I've just read how AAOA is calculated, so I'm thinking, should credit starters have as 10+ accounts? Starter credit cards issued by Credit One or Orchard bank or whatever it is, normall have an annual fee or monthly fee and give people low limit.
However, one can open 10+ these subprime credit cards and then close them immediately after they show up on your credit report, leaving only one card in the end, say Capital One or some secured credit card that you really want to grow up with. For those cards you have closed, they will remain on your credit report and make your AAOA look better in the future.
For example, you got 10 subprime cards and closed 9 of them after a month. And you regularly use and PIF the remaining one. After two years, you start a mini app spree and got three quasi-prime cards, say Discover it or Chase Freedom. Then your AAOA will drop a bit to something like 21 months. If you only have one subprime card from the start, then you AAOA will drop to 6 months.
And these closed starter cards will remain on your report, thus affecting your AAOA, for seven years. In return, you have to pay an average of $20~$30 for the activation and/or first month fee of each card. For some people, this might be worthwhile.
Any ideas? 
Update: When I said "subprime" cards, I actually meant both these unsecured starter cards and secured credit cards, as long as they're easy to obtain. I just want them show up on my report to extend my future AAOA and it doesn't matter they're secured or unsecured, subprime or prime.
@Anonymous wrote:I would think that if somebody did something like this they would have lots of questions to answer under a manual review of their credit files - in fact most places might not even bother calling you back asking you to explain.
Plus, from the way I see it: there's no where near 10 plus unsecured sub-prime cards out there to even pull that off with.
My vote for this is four thumbs down LOL
Totally agree, I would be asking a bunch of questions too if I were an analyst!
@Anonymous wrote:I've just read how AAOA is calculated, so I'm thinking, should credit starters have as 10+ accounts? Starter credit cards issued by Credit One or Orchard bank or whatever it is, normall have an annual fee or monthly fee and give people low limit.
However, one can open 10+ these subprime credit cards and then close them immediately after they show up on your credit report, leaving only one card in the end, say Capital One or some secured credit card that you really want to grow up with. For those cards you have closed, they will remain on your credit report and make your AAOA look better in the future.
For example, you got 10 subprime cards and closed 9 of them after a month. And you regularly use and PIF the remaining one. After two years, you start a mini app spree and got three quasi-prime cards, say Discover it or Chase Freedom. Then your AAOA will drop a bit to something like 21 months. If you only have one subprime card from the start, then you AAOA will drop to 6 months.
And these closed starter cards will remain on your report, thus affecting your AAOA, for seven years. In return, you have to pay an average of $20~$30 for the activation and/or first month fee of each card. For some people, this might be worthwhile.
Any ideas?
A much better plan to open several store cards from stores where you are likely to shop now and in the future. And never close them. No AF are invovled. Occasional use and payment will keep them open.
So 10 years from now you have a large AAoA with enough cards that adding a card will have little impact. And it keeps growing from there.
DW has a Sears MC( 40 years +).
First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.
@HiLine wrote:First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.
2 years is still a relatively short AAoA. Ideal would be 6+ years.
FICO 8: 
Goal: Gardening!
Goal: Gardening!