Wouldn't closing an account help my overall score?

[Ysettle4]

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@TCarson wrote:

Well, my experiment failed but I did learn a few things.

I closed the Discover card three days ago, and it has yet to show as closed on any of my CR’s, but what did show is Citi giving me a CLI of +$10K. (From $15K to $25K)

I had asked Citi for a CLI a week or so ago, but it was not immediately accepted saying something about a past due payment verification. 

I called and informed the agent that I have NEVER had a Past Due Payment, and she said something about when Home Depot forced a card swap blah,blah,blah… and that a letter explaining everything was coming in the mail.

I guess it was resolved because they lowered my Interest and raised my CL on my new statement.

That, plus a paid-off car loan pushed all of my FICO’s well over the 800 mark.

What I did learn in all of this is that I was wrong about closing the account changing my AAoA.

Closing it would have marked it as "Closed by Subscriber", but it would still be used to calculate my AAoA as pointed out in this thread.  

Since it was only a $2K card, closing it had no effect at all.

I’m still glad I closed it as I don’t care for Discover and their Bait-n-Switch tactics.

What I need to think about now, what’s a good card to go after to fill the now empty card slot in my wallet?

Something with a low long-term interest and a large initial CL that doesn’t say Chase Bank anywhere on it...

(I will never forgive Chase for what they did with the WaMu fiasco)

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SInce it was just closed, the creditor (Discover) will need time to report that. Once your reports reflect the closing of that account and is stated as such, THEN let us know as that would be the confirmation on AAoA calucation based on it or not.

[PCR20]

Will do, but the reason I said what I said is because I see listed in there a couple of CapOne cards I closed about 7 years ago, along with a couple of WaMu cards that Chase did the honors.(without letting me know ahead of time)

The CapOne's say "Account closed at consumer's request", the Chase/WaMu's say "Account closed by credit grantor".

All of these were opened in the 2002 to 2007 time frame.

For sure those cards are being included as the AAoA numbers match perfectly if I include them and are way off if I exclude them.

Discover reports on the 1st of the month for me, so I'll post up the results then.

Thanks!

[PCR20]

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@Ysettle4 wrote:

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SInce it was just closed, the creditor (Discover) will need time to report that. Once your reports reflect the closing of that account and is stated as such, THEN let us know as that would be the confirmation on AAoA calucation based on it or not.

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For the record, it is now showing as Closed By Subscriber on all three CR's.

Closing it had zero effect on my Score or my AAoA (so far)
That may change in time and if so, I will note it in this thread.

[Anonymous]

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@Ysettle4 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Ysettle4 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Fico counts closed accounts in aaoa for 10 years. So by closing it you would just reduce your overall CL.

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Not true. I closed an revolver account that was fairly new and it increased my AAoA. This is my personal experience with my credit reports. 

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Was this your aaoa on credit karma? They just count aaoa of open accounts.

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@From the bureas themselves and from here @Anonymous

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It's possible your AAoA did change if the account disappeared from your reports after it was closed. That's the only way though for FICO scoring purposes. Any account showing up on there, open or closed is factored.

[PCR20]

I think some of it has to do with the CRA.

Equifax is still showing a couple of cards I closed early in 2004 and they are definitely being used in their AAoA calculation.

If I don't use them in the AAoA averaging, the numbers are way off from what MyFico is reporting.

With them they are exactly the same.

TransUnion and Experian don't have those same accounts anymore (they used to list them), so apparently it depends on the CRA.

[Revelate]

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@TCarson wrote:

I think some of it has to do with the CRA.

Equifax is still showing a couple of cards I closed early in 2004 and they are definitely being used in their AAoA calculation.

If I don't use them in the AAoA averaging, the numbers are way off from what MyFico is reporting.

With them they are exactly the same.

TransUnion and Experian don't have those same accounts anymore (they used to list them), so apparently it depends on the CRA.

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The 3 bureaus are utterly seperate: no data sharing.  As a result the FICO algorithm only is calculated against the the data on the report of an individual bureau.

You are correct, FICO Average Age Of Accounts does factor closed accounts into the calculation.  The confusion is Credit Karma is the service everyone is familiar with, and while they are brilliant for some things, their only counting Average Age Of OPEN Accounts is worse than stupid unfortunately.  I'm hoping they change this eventually as they're now reporting closed accounts since moving to their new data interface but for now it's wrong.

[PCR20]

Strange thing about all of this.

It's been a few weeks since I closed the Discover Card.

This has caused an unexpected problem.

My morning routine for the past 2 years has been:

  wake up

  brush my teeth

  Keurig a cup of coffee

  check my email

  check the stock prices

  log on to Discover and hit the luv button to  read which excuse they were using today

  take a shower

  get dressed for work and so on.

Now there's a hole in my morning routine.

(Maybe I should call and ask them to reopen it.....)

[jamie123]

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@TCarson wrote:

Strange thing about all of this.

It's been a few weeks since I closed the Discover Card.

This has caused an unexpected problem.

My morning routine for the past 2 years has been:

  wake up

  brush my teeth

  Keurig a cup of coffee

  check my email

  check the stock prices

  log on to Discover and hit the luv button to  read which excuse they were using today

  take a shower

  get dressed for work and so on.

Now there's a hole in my morning routine.

(Maybe I should call and ask them to reopen it.....)

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That's probably why you never received a CLI!  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Look there!

You can't do that!

IMHO those luv buttons are programmed to auto decline if pressed to soon after the initial request. I have no idea how much time must pass before you can press it after the initial request and I'm sure it varies by lender but I'm quite sure it is probably more like at least a week and is probably more like a month or more.

You just kept resetting the auto decline clock everyday! They never took your request seriously and you just kept getting auto declined. When a customer service rep looked at all those requests when you called in they were probably spooked.

Don't do that to any lender. It makes you look desperate. It's like the old saying: "The best time to get credit is when you don't need it."

[PCR20]

Thanks, you may be on to something there but knowing me, I would have kept the same routine even if I knew that would be the end result.

I read somewhere that the number one symptom of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results…I might have gone insane if they actually gave me a CLI!

But to anyone reading this that might need a CLI from Discover, you should heed this good advice.

To me, the Discover card with its minuscule CL and astronomic interest rate was a joke from day one.

It was the end result of one of those stupid things some of us do when coming home after a good dinner and one or two too many glasses of Sake. (or is it one or drinks too many Sake of two??,  I never get that one right) 

I'm glad it's gone and I'm glad dumping it had absolutely no effect on my FICO’s