topic Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts in Rebuilding Your Credit

For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:06:58 GMT

Since AAoA is QUITE important in FICO's scoring, I wanted to post my myFICO info to show what the 2 new accounts did to my AAoA. My ONLY reasons for posting this are A) EDUCATE: Those rebuilding, this temptation is VERY high. Even for myself, I admit, I get the "itch" knowing my scores are what they are; B) PROVE: Time is pretty much one of the few factors on our side - we may think "OH if I have 2 reporting, if I have 6 reporting I'll get up there even FASTER. NOT THE CASE!

Granted, we have many many many folks on here that educate us regularly and have a VAST array of knowledge, moreso than myself, but I want to show you al what happened in REAL TIME. Here ya go:

DECEMBER 2013:

You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened: 18 Years, 2 Months ago

Average age of your accounts: 12 years, 9 Months

FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.

Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

**NOTICE HOW I WAS 9 MONTHS SHY OF BEING IN THE "HIGH ACHIEVER" GROUP IN BOTH CATEGORIES RELATED TO AAOA WHEN LOOKING AT THE CURRENT:

FEBRUARY 2014:

You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened: 18 Years, 2 Months ago

Average age of your accounts: 10 years, 3 months

FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.

Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

WHATTTTTT???? 10 YEARS, 3 MONTHS???

Now, I lost almost THREE (3) YEARS as a result of my 2 new accounts. Granted, this will be different for everyone, however my point is to show, in real-time, exactly what opening multiple accounts WILL DO to your AAoA if you were thinking "OH a few months won't hurt" or "That extra account I was pre-approved for won't hurt too much & my score will be up in a few months again" or "I can live with the hit for the next 6 months". THAT BEING SAID, LOSING THREE YEARS - DOESN'T EXACTLY LOOK LIKE A SWEET DEAL OR THE RIGHT WAY TO GO NOW DOES IT?

As stated before, this is PURELY to help out those rebuliding and those who are thinking about opening multiple account QUICKLY. PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE - TAKE THE ADVICE & LEARN FROM ONE WHO HAS NOW LOST THREE YEARS FROM WHAT I DID. THIS ISN'T NECESSARILY "WRONG" PER SE, AS WE ARE ALL FACTORED DIFFERENTLY, HOWEVER I CANNOT STATE IT ENOUGH THAT UNTIL I SAW IT, I REALLY DID NOT "BELIEVE" IT WOULD BE THIS MUCH!!!!

Hope this helps you all out there and have a GREAT START TO YOUR WEEKEND!!!!

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

Repo-ed — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:52:17 GMT

Probably one of the (if not THE) most useful post I've seen on here.

Thanks

(and why I try to only app Amex cards - in hopes of avoiding this very issue)

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

GFer — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:55:00 GMT

Great post and awesome of you to share this with others!

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

ktl72455 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:27:20 GMT

WOW!!!!!! That helps keep my itchy finger in the GARDEN soil!!!!

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

alvon123 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:28:25 GMT

@GFer wrote:
Great post and awesome of you to share this with others!

+1 thanks for posting

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:51:37 GMT

You are ALL most very welcome but a thank you is not needed.

We're all in this "together" per se & if I can do ONE thing that has helped another, then my mission was accomplished.

As you see in my sig line, I'm back to being in the garden for some time due to what I did. As FYI, the accounts I opened were to get rid of 2 sub-primes I have had and were NOT my oldest accounts by far. Even if I leave them open, the cost/benefit means another 2 annual fees which, now that my scores have allowed for the GREAT unsecured accounts, I am only closing ONE. I believe closing both would do even MORE harm to my ages of accounts so I'll get rid of the $100 AF card versus the $19 AF card.

Remember, keep PIF'ing each month, always on time, and adhere to tending to your gardening. By doing this, you WILL be able to "Reap Your Harvest" from your garden after 1-2 years, depending on your situation so that number is ALWAYS different for all of us, and my "Harvesting" resulted in nothing BUT good. Then we repeat the process while the newbies grow up to be harvested down the road. As one poster said, the "itch" does come and it's HARDER to overcome - but we're always here to help each other regardless. I do not judge, I have no right to judge - and I am GLAD that I am able to finally be where I am while further helping others.

