topic Re: Age of Oldest Account in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Age of Oldest Account

FICOdawg — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:10:00 GMT

In October a credit card I opened in 1992 will drop off and at that point my oldest Chase CC account will be 2009 so obviously big change. My average age of open and closed accounts will be around 7.7 years (14 accounts) at that point. Goal is 800+. Will the oldest account age be a major factor to my score? That old card got closed in 2015 because I hadn't been using it. Wish had known to be diligent as that old card definitely padded my average age.

Plan is an installment loan and a padding my credit mix with another CC in first few months of 2026 then will hit the garden.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

Varsity_Lu — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:39:16 GMT

I think you'll be ok, certainly to reach 800. I'm over 800 and am below what your AAoA will be. Not sure, but I think I recall that AAoA points max out at like 7.5 years. After that point people start achieving perfect 850s. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

coldfusion — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:44:22 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
I think you'll be ok, certainly to reach 800. I'm over 800 and am below what yours will be. Not sure, but I think I recall that AAoA points max out at like 7.5 years. After that point people start achieving perfect 850s. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I understood 7 years, but we're on the same page.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

Varsity_Lu — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:08:13 GMT

@coldfusion wrote:
@Varsity_Lu wrote:
I think you'll be ok, certainly to reach 800. I'm over 800 and am below what yours will be. Not sure, but I think I recall that AAoA points max out at like 7.5 years. After that point people start achieving perfect 850s. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I understood 7 years, but we're on the same page.

There is a thread on MF about it I read a while back, but I can't seem to find it. Someone has data points that confirmed the exact point. I'm certain 7.7 is past that point. It very well could be 7.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

Thomas_Thumb — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:07:00 GMT

@FICOdawg wrote:
In October a credit card I opened in 1992 will drop off and at that point my oldest Chase CC account will be 2009 so obviously big change. My average age of open and closed accounts will be around 7.7 years (14 accounts) at that point. Goal is 800+. Will the oldest account age be a major factor to my score? That old card got closed in 2015 because I hadn't been using it. Wish had known to be diligent as that old card definitely padded my average age.

Minimum reported AAoA for 850 is 7 years. Minimum AoOA ever reported for an 850 is 14 years. That was an outlier. The next youngest was at 17 years and there were a few at 18 years

In general I'd go with 7.5 years for AAoA and 17 years for AoOA as typical benchmarks.

Don't confuse max available attribute points with an 850 score. Fico 8 and 9 have 20-25 points of buffer. So, scores of 850 are achievable with a far less than perfect profile.

P.S. scores of 800 have been reached with an AAoA of 3 years and even an AoOA of 5 years. However, with a CC only profile, AAoA at 5 years and AoOA of 7 years is a better benchmark. Of course, AoYRA under 12 months can hold down score

Re: Age of Oldest Account

NoHardLimits — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:36:23 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
In general I'd go with 7.5 years for AoYA and 17 years for AoOA as typical benchmarks.

@Thomas_Thumb Did you mean 7.5 years for AAoA, instead of AoYA? It's certainly possible to achieve 850 with AoYA far less than 7.5 years.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

Thomas_Thumb — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:56:03 GMT

@NoHardLimits

AAoA. Made correction to post

There have been 850 scores reported with an AoYA under 12 months due to the generous buffer. Even so, adding a new revolving account will drop score for a majority of 850 profiles.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

FICOdawg — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:19:30 GMT

I'm not so concerned with 850 now but want to get all three scores over 800. Once I get the next loan and then open the CC I'll just have to let father time do it's thing. Unfortunally I should have done all the CC optimization 10-15 years ago.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

NoHardLimits — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:02:20 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@NoHardLimits

AAoA. Made correction to post

There have been 850 scores reported with an AoYA under 12 months due to the generous buffer. Even so, adding a new revolving account will drop score for a majority of 850 profiles.

AoYA under 12 months always drops me out of 850 on FICO8, but my FICO9 EX seems to hold steady at 850.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

FICOdawg — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:19:21 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@NoHardLimits

AAoA. Made correction to post

There have been 850 scores reported with an AoYA under 12 months due to the generous buffer. Even so, adding a new revolving account will drop score for a majority of 850 profiles.
AoYA under 12 months always drops me out of 850 on FICO8, but my FICO9 EX seems to hold steady at 850.

