Can you re-open old credit cards that you closed?

[Darius1976]

Hello MyFico Family,

Before I got obsessed with my credit score, I never realized how important AAoA was to your credit. I had two First Premier cards which I hated due to their AFs. Because of this I closed both of them in Jan 2013. I had them both since 2007. Closing them really hurt my scores. Am I able to call them up and reopen these accounts and keep the original AAoA? Is it worth it since it is First Premier!? I am in process of getting a mortgage, so any score boost will help. Credit card wise, these were my oldest accounts. I was never late on these cards.

[09Lexie]

Closing cc's a few months ago should not have hurt your score. Did your util increase? Also if you are in the middle of getting a mtg, you shouldn't be doing anything to your credit.

[BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest]

Usually when you close a CC the reps will tell that you will not be able to re-open the same acct but are always more than welcome to re-apply for a new acct. But IDK if thats the same with other banks.

[djc1puno]

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@09Lexie wrote:
Closing cc's a few months ago should not have hurt your score. Did your util increase? Also if you are in the middle of getting a mtg, you shouldn't be doing anything to your credit.

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+1  even with those closed, they are still in your reports for 10 years

[Volpes]

AAoA is still being calculated on those closed accounts, so don't worry about them; the fees on those First Premier cards can be a bit excessive, so let them go, hopefully in good standing.

If your score went down, I can only guess it was because your utilization went up?

As for re-opening credit cards; its possible, but I wouldn't count on it. My Kohls card was closed and six months latter was re-opened, but then again that's a store card. 

[SunriseEarth]

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@Volpes wrote:

AAoA is still being calculated on those closed accounts, so don't worry about them; the fees on those First Premier cards can be a bit excessive, so let them go, hopefully in good standing.

If your score went down, I can only guess it was because your utilization went up?

As for re-opening credit cards; its possible, but I wouldn't count on it. My Kohls card was closed and six months latter was re-opened, but then again that's a store card. 

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+1 to this.  To the OP...what other accounts do you have open now?  What's your UTIL like?

I definitely think reopening FP is a bad idea.

[TiggerDat]

My first question where are you getting your scores?  Are they FICO or Fako scores?

I would agree it probably has to do with your util and if you pay that down you should be OK when the new balances are reported.

[pizzadude]

Closing credit cards will never hurt your FICO score unless your revolving utilization increases as a result of losing the credit limits:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/td-p/347190