You'll be seeing me in the garden again; I actually kinda like it there!! I hope you all have a great weekend too & if I can help in any other way, or would like to see other info, just feel free to ask. If I don't know/have the answer, I GUARANTEE someone will!!

YOU WILL GET THERE!!!

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:57:52 GMT

@Repo-ed wrote:
Probably one of the (if not THE) most useful post I've seen on here.

Thanks

(and why I try to only app Amex cards - in hopes of avoiding this very issue)

Thank you VERY much for the remarks Repo. You have NO IDEA how much this means to me for being able to post something very helpful to us. I've learned the hard way & now I ONLY use the "easy way". I do not regret what I did (see my response to everyone) as it got me out of a $100 AF Sub-Prime, but now I'm back in the garden again from what I did. That is fine though as I'm EXACTLY where I need/want to be. Any more credit out there is 100% unnecessary for me!!!

Have a GREAT weekend & if I can show anything else to you (and others), just feel free to ask!! Take care

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 13:04:25 GMT

@ktl72455 wrote:
WOW!!!!!! That helps keep my itchy finger in the GARDEN soil!!!!

If you DO get that itch, and more than likely you will as I do too, pop on here & we'll help you through. If it wasn't for me stating I wanted to do another app to get another, i would have KILLED my AAoA versus this damage. Print this off or save the post as a reminder

You WILL GET THERE!!!!! Congrats, as well, for getting this far too BTW

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

jojomomma — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 15:37:31 GMT

Great post, I think it would be an awesome post to share in Credit Cards and Credit Approvals as well......

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 15:51:04 GMT

I saw on another thread someone list that he had 40 credit card lines open and I think he only has 2-3 years worth of credit history. Granted, virtually all his credit cards are store cards and/or subprime cards with balance limits under $1,000.

10 years from now, if he kept all those credit lines open, he could app every month and his AAoA will barely budge...

I am afraid of having so many open credit lines though. Asides from trying to remember all the due dates and the hassle of remembering all the login info and passwords, I am afraid the banks will potentailly deem me high risk for having so many open credit lines/possibly over extedning myself.

It is my personal opinion that your available credit limits never exceed your annual gross income as a safe measure so you don't dig yourself into a hole you can't dig yourself out of.

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

BarryNTexas — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 19:13:37 GMT

@nma851 wrote:
Since AAoA is QUITE important in FICO's scoring, I wanted to post my myFICO info to show what the 2 new accounts did to my AAoA. My ONLY reasons for posting this are A) EDUCATE: Those rebuilding, this temptation is VERY high. Even for myself, I admit, I get the "itch" knowing my scores are what they are; B) PROVE: Time is pretty much one of the few factors on our side - we may think "OH if I have 2 reporting, if I have 6 reporting I'll get up there even FASTER. NOT THE CASE!

Granted, we have many many many folks on here that educate us regularly and have a VAST array of knowledge, moreso than myself, but I want to show you al what happened in REAL TIME. Here ya go:

DECEMBER 2013:
You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened: 18 Years, 2 Months ago
Average age of your accounts: 12 years, 9 Months
FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.
Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

**NOTICE HOW I WAS 9 MONTHS SHY OF BEING IN THE "HIGH ACHIEVER" GROUP IN BOTH CATEGORIES RELATED TO AAOA WHEN LOOKING AT THE CURRENT:

FEBRUARY 2014:
You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened: 18 Years, 2 Months ago
Average age of your accounts: 10 years, 3 months
FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.
Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

WHATTTTTT???? 10 YEARS, 3 MONTHS???

Now, I lost almost THREE (3) YEARS as a result of my 2 new accounts. Granted, this will be different for everyone, however my point is to show, in real-time, exactly what opening multiple accounts WILL DO to your AAoA if you were thinking "OH a few months won't hurt" or "That extra account I was pre-approved for won't hurt too much & my score will be up in a few months again" or "I can live with the hit for the next 6 months". THAT BEING SAID, LOSING THREE YEARS - DOESN'T EXACTLY LOOK LIKE A SWEET DEAL OR THE RIGHT WAY TO GO NOW DOES IT?

