Anyone currently focused on closing cards?

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

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@AnonymousI find your comments to be insulting.  You imply that I am some feeble old man who can't be bothered tracking his credit cards.  You don't know me, and you are making one heckuva a lot of bad assumptions.

-- I am not in my 70s but my 60s.

-- It's only been five years since I was deep in credit card debt with very low FICO scores, and I'm happy to finally be on my financial feet again.

-- My father, who is 30 years older than me, is very much alive and actively manages his credit cards and his investment portfolio.  I do not see myself winding down my years of financial activity for several more decades.

-- I am extremely detail oriented and know my credit card activity, balances, payment dues dates, and points/miles/cashback balances at all times.  If I wanted to manage 35 cards, I could do so better than most members of this forum.  I happen to think most people should get by with 10 or fewer cards.

-- I usually detect fraud within 24 of hours of it occurring.  It's easy.

-- I hate Mai Tais and tropical beaches.

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Relax buddy!  I wasn't referring to you specifically, it was a very generalized comment about anyone who has that type of credit history.  No need to be insulted.  It sounds like you're doing very well!  Kudos for that!  I think it's smart to reduce your credit lines, particularly if you don't need them.  I was merely commenting that I see myself doing the same down the line.  I think you misunderstood the intent of my post.

P.S.  I pegged you at ~ 60's.  I was referring to 10 years from now when those cards you closed out come off the report.  Cheers!

[Kforce]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Is this the logging club?

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No the garden club members are just pulling out the weeds, keeping card counts low. This will help make less plastic waste in the future,  thus help save the planet.

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

They still count toward your AAoA even after you close them.  By the time they fall off the AAoA calculation, you don't need them anyway.  I closed a 43 year old card and a 25 year old card last year, and they're still counting toward AAoA.

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But only for ten years, so in nine years you're going to lose 68 years worth of time contributing to your AAoA. While that isn't going to be a big deal for some people that have thoroughly established AAoA, it will definitely be a big impact to those that don't. Basically, if I decided to go cash-only right now and closed all of my CC accounts, by the time I was 50 my AAoA would fall through the floor to nothing. I'll probably try to keep the majority of them open until I'm retired to avoid this ever being even a remote concern in my life.

As for the 'simplicity' and fraud concerns, it only takes a few minutes for me to click through my accounts and I refresh Mint daily so there's not much of an issue of me worrying about undetected fraud slipping through. Besides, if I had five CC accounts and closed four in fear of fraud, if the one single account I had remaining was affected then I would have access to zero lines of revolving credit. I could have an account affected today and when I call the issuer to freeze it it won't affect me and my daily credit needs.

To each their own, I just don't see why some people act like managing more than a couple of cards is so difficult. But by all means, members that have too many to manage should definitely shut them down until they can get back in control. 

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A few thoughts:

-- You only need 9 years of AAoA to achieve an 850 FICO score, so dropping 68 years of credit history makes no difference if I don't drop any of my other seven cards over the next 9 years.  This has nothing to do with a cardholder's age.  A 30 year old can make it work.  It will not be "a big impact" to anyone, because in 9 years they can have a thoroughly established AAoA.

-- I never mentioned a desire for simplicity.  Why do you imply that I did?

-- I never mentioned fraud as a concern.  Why do you imply that I did?

-- I never said it was difficult to manage my cards.  Why do you imply that I did?

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One paragraph was in response to your post, the rest was simply continuing the discussion that others have been having only a few posts prior. There's not a very good way to segue on forums, but relax because I'm not implying anything about you or claiming that you stated anything.

[sarge12]

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@Blodreina wrote:

If you were/are a rebuilder, as I was, there might be a time when you're focused on adding cards and different products.  However, as time passes, you might become more focused on your important cards and less interested in cards you don't use as frequently.

I'm currently cutting down my cards significantly (like...in half lol).  

Anyone else currently doing the same?

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I have 15+ cards myself, none of them store cards. I have yet to see any logical reason to close cards except it would simplify keeping track of them all. 

