Too Many Cards - Now what? :D

[Yj002]

Sometimes you also need to consider your income to the available balance you have because once you have achieved your highest threshold then creditors would see you as an undesirable candidate, though you have a good credit score and low debt ratio. Just a rule of thumb is to never close out your first credit cards you have opened because it will hurt your credit profile significantly. 

[Anonymous]

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@Yj002 wrote:

Sometimes you also need to consider your income to the available balance you have because once you have achieved your highest threshold then creditors would see you as an undesirable candidate, though you have a good credit score and low debt ratio. Just a rule of thumb is to never close out your first credit cards you have opened because it will hurt your credit profile significantly. 

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Your first rule of thumb is false. It'll stay for 10 years. Unless the person is planning to garden for 10 years, they should close any card they don't need or use. Pretty common knowledge.

[Blackbeauty212]

People really need to quit giving out the false information that Closing Accounts affects your AAoA ..... Closed Accounts remain on your report and count towards AAoA for the next 10 years before they fall off and no longer count, at which your newests accounts will be 10 years older.

The only thing immediately and directly affected by Closing accounts is your UTL. Before closing make sure that you're not shooting yourself in the foot by adversely raising your UTL Ratio (Balances to Overall Credit Limits). If you can close said accounts and your UTL not be affected that much if at all... Then CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE.

Hording Credit is BAD BAD BAD, and will begin to cause you to get denied in the future ..... "Too Much Available Credit", Yes its a real thing.  

[Anonymous]

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@Blackbeauty212 wrote:

People really need to quit giving out the false information that Closing Accounts affects your AAoA ..... Closed Accounts remain on your report and count towards AAoA for the next 10 years before they fall off and no longer count, at which your newests accounts will be 10 years older.

The only thing immediately and directly affected by Closing accounts is your UTL. Before closing make sure that you're not shooting yourself in the foot by adversely raising your UTL Ratio (Balances to Overall Credit Limits). If you can close said accounts and your UTL not be affected that much if at all... Then CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE.

Hording Credit is BAD BAD BAD, and will begin to cause you to get denied in the future ..... "Too Much Available Credit", Yes its a real thing.  

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I know, right? You'd expect to see less misinformation on a forum that helps people with their credit..

[kdm31091]

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@Blackbeauty212 wrote:

People really need to quit giving out the false information that Closing Accounts affects your AAoA ..... Closed Accounts remain on your report and count towards AAoA for the next 10 years before they fall off and no longer count, at which your newests accounts will be 10 years older.

The only thing immediately and directly affected by Closing accounts is your UTL. Before closing make sure that you're not shooting yourself in the foot by adversely raising your UTL Ratio (Balances to Overall Credit Limits). If you can close said accounts and your UTL not be affected that much if at all... Then CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE.

Hording Credit is BAD BAD BAD, and will begin to cause you to get denied in the future ..... "Too Much Available Credit", Yes its a real thing.  

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Thank you for being another voice pointing this out.

[Yj002]

That is incorrect. If you close out your oldest opened credit card it will ruin your average credit cards opened. As an example, if you open a few credit cards in within 24 months, the total credit cards you have will be divided with the totals of cards you owned since the first month of opening. 

[Anonymous]

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@Yj002 wrote:

That is incorrect. If you close out your oldest opened credit card it will ruin your average credit cards opened. As an example, if you open a few credit cards in within 24 months, the total credit cards you have will be divided with the totals of cards you owned since the first month of opening. 

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What are you basing this on?     Simply put AAoA calculates the average age of all open AND closed accounts on your credit report.   Now things like Credit Karma only use open accounts, AAoOA, but that isn't the basis for FICO scoring.    As long as an account stays on your report (which is about 10 years after closing, with some variation) there is no short or medium term impact to closing your oldest card.

[Yj002]

Hey guys, you need to remember that a lot of the members here have a short credit history and closing the oldest account could hurt one's overall credit ... That way, if anything goes wrong, you will have all the facts recorded. I do agree that hording credit is bad. Check my responses about having too much available credits and closing the ones that you do not need, but never close the oldest account you have opened.  

[Yj002]

Basing on? A job as a senior manager in credit card risk analysis will do. But don't take my words for it. I believe there are already a lot of posts  in the forum regarding card analysis and credit balances that can answer your questions here. 

[Anonymous]

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@Yj002 wrote:

Hey guys, you need to remember that a lot of the members here have a short credit history and closing the oldest account could hurt one's overall credit ... That way, if anything goes wrong, you will have all the facts recorded. I do agree that hording credit is bad. Check my responses about having too much available credits and closing the ones that you do not need, but never close the oldest account you have opened.  

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In what way does it hurt one's overall credit?  It doesn't scorewise.