As stated before, this is PURELY to help out those rebuliding and those who are thinking about opening multiple account QUICKLY. PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE - TAKE THE ADVICE & LEARN FROM ONE WHO HAS NOW LOST THREE YEARS FROM WHAT I DID. THIS ISN'T NECESSARILY "WRONG" PER SE, AS WE ARE ALL FACTORED DIFFERENTLY, HOWEVER I CANNOT STATE IT ENOUGH THAT UNTIL I SAW IT, I REALLY DID NOT "BELIEVE" IT WOULD BE THIS MUCH!!!!

Hope this helps you all out there and have a GREAT START TO YOUR WEEKEND!!!!

Good illustration of expanding your numerator in the calculation. I would be curious how it really affected your credit score as that for me is the essential impact.

IE - I lost 3 years of AAoA and 50 points on my Fako. Thanks, Barry

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

gdale6 — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 20:01:16 GMT

Good info for those of us who have long credit histories. Thx

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

credit_challenged09 — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 02:19:24 GMT

@nma851 wrote:
Since AAoA is QUITE important in FICO's scoring, I wanted to post my myFICO info to show what the 2 new accounts did to my AAoA. My ONLY reasons for posting this are A) EDUCATE: Those rebuilding, this temptation is VERY high. Even for myself, I admit, I get the "itch" knowing my scores are what they are; B) PROVE: Time is pretty much one of the few factors on our side - we may think "OH if I have 2 reporting, if I have 6 reporting I'll get up there even FASTER. NOT THE CASE!

Granted, we have many many many folks on here that educate us regularly and have a VAST array of knowledge, moreso than myself, but I want to show you al what happened in REAL TIME. Here ya go:

DECEMBER 2013:
You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened: 18 Years, 2 Months ago
Average age of your accounts: 12 years, 9 Months
FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.
Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

**NOTICE HOW I WAS 9 MONTHS SHY OF BEING IN THE "HIGH ACHIEVER" GROUP IN BOTH CATEGORIES RELATED TO AAOA WHEN LOOKING AT THE CURRENT:

FEBRUARY 2014:
You have an established credit history.

Your oldest account was opened: 18 Years, 2 Months ago
Average age of your accounts: 10 years, 3 months
FICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.
Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

WHATTTTTT???? 10 YEARS, 3 MONTHS???

Now, I lost almost THREE (3) YEARS as a result of my 2 new accounts. Granted, this will be different for everyone, however my point is to show, in real-time, exactly what opening multiple accounts WILL DO to your AAoA if you were thinking "OH a few months won't hurt" or "That extra account I was pre-approved for won't hurt too much & my score will be up in a few months again" or "I can live with the hit for the next 6 months". THAT BEING SAID, LOSING THREE YEARS - DOESN'T EXACTLY LOOK LIKE A SWEET DEAL OR THE RIGHT WAY TO GO NOW DOES IT?

As stated before, this is PURELY to help out those rebuliding and those who are thinking about opening multiple account QUICKLY. PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE - TAKE THE ADVICE & LEARN FROM ONE WHO HAS NOW LOST THREE YEARS FROM WHAT I DID. THIS ISN'T NECESSARILY "WRONG" PER SE, AS WE ARE ALL FACTORED DIFFERENTLY, HOWEVER I CANNOT STATE IT ENOUGH THAT UNTIL I SAW IT, I REALLY DID NOT "BELIEVE" IT WOULD BE THIS MUCH!!!!

Hope this helps you all out there and have a GREAT START TO YOUR WEEKEND!!!!

Thanks for this piece of information. I looked at my Equifax report and it shows my AAoA is 3 years and 12 months? Doesn't this equate to 4 years? weird..

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 12:50:42 GMT

BarryNTexas wrote:

Good illustration of expanding your numerator in the calculation. I would be curious how it really affected your credit score as that for me is the essential impact.