[sarge12]

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 wrote:

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 wrote:

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A few thoughts:

-- You only need 9 years of AAoA to achieve an 850 FICO score, so dropping 68 years of credit history makes no difference if I don't drop any of my other seven cards over the next 9 years.  This has nothing to do with a cardholder's age.  A 30 year old can make it work.  It will not be "a big impact" to anyone, because in 9 years they can have a thoroughly established AAoA.

-- I never mentioned a desire for simplicity.  Why do you imply that I did?

-- I never mentioned fraud as a concern.  Why do you imply that I did?

-- I never said it was difficult to manage my cards.  Why do you imply that I did?

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Where did you get this 9 year AAoA from? I have about 6 yr AAoA, and I'm very close to 850. I'm almost certain I saw someone with 850 score with 5 yrs AAoA.

[UpperNwGuy]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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 wrote:

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 wrote:

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A few thoughts:

-- You only need 9 years of AAoA to achieve an 850 FICO score, so dropping 68 years of credit history makes no difference if I don't drop any of my other seven cards over the next 9 years.  This has nothing to do with a cardholder's age.  A 30 year old can make it work.  It will not be "a big impact" to anyone, because in 9 years they can have a thoroughly established AAoA.

-- I never mentioned a desire for simplicity.  Why do you imply that I did?

-- I never mentioned fraud as a concern.  Why do you imply that I did?

-- I never said it was difficult to manage my cards.  Why do you imply that I did?

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Where did you get this 9 year AAoA from? I have about 6 yr AAoA, and I'm very close to 850. I'm almost certain I saw someone with 850 score with 5 yrs AAoA.

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You are correct about 5 and 6 years AAoA being enough for the top FICO scores.  The only reason why I said 9 was because that's how many years a closed card continues to count toward a person's AAoA.  So if no additional cards are closed, the AAoA won't drop below 9 when the closed cards roll off.  Someone here had been saying that the rolloff of the closed cards would cause the AAoA to plummet and the FICO score to go down.

[longtimelurker]

Re old closed cards eventually dropping off: as others have said it is usually not such a huge issue as other cards are sufficiently aged.

But more, as time goes on, I suspect that "wisdom" prevails!   We don't worry so much about credit score or any of its components so much.

A 760 is fine for all practical purposes, don't need to artificially maintain stuff to get near 850.

[Anonymous]

Data point via AAoA, my TU currently sits at 807 with AAoA of 3 years and 7 months with 0 inquiry in the past year, in 4 months when my AoYA hits one year, I expect another bump to about 820+. IMO, if you want to close cards that you don't want or need anymore to make your life easier, or to make room for new cards that you want that better fits your spending pattern, go for it.

[Kforce]

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@sarge12

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I have 15+ cards myself, none of them store cards. I have yet to see any logical reason to close cards except it would simplify keeping track of them all.  ( Simplicity and fraud are both real considerations for closing cards )

Where did you get this 9 year AAoA from? I have about 6 yr AAoA, and I'm very close to 850. I'm almost certain I saw someone with 850 score with 5 yrs AAoA.  ( If your card history is good getting rid of a couple of cards does not hurt your score now and if you are a person that  generally keeps cards a long time, you will not need it in 10 years.  850's are common with 7+ years AAoA. The second argument is "Util", and this can be controlled by payment date.

 I see few logical reasons to just keep them in a sock drawer, keep checking them on-line for fraud, and putting 5-$ on them once every 6 months.  7+ years AAoA is not hard to get or keep with conservative CC practices. 

[Man-Of-Steel]

I opened 11 new credit card accounts between 2013 and 2017 and so far, I've only closed 1 of the credit card accounts (Barclays Sallie Mae/Commence MC).  I'm in no rush to close any additional cards, but my BofA Merrill+ Visa is on 'life support' at the moment and I'll likely be closing it when it ages to 2 years.

CommanderLexa, if you don't mind sharing, what cards are you planning to cut?