Closing secured card and how it impacts AAoA

[CBTS]

My current credit profile is as follows:

- 4 open CCs: Capital One Quicksilver $1500 CL opened late December 2017 | BCU Secured $500 CL opened January 2018 | Capital One QuicksilverOne $3500 CL opened July 2018 | BCU Cash Rewards $3000 CL opened July 2018

- Chapter 7 discharged December 2017
- Starting FICO 8 scores post-discharge: 521 EQ | 553 EX | 500 TU
- Current FICO 8 scores: 672 EQ | 665 EX | 652 TU
- Inquiries: 2 EQ | 5 EX | 4 TU
- 1 open SSL installment loan since January 2018
- Revolving utilization: 6.9% overall ($588 last statement balance on Quicksilver, rest of them $0) | 39.2% on the card with that statement balance ($588 balance on $1500 CL)
- Installment utilization: 7.3% ($36 balance on $500 SSL)

I'm looking to apply for a NFCU membership and hopefully a CC with them subsequently. I'm not sure if it's better to close this CC before or after any new applications. The card in question is the BCU Secured $500 CL opened one month after discharge, and it's my second oldest open CC. As far as I understand, the only impact it should have on my profile will be the utilization going up from 6.9% to 7.4%. Are there any advantages to leaving this card open? Will it affect my AAoA at all? (I'm not sure it would since Capital One Quicksilver is 1 month older and is my oldest open account.)

Also, my AAoA is currently at 1 year and 1 month according to Credit Karma which is based off all open accounts. The AAoA I got from Experian for all three bureaus is at 4 years. Looks like they're obviously considering all of the accounts I've had, closed and otherwise, to calculate the age. Which AAoA do lenders typically consider?

[aircobra]

CK uses Vantage, which only considers open accounts for your AAoA. FICO (which is what most creditors use) includes ALL accounts on your credit file and closing an account will have no affect on your AAoA until it falls off after 10 years.

[CBTS]

Does the closed credit card reflect on the CRs right away? Since it'll have no impact on AAoA; I'm just trying to determine if it's still better to close any low limit secured cards before any new applications in my situation, or if it's better the other way around.

[aircobra]

Unless the card has an annual fee, closing it doesn't help you in any situation. There really aren't any negatives to keeping a low limit card open, especially when it is one of your oldest (it seems to be your second oldest and only by a month is it not your oldest). The question I would ask myself is if my spending justifies the QS1 card which has an annual fee. If I cannot make that back in rewards within the year, I wouldn't bother having it (but that's just me).

[CBTS]

---

@aircobra wrote:

Unless the card has an annual fee, closing it doesn't help you in any situation. There really aren't any negatives to keeping a low limit card open, especially when it is one of your oldest (it seems to be your second oldest and only by a month is it not your oldest). The question I would ask myself is if my spending justifies the QS1 card which has an annual fee. If I cannot make that back in rewards within the year, I wouldn't bother having it (but that's just me).

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I was thinking the prospective lenders might look down upon credit profiles with secured or small limit cards and it might discourage them from giving out SLs that they otherwise would. But you're right in that it is currently my second oldest account. I'll probably end up leaving it open for at least a little while longer since I'm not in a rush to get that $500 back.

I do plan on upgrading the QS1 to VentureOne before the annual fee hits again in August for the second time. I've been putting most of my spending on the QS1 ever since I got it because of the higher limit compared to the regular QS. I guess in a way it did serve its purpose.

[calyx]

---

@CBTS wrote:

---

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I was thinking the prospective lenders might look down upon credit profiles with secured or small limit cards and it might discourage them from giving out SLs that they otherwise would. But you're right in that it is currently my second oldest account. I'll probably end up leaving it open for at least a little while longer since I'm not in a rush to get that $500 back.

I do plan on upgrading the QS1 to VentureOne before the annual fee hits again in August for the second time. I've been putting most of my spending on the QS1 ever since I got it because of the higher limit compared to the regular QS. I guess in a way it did serve its purpose.

---

Chase handed me a 17k SL CSP with two secured cards reporting, so I sincerely doubt they care.   And at the time, one of them had a very small limit (I send in more money to raise it since I want a good limit when it graduates).

[Revelate]

Reading too much into it

I am keeping my DCU secured card at the minimum $500 SL that I picked up a few months into my credit journey for as long as I can. No AF and no need for the 500 in the foreseeable future, no reason to close.

I don’t really keep track of aggregate limits but I am fairly confident I just broke 200k with the Amex approval, and that is with a bunch of lenders that aren’t as forgiving as NFCU to begin with.

The size of the tradelines are irrelevant for approval (ok ok trying to claw towards Visa Siggy or Infinite minimum CL’s size matters), payment history and utilization matter, CL’s nah.