IE - I lost 3 years of AAoA and 50 points on my Fako. Thanks, Barry

I hear ya on that! 50 points IS a sting but give it 3-6 months & it will trickle back on up, assuming PAG'ing on all accounts. Such a complex scoring system yet NONE of us could ever find that "accurate as a lender" type model. All those variables, etc etc etc. Did you open a new one or did you have an older one drop off that was calculated in your AAoA? Now you have me curious as I have SEVERAL old ones due to drop off throughout this year (10 year mark) and I'm SURE that will hit my AAoA just as opening the 2 newbies did.

Are you asking for my REAL scores (i.e. directly pulled from the 3 CRA's) versus myfico & CK, etc? Had to pull em anyway for the attorney handling my FCRA & FDCPA matters so here they are from the FAKO's: Current Scores (FAKO'S): EX 779 (Direct); TU 762 (CK); EQ 773 (myFico) - 05 Feb 2014; Current Scores (DIRECT): EX: 767(-12), TU: 749(-13), EQ: 793(+20). Weird how EX & TU went down & EQ went up, but I know TU has ALWAYS been the lowest & they use a different "model" or something to that effect.

I also just had a few of those report for the month, only one is showing a balance at this time. I guarantee once the Amazon promo hits, it will drop again a few but honestly - I WILL NOT complain as I have learned from what I did and the impacts. My UT, AAoA, & Hist are carrying the "weight" appropriately and I don't disagree with the scoring. Afterall, it COULD be worse. Guess I should update my sig as well with these but was going to wait for March with the GC before I updated them. If it is "Forum Law" to update them right away, then I shall do such so you all have an accurate depiction. By March's reporting, this is going to be different regardless so instead of this mid-month update for the reason aforementioned, I would rather stick with the scores I'm getting via the respective FAKO's otherwise my up/down/up/down will be skewed from *actual* FICO's versus the FAKO's. If I am told to update I will update!!

Keep it up Barry!

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 12:53:24 GMT

You are ALL most welcome again for those who posted after my first YW

We're all in this together & I appreciate all the support just as much as the next. All we can do is keep going strong!

Keep it up everyone & KNOWLEDGE is our best friend Glad I could help

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

coldnmn — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 13:01:28 GMT

Great post! If only the people that insist on getting a mountain of toy limit store cards that they will never use would understand that. This should be required reading! Thanks for sharing!

Re: For those that DO NOT believe what happens to AAoA by opening NEW accounts

nma851 — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 13:21:15 GMT

coldnmn wrote:

Great post! If only the people that insist on getting a mountain of toy limit store cards that they will never use would understand that. This should be required reading! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you as well coldnmn -

You have a VERY VERY VERY good point.. All that does, just with ANY cards for the matter, will increase available out there which may or may not help, especially if they are all opened within the short time. it's gonna affect ya in these "mixes", specifically more CC experience than a GOOD mix of all. As far as I am concerned, I am EXACTLY where I need to be CL wise. Anything more would be ridiculous, unnecessary, unneeded, etc. etc. and will make a lender look at me & say "Now wait a second - while he HAS been perfect with all this, based on his DTI (NOT UT), the guy is over-extended - well, has the potential to be. I DO NOT WANT THAT. I've read it a thousand times to ONLY GET WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED & that is one of the rules I am following.

i know there is this "Higher CL's = better scores" and while that MAY be true at face value, once income is factored in for a full DTI%, that could end up doing ALOT more harm than good.

This is why I let em Auto-CLI too - never asked for one, they've bumped now & then, but the latest one I rejected due to the 2 newbies that replaced the sub-primes. It's a wash realistically, well - maybe $1-2K more than I DID have, but there's just no reason for me to have higher & higher CL's and risk a lender closing me or CLD'ing me down the line. It's NOT just about "Pay on time" as we (now) now and I, too, was once in that misconception boat. I still have alot of learning; but now that I have more than the basics, I know the roads I must go down & MORE IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER!!!!

You take care & thanks for your input too.