other information and stories about the card? Closed because of APR (22.99%)
1. When did the account get closed? September 2013
2. How long did account reporting last after that? If your account is still being reported, please tell us the amount of time elapsed from account closing date, in years and months if possible. Still reporting, approximately 1 year and 3 months
3. What card is it? Who's the creditor? BB&T Platinum card
4. Did the consumer or the creditor close the card? I closed the card
5. Any other information and stories about the card? Closed because of crappy rewards (it was my first card to report to all 3 bureaus, unfortunately).
I can't find something in the thread even though I know it spans a long period of time:
Lenders don't report positive tradelines for 10 years, it's simply a 10 year exclusion period based on Date of Last Activity. Said DOLA was last time the lender reported, beyond that it's in the bureau's hands.
My apologies if this was mentioned but it's a non-trivial distinction, and why if a tradeline disappears it's typically gone even if it theoretically should still be on there.
@Revelate wrote:I can't find something in the thread even though I know it spans a long period of time:
Lenders don't report positive tradelines for 10 years, it's simply a 10 year exclusion period based on Date of Last Activity. Said DOLA was last time the lender reported, beyond that it's in the bureau's hands.
My apologies if this was mentioned but it's a non-trivial distinction, and why if a tradeline disappears it's typically gone even if it theoretically should still be on there.
This point has not been raised before. That's an important distinction to make. Also, I'm pretty sure that it is not mandatory that the CRA's keep the information for any certain amount of time. That's why we sometimes see accounts getting dropped very soon after cancellation. But we need more evidence of this, hence this survey 
