COs and AAoA

[maluba]

Something I was playing around with in my head: DH's AAoA is about 6yrs. Now, he has those 3 COs, but they are his oldest accounts. Should I go ahead and leave those alone (they fall off in about 18months) so his FICO won't plummet because of low AAoA or should I go ahead and try and GW?

[jandj80]

A GW is fine, and what I would do first. This will not change his AAoA, but getting them to report a positive TL on a CO is likely not going to happen. A deletion might hurt your score. 

Do these accounts show with a negative indicator flag on your MyFico report? Are they his only baddies? If they are the ONLY three bad accounts he has, it might be worth it to get a clean report. But if even one remains, he will still be in the 'dirty' bucket, so I would not chance it unless you know for a fact that you can get all three removed. 

[llecs]

Are they oldest account overall or oldest revolving or oldest installment?

This will take some math, but calculate AAoA pre-removal, then do it again post-removal. Aside from the above question, will AAoA take a significant hit?

[maluba]

They are his oldest overall. They were 3 CCs he opened while in college. That's why I was thinking that I might do better to leave them alone for now. There are other baddies, but we might be able to get those taken care of, though they might report as just paid.

[llecs]

I'd let them be. Maybe I would try with the newest of the three or even the 2nd newest, but it would depends on the AAoA impact. 

[maluba]

Yeah, I was thinking of just letting them age off...

[llecs]

I will add that in some situations, YMMV on the creditor and maybe how it reports, that CO can update at 7 years by removing the negative info and report as a positive for 3 additional years. Doesn't always happen, but it can with some. I had a Zales CC that I let default back in 1997. In 2000 I owed up to it and PIF. It reported as a paid CO with a herd of lates. I didn't pull credit too often then and fast forward to 2005 or so it appeared as a positive, closed account with not negative baddies or aspects attached. It continued to report that was until last year, oddly enough, long after the 10 years. Not complaining any. It helped. Then one day it disappeared and that was that.

[RobertEG]

Does he plan to app for new credit prior to the exclusion of the COs?

If not, interim impact is kinda academic, and I would leave it be.

[maluba]

He's opening a secured card today actually and we might open another one after we get our tax return. Then we'll hold off for a bit until we *hopefully* go through the mortgage process.