Do I kill my oldest card that isn’t giving a CLI?

[Anonymous]

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@NGeorge wrote:
My average age of accounts is between 3 and 4 years after I closed the Continental Finance and CreditOne.

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Your AAoA should not change after closing those 2 accounts unless you're looking at Credit Karma, Creditwise or the likes, FICO counts age of close accounts for up to 10 years, the only thing that changed should have been total credit limit.

[pipeguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If the OP can PC to a no-AF Platinum, that's the best option here without question.  Then just throw the card in your SD and take it out every 4-5 months or so for a tiny swipe to ensure it stays alive.  This way your AoOA will continue to grow and the 10 year clock on it's death won't start prematurely.

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I understand your point and of course, it's an option - but in my opinion, AAoA is overrated as a factor in managing one's card portfolio. the OP has already acquired a bunch of new and much better cards (dumping AF's too) which has dropped his AAoA - does not seem to have affected improving his card choices. I see no point in keeping a "worthless" account open just to keep it open especially since it will never grow and rarely if ever be used. If OP really wants to do business with Cap-1, close the card, wait a couple of years and go for a prime version.    

[NGeorge]

Yep I’ve been looking at Credit Karma for my TU and EQ scores and then have a membership directly with EX — which is funny that Credit Karma shoes the Average age as 3ish years, while Experian directly shows it closer to 8.... there aren’t really any accounts reporting directly to EX that aren’t on the others — so I guess it makes sense that Credit Karma must instantly kill the AAoA while Experian shows it coasting.

TBH, I’m kind of done with CapitalOne I think... nothing they have really appeals... plus I just feel sort of done with them since I’ve had them so long without them offering up much even though I’ve had a flawless history with them.

My ultimate goal has always been to get a truly decent travel card for my everyday spending since I do travel quite a good bit; for a while it’s been the Chase Sapphire Reserve I’d ultimately want, but I see AmEx is releasing an SPG Luxury Card which looks a little more to my liking since I stay at SPG properties anyway. So ultimately I think I want to use the BCE the best I can to eventually try and upgrade.

Ultimately I’d like to get to:
-AmEx/Chase/whatever travel card for most day to day and travel spending (either closing the BCE after upgrading to SPG or keeping it for groceries if the travel card ends up not being AmEx)
-Discover It for auto pay monthly bills
-Seattle Credit Union Visa for emergencies/balance transfers (0% fee and 8.7% apt)/Costco
-Amazon/Wal-Mart/PayPal/Target for available credit purposes with occasional special financing buys and the 5% off when shopping at Target.
-Sprint Visa for 3% rewards on the auto pay phone bill.

That leaves me with a couple cards I just wouldn’t see myself using... the CapitalOne with the AF and $1950 CL as previiusly mentioned, a no AF Avant card with a 1k CL, and a Fingerhut Card with a $3150 CL. The Avant I have no issues closing — it’s just a bit over a year old and I just jumped at it since it was the first “better” card I was offered after my rebuild started to kick in — but the CapitalOne is nearly 13 years old, and the Fingerhut is 7. So that’s the “larger” picture. Apologies for typing a lot

As I mentioned, some of the calculators (Nerdwallet or Credit Donkey IIRC) say zero change if I “close my oldest account” which is the CapOne....

I have until March til the AF renews. I may hang onto it until then and see where I’m at — and kill if before the fee hits if I like where everything is at.

I guess I don’t feel totally awesome about collecting cards to collect cards — if it doesn’t have a clear purpose to use in my budget, or at the very least keeping it open for credit availability purposes but at least using it a couple times a year like my store cards, I’d be tempted to close it.

[sdsoccerdad]

Same situation here as you with Cap One but my card was only 2 years old (2nd oldest card. lol).  I decided it wasn't worth it anymore since it just sits in the drawer.  In your case, I dunno how much it would actually affect your credit score since the line is under $2K.  

[Anonymous]

AAoA all depends on where you see it being in 10 years from now if you were to close an account.  For those with thick files, or older credit lines (already strong AAoA) looking ahead 10 years there probably isn't much of a difference AAoA wise if an account is there or not.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous

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QS1 is a dead end card for the most part, it is extremely hard to PC to a no AF card. If OP can downgrade to Platinum great, if not I would just close it. My AoOA is 15 years and AAoA is only 3 years 10 months and my scores are all in 800's, you don't need AoOA of 28 years to get to the promise land.

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One can get in the 800's with 2 years of credit history... that is, AoOA of 2 years and an AAoA of something less than that.  Such a profile though is far less bulletproof than a more established 800+ score profile. 

Anything above a 17 year AoOA in my estimation is just gravy and won't positively impact score any further.  That being said, more is more when it comes to AoOA and you never know how much of a dropoff one could have from that oldest account coming off.  A couple of years?  No big deal... but there are people that see their AoOA drop a decade+ suddenly when 10 years prior it could have been avoided.