The penalty for new accounts does seem unfair. You get hit for the hard pull, the sub 12 month account, and if a loan you get hit yet again for having balance over 90%. Maybe FICO9 has more leniency for otherwise perfect/clean credit.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

SouthJamaica — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 21:51:09 GMT

@FICOdawg wrote:
In October a credit card I opened in 1992 will drop off

You can't know when an account will drop off

and at that point my oldest Chase CC account will be 2009 so obviously big change. My average age of open and closed accounts will be around 7.7 years (14 accounts) at that point. Goal is 800+. Will the oldest account age be a major factor to my score?

If I'm not mistaken it's not a scoring factor at all, merely a scorecard segmentation factor.

That old card got closed in 2015 because I hadn't been using it. Wish had known to be diligent as that old card definitely padded my average age.

Plan is an installment loan and a padding my credit mix with another CC in first few months of 2026 then will hit the garden.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

Thomas_Thumb — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 22:39:25 GMT

AAoA is only a scoring factor.

AoOA is a scorecard segmentation factor and a scoring factor based on reason codes. Attributes used for segmentation may also impact score.

Review the complete reason code list for insight on factors that affect score.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

FICOdawg — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 22:42:39 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@FICOdawg wrote:
In October a credit card I opened in 1992 will drop off

You can't know when an account will drop off

and at that point my oldest Chase CC account will be 2009 so obviously big change. My average age of open and closed accounts will be around 7.7 years (14 accounts) at that point. Goal is 800+. Will the oldest account age be a major factor to my score?

If I'm not mistaken it's not a scoring factor at all, merely a scorecard segmentation factor.

That old card got closed in 2015 because I hadn't been using it. Wish had known to be diligent as that old card definitely padded my average age.

Plan is an installment loan and a padding my credit mix with another CC in first few months of 2026 then will hit the garden.

My understanding is things drop off after 10 years. The account was closed October 2015. Are you saying they stay longer than 10 years even if closed account??

Re: Age of Oldest Account

Varsity_Lu — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 23:09:58 GMT

@FICOdawg wrote:

My understanding is things drop off after 10 years. The account was closed October 2015. Are you saying they stay longer than 10 years even if closed account??

I think it's kind of up to the card issuer and the reporting agency. I have some old closed accounts that are still reporting on Equifax and Experian but they mysteriously dropped off of my TransUnion report a few months ago. They have been closed between 6 and 9 years, but all of them dropped off at the same time. They were all from Synchrony, too. The 10 year rule is more like a guideline.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

SouthJamaica — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 17:52:56 GMT

@FICOdawg wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@FICOdawg wrote:
In October a credit card I opened in 1992 will drop off

You can't know when an account will drop off

and at that point my oldest Chase CC account will be 2009 so obviously big change. My average age of open and closed accounts will be around 7.7 years (14 accounts) at that point. Goal is 800+. Will the oldest account age be a major factor to my score?

If I'm not mistaken it's not a scoring factor at all, merely a scorecard segmentation factor.

That old card got closed in 2015 because I hadn't been using it. Wish had known to be diligent as that old card definitely padded my average age.

Plan is an installment loan and a padding my credit mix with another CC in first few months of 2026 then will hit the garden.

My understanding is things drop off after 10 years. The account was closed October 2015. Are you saying they stay longer than 10 years even if closed account??

Yes. There's nothing magic about 10 years. Sometimes they fall off sooner, sometimes they stay on longer, sometimes much much longer.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

SouthJamaica — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 17:53:58 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
AAoA is only a scoring factor.

AoOA is a scorecard segmentation factor and a scoring factor based on reason codes. Attributes used for segmentation may also impact score.

Review the complete reason code list for insight on factors that affect score.

Thanks. I stand corrected. So AoOA is both a scorecard segmentation factor and a scoring factor.

Re: Age of Oldest Account

PepsterinBklyn — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 18:21:14 GMT

The effect might not be anywhere near as bad as you're thinking. A lot depends on how everything else currently on the report is aging. For example my paid off mortage shows 31 years now & it will fall off in 2 or 3 years BUT my oldest current account is now 25 & in 3 years it will be 28.