Pulling a PinkandGrey - closing cards and AAoOA

[VanderSnoot]

I would like to pull a pinkandgrey and close most of my cards. As I've shifted my spending to travel cards, I don't need the range of cashback cards in my wallet and I value the peace of mind of knowing they're closed over sitting in a SD. Although my oldest card is 15 years old, my Average Age of Open Accounts (AAoOA) is young because of a glut of cards opened two years ago when I joined MyFico. If I were to close the unwanted cards (which includes my oldest card), my AAoOA would drop from 2.7 years to 1.6 years. Is there value in waiting to close these cards until the AAoOA of the remaining cards meets a minimum age?

Other info: No AF, no significant loss to TCL because I keep my spending low.

[digitek]

Your average age won't actually drop at all until the accounts fall off your credit report, which can vary from immediately (rare) to ~7-10 years (typical). Unless you open a whole bunch of new cards between then and now your average age will have matured as well.

As for your other question, no, there isn't really a reason to keep the cards open to pass a time threshold. The only time this can apply is if the cards are less than a year and then it only matters for some lenders who might see that as Sign-Up Bonus chasing.

I close unused cards, too. There are pros and cons to both closing them and keeping them open if not really needed. I just like it simple as possible.

All of my closed cards still report except FNBO NRA card, which completely disappeared from all 3 credit reports not long after closing it myself. It had stopped being supported by FNBO around the same time and I suspect that is related to the disappearance from my credit reports.

[VanderSnoot]

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@digitek wrote:

Your average age won't actually drop at all until the accounts fall off your credit report, which can vary from immediately (rare) to ~7-10 years (typical). Unless you open a whole bunch of new cards between then and now your average age will have matured as well.

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My understanding is that there are two metrics: (1) Average Age of Accounts, which includes open and closed accounts (for the 7-10 years you mentioned), and (2) Average Age of Open Accounts, which includes only open accounts. While closing accounts does not immediately affect AAoA, it does affect AAoOA.

Is my understanding incorrect? If there are two metrics, I'm not sure how bureaus value AAoOA: whether it's significant or whether there are hurdles (2 yrs, 5 yrs, etc.).

[Remedios]

That is a conversation for scoring forum 

[Anonymous]

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@VanderSnoot wrote:

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@digitek wrote:

Your average age won't actually drop at all until the accounts fall off your credit report, which can vary from immediately (rare) to ~7-10 years (typical). Unless you open a whole bunch of new cards between then and now your average age will have matured as well.

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My understanding is that there are two metrics: (1) Average Age of Accounts, which includes open and closed accounts (for the 7-10 years you mentioned), and (2) Average Age of Open Accounts, which includes only open accounts. While closing accounts does not immediately affect AAoA, it does affect AAoOA.

Is my understanding incorrect? If there are two metrics, I'm not sure how bureaus value AAoOA: whether it's significant or whether there are hurdles (2 yrs, 5 yrs, etc.).

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AAoOA is a Vantage thing, not a FICO thing, and there has been much debate on whether that's even a Vantage thing rather than something Credit Karma and other front ends got wrong. The only real immediate impact will be from increased utilization if applicable. 

[HeavenOhio]

While Credit Karma displays one's average age of open accounts in its fluff software, I don't believe that any scoring model considers it. And I don't recall ever reading anything here that would indicate that anyone uses it as an underwriting criterion.

[notmyrealname23]

What's a "PinkandGrey"?

[Kforce]

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@notmyrealname23 wrote:

What's a "PinkandGrey"?

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Member who closed cards, and only kept I believe 5

I am almost down to six

[VanderSnoot]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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AAoOA is a Vantage thing, not a FICO thing, and there has been much debate on whether that's even a Vantage thing rather than something Credit Karma and other front ends got wrong. The only real immediate impact will be from increased utilization if applicable. 

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Thanks for the summary, Saeren. That explains the discussions I've seen here.

[pinkandgrey]

Congrats, @VanderSnoot      Breathe in that simple air.