topic Re: Credit Age - Benefit of Closing New-ish Credit Cards in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Credit Age - Benefit of Closing New-ish Credit Cards

HomeBuyerSpring2021 — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 15:16:19 GMT

I have 11 credit cards with $45K total available. The 2 most recent credit cards are under 1 year old (with $1,500 limit & $4,000 limit). I've recently paid all of my credit cards off & have maxed my Experian FICO credit score at 780. The only remaining things I can do are boost my Credit Age & get a loan (will talk about that in separate post at some point).

On the Credit Age front, I know the general advice is to not close cards. But I have a few questions:

1. If closing these 2 newish cards is going to boost my Credit Age by 1 year & 1 month, is there any downside?

2. Are there standard ranges for Credit Age giving a bump to your FICO score (e.g. at the 5 year mark, 7 year mark, 10 year mark)?

3. I notice my Experian FICO rating me as "Very Good" versus "Exceptional" showing "0 recent inquiries" & "11 months" as age of most recent credit card. If I close that 11 month card, will it still look at that card as my most recent or will it look toward my most recent credit card that is still open for the age of my "most recent credit card"?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Credit Age - Benefit of Closing New-ish Credit Cards

SouthJamaica — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 17:18:17 GMT

@HomeBuyerSpring2021 wrote:
I have 11 credit cards with $45K total available. The 2 most recent credit cards are under 1 year old (with $1,500 limit & $4,000 limit). I've recently paid all of my credit cards off & have maxed my Experian FICO credit score at 780. The only remaining things I can do are boost my Credit Age & get a loan (will talk about that in separate post at some point).

On the Credit Age front, I know the general advice is to not close cards. But I have a few questions:

1. If closing these 2 newish cards is going to boost my Credit Age by 1 year & 1 month, is there any downside?
2. Are there standard ranges for Credit Age giving a bump to your FICO score (e.g. at the 5 year mark, 7 year mark, 10 year mark)?
3. I notice my Experian FICO rating me as "Very Good" versus "Exceptional" showing "0 recent inquiries" & "11 months" as age of most recent credit card. If I close that 11 month card, will it still look at that card as my most recent or will it look toward my most recent credit card that is still open for the age of my "most recent credit card"?

Thanks in advance.

1. Closing the 2 cards doesn't do anything to your credit age, one way or the other. In FICO's algorithms, your closed accounts continue to age until they drop off your report, which is usually many years down the road, typically 10 years or so.

2. There are thresholds for average age of accounts, but it's hard to tell what they are.

3. Things like "very good" and "exceptional" are not part of FICO scoring, they are just fluff inserted to make the user interfaces more appealing and engaging.

4. Age of youngest account is a very significant factor. The 12-month threshold is very important, as it changes your scorecard assignment. In my case when I reached that level I gained 26 points, which I promptly lost when I got a new card.

Re: Credit Age - Benefit of Closing New-ish Credit Cards

HomeBuyerSpring2021 — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 15:36:45 GMT

Thanks so much for such a clear & thorough reply. As I don't plan on opening any other cards, hopefully I'll see some kind of bump once that newest card hits 12+ months. Your response about credit age ranges explains why I couldn't find such ranges when I was searching for them before posting here. I'm really surprised that your score bump was so big. I'd never realized how significant that factor could be. I thought the only truly significant factors would be it's impact on total credit age & recent inquiries. Let's hope I get a bump as big as yours!

Thanks again.