AAOA question

[Anonymous]

So a little background to put everything into perspective...

I apped for Barclay when I was in need of a new mac and found this site while trying to figure out if my chances were good for approval. After seeing reference to SCT, I dug deeper and of course did a really dumb thing after getting approved for the Barclay by getting 6 comenity store cards. Since I also had a few good VS/MC cards, I also closed my Cap 1 secured card, which happened to be my oldest account. I had no idea that AAOA was a credit factor at the time as I really trashed my credit in my 20s and tried my best to avoid knowing how bad my credit was for about 15 years!

After the closure, my oldest active account is only 11 mos old. I'd like to close a few Comenity cards, but don't 100% understand the math on AAOA. These accounts are only 2 months old and I'm wondering whether or not they are going to hurt that number even more. 

[Anonymous]

the closed accounts will stay on your report up to 10 years from date of the closure. once your comenity accounts opened the damage was done so closing them now won't really do anything except affect your utilization (if applicable)
AAoA is only 15% of score anyway...

[Anonymous]

Yes, that's correct. As soon as they're open they will begin affecting your average age of accounts. Even if you close them it will still be factored into your FICO score. Credit Karma which is a FAKO score is the only one that doesn't factor in the closed accounts. So if you need or want the cards, you might as well keep them.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for the information. I didn't realize CK didn't factor closed accounts. That might explain why they are always so much lower scorewise than my actual scores. 

I guess I'll just let the 2 comenity cards I was going to close sit there. They are PIF so there's no utilization issue.

[RobertEG]

Additionally, AAoA is only part of the scoring category of length of credit.

It also includes oldest account as well as some tweaking for new accounts.

The affect of AAoA is actually less than 15%.

[Anonymous]

10% or 15% forgot which. either way it's nominal

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you very much for the information. I didn't realize CK didn't factor closed accounts. That might explain why they are always so much lower scorewise than my actual scores. 

I guess I'll just let the 2 comenity cards I was going to close sit there. They are PIF so there's no utilization issue.

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Credit Karma actually shows a longer AAoA for me than Fico does. CK is 4.8 years, Fico is 4.1 years.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you very much for the information. I didn't realize CK didn't factor closed accounts. That might explain why they are always so much lower scorewise than my actual scores. 

I guess I'll just let the 2 comenity cards I was going to close sit there. They are PIF so there's no utilization issue.

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Credit Karma actually shows a longer AAoA for me than Fico does. CK is 4.8 years, Fico is 4.1 years.

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How strange. CK shows 11 mos average and all my other monitoring still says 4 yrs

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you very much for the information. I didn't realize CK didn't factor closed accounts. That might explain why they are always so much lower scorewise than my actual scores. 

I guess I'll just let the 2 comenity cards I was going to close sit there. They are PIF so there's no utilization issue.

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Credit Karma actually shows a longer AAoA for me than Fico does. CK is 4.8 years, Fico is 4.1 years.

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How strange. CK shows 11 mos average and all my other monitoring still says 4 yrs

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+1 on that's being strange; I'm at 2 years 11 months everywhere that does it correctly, but CK and one other place show it as 2 years one month if they're excluding closed accounts.

Any idea what's causing that on your report CAPTOOL?  Or is a bug in their recent release?  I should go check that to see if it's changed.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you very much for the information. I didn't realize CK didn't factor closed accounts. That might explain why they are always so much lower scorewise than my actual scores. 

I guess I'll just let the 2 comenity cards I was going to close sit there. They are PIF so there's no utilization issue.

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Credit Karma actually shows a longer AAoA for me than Fico does. CK is 4.8 years, Fico is 4.1 years.

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That's not so unusual. If someone has a moderately thin file with a few well aged accounts (like your 36 year old) opens a handful of new accounts and then closes them a few months or even years later - the VS3 AAoAs go back up (no more young ones in the mix) but Fico AAoAs remain affected.

I opened a couple store cards 4 to 7 years back which were closed 3 years ago. Impact of the young age brings down my Fico AAoA.

Average Age Type	Equifax	TransUnion	Experian
CK VS 3.0 (Open only)	18 years 3 months	18 years 3 months	n/a
Fico (open+closed)	16 years 7 months	14 years 11 months	16 years 7 months

Note: EQ and TU Fico AAoAs will drop late this year due to a closed account (27 years age) falling off. The account already fell off TU.

Side note: Opening some new accounts and closing oldest ones would have a devastating impact on CK AAoA since the old boys were put to rest. Fico is more forgiving in that regard.