AAoA

[FutureBillionaire]

What is a good AAoA in your opinion? What is a bad one?

[Gunnar419]

I'm thinking that's very much a YMMV question.

I know that, to FICO, a AAoA between 6 and 12 years is considered golden. But there are plenty of young people just starting out who can't even dream of such age.

So if you're 40 or 50 and you don't have an AAoA that's up there, that might be "bad." But if you're 22 and you have an AAoA of 4 years. or even 2 years, that might be great.

What FICO says in its mysterious algorithm is one thing. But if I were a human doing a review of someone's credit, I'd look less for absolute AAoA than, "Is this person's credit well planned and stable?" or "Is this person opening new accounts (and thereby shortening AAoA) just for the hell of it?"

[jamesdwi]

I have a great AAoA for a 12 year old

[Anonymous]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

I'm thinking that's very much a YMMV question.

I know that, to FICO, a AAoA between 6 and 12 years is considered golden. But there are plenty of young people just starting out who can't even dream of such age.

So if you're 40 or 50 and you don't have an AAoA that's up there, that might be "bad." But if you're 22 and you have an AAoA of 4 years. or even 2 years, that might be great.

What FICO says in its mysterious algorithm is one thing. But if I were a human doing a review of someone's credit, I'd look less for absolute AAoA than, "Is this person's credit well planned and stable?" or "Is this person opening new accounts (and thereby shortening AAoA) just for the hell of it?"

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Damn! You found me out!

[webhopper]

I'm still young (31 yrs old)  so my personal goal is to keep my AAoA above 6.  Right now its at 5.5, so I won't be applying for any new credit until that AAoA increases.

I think your AAoA stops being a negative factor once you get up to 6 yrs.   Less than 1 year is really bad...   between 3-4 years is not terrible.   6 and up is awesomeland.

[FutureBillionaire]

I'm at a bit over 4 years.  I think I have been for a while.  I could get another Amex if I cared about it.  I don't, though.

I have about 5-7 inquires per bureau.  My plan is to stay around that number.  I won't apply for new cards unless I am getting fantastic signup bonuses/rewards.

[thom02099]

In addition to  AAofA, your oldest account also is a contributor.  Hence the importance of AMEX backdating, particularly for those of us with "old" accounts (some older than some of the members here, LOL!).  Having older AMEX accounts, and getting new ones with that backdating certainly contributes to increasing that AAofA.  Wish more CCC would offer backdating...

[Revelate]

Think the model suffers extremely diminishing returns around the 4-5 year mark; I'd say anything over 5 is good.

[L0RDAVENTAD0R]

Mine is almost at 3 years (2 years & 11 months to be technical) & I'm 22. I can't even imagine having an AAoA of 12 years ! I need to let time do its thing.

[Anonymous]

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@thom02099 wrote:

In addition to  AAofA, your oldest account also is a contributor.  Hence the importance of AMEX backdating, particularly for those of us with "old" accounts (some older than some of the members here, LOL!).  Having older AMEX accounts, and getting new ones with that backdating certainly contributes to increasing that AAofA.  Wish more CCC would offer backdating...

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And I still don't get why Fico allow it, unless other issuers have a way to discount it when getting score or AAoA.   My BCP now has a member since 1987 date.

I believe I got a gold Amex around 1987, and dropped it by 1989 (not worth the fee).   I then picked up a Blue Sky in 2007, and converted to BCP in 2012.

In what way is this a consistent 26 year relationship, the great majority of that time I wasn't an Amex customer at all?   Maybe I should contact Barclays, I had a chequing account (in the UK)with them from 1977 to about 1987, so surely they can backdate my Barclays Reward card back to then?  (And when I think about it, I really did have the Barclaycard UK credit card in 1978, so a good case!)