Closing new credit lines to raise the avg length of credit

[Anonymous]

If I close new cards, will my average length of credit go up? Or do they still take closed accounts into consideration? 

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I close new cards, will my average length of credit go up? Or do they still take closed accounts into consideration? 

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Closing newer cards will not raise your AAoA, as these accounts will still be computed in AAoA until they age off of your report in about 7 years. The credit utilization of your accounts could however be negatively impacted by the immediate removal of that cards available credit line. To be clear, opening new cards will lower the AAoA, but closing those same cards a month later will not return you AAoA back to where it was.

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I close new cards, will my average length of credit go up? Or do they still take closed accounts into consideration? 

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Closing newer cards will not raise your AAoA, as these accounts will still be computed in AAoA until they age off of your report in about 7 years. The credit utilization of your accounts could however be negatively impacted by the immediate removal of that cards available credit line. To be clear, opening new cards will lower the AAoA, but closing those same cards a month later will not return you AAoA back to where it was.

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If my memory serves me ... positive reporting tradelines may remain on a person's credit report for ten years (note the reporting provider may drop them later or sooner).

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for answering my question. I had a feeling it wouldn't work but I wanted to confirm with the pros  

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I close new cards, will my average length of credit go up? Or do they still take closed accounts into consideration? 

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Closing newer cards will not raise your AAoA, as these accounts will still be computed in AAoA until they age off of your report in about 7 years. The credit utilization of your accounts could however be negatively impacted by the immediate removal of that cards available credit line. To