Cancelling Cards and affecting AAoA?

[takeshi74]

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@Closingracer99 wrote:

Best time to cancel it now vs holding it on and then deciding to cancel later 

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That doesn't answer the question.  What would make it better or worse for you by either keeping it open or closing it?  What are your priorities and which of those is most important to you?  Keeping it open just means that it reports longer and continues to factor into AAoA.  When it drops off there will be some impact to AAoA  regardless of whether you close it now or later.  Later will have less impact assuming you keep all the other accounts and don't open anything else between closing it and it falling off but that's probably an unlikely scenario.  You're really just deciding when it falls off.

The only immediate impact is to utilization but you've stated that utilization doesn't matter to you.

[Closingracer99]

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@takeshi74 wrote:

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@Closingracer99 wrote:

Best time to cancel it now vs holding it on and then deciding to cancel later 

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That doesn't answer the question.  What would make it better or worse for you by either keeping it open or closing it?  What are your priorities and which of those is most important to you?  Keeping it open just means that it reports longer and continues to factor into AAoA regardless of whether you close it now or later.  When it drops off there will be some impact to AAoA.  Later will have less impact assuming you keep all the other accounts and don't open anything else between closing it and it falling off but that's probably an unlikely scenario.  You're really just deciding when it falls off.

The only immediate impact is to utilization but you've stated that utilization doesn't matter to you.

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I'm just scared how much this would hurt my AAoA really 

[takeshi74]

It's really not worth worrying over IMO since you can't predict what you'll do before the account falls off and also because AAoA only accounts for 15% of your score.

Off the top of my head 10 years down the road all your new accounts will have an age of about 10 years each.  Assuming no other new accounts (again, unlikely) your AAoA would be over 10 years since you have older accounts as well.  Losing one 11 year old account shouldn't have much of an impact.

The quick and dirty approximation below uses years below but calculating based on months would be a bit more accurate.  It also rounds your store card's age up and the BCE and Amazon Visa down for easier math.

(11 + 11 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10) / 9 versus

(11 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10) / 8

If my math is right (and I suggest not relying on it) that's a difference of 0.2 years in your AAoA or 2.4 months.  For someone with an AAoA over 10 years the difference is probably neglibile.

[Closingracer99]

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@takeshi74 wrote:

You'd have to do the math.  Set up a spreadsheet to calculate your AAoA now, 10 years down the road and for all other scenarios you want to consider.  Again, that won't take into account whether you open any accounts in the future.  It's really not worth worrying over IMO since you can't predict what you'll do before the account falls off and also because AAoA only accounts for 15% of your score.

Off the top of my head 10 years down the road all your new accounts will have an age of about 10 years each.  Assuming no other new accounts your AAoA would be over 10 years since you have older accounts as well.  Losing one 11 account shouldn't have much of an impact.

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Ok Thanks ... Don't know much about AAoA and how much it really affects me Credit rating.   I knew it did but not to the extent pretty much. All i know most of the time i read people advise not to close down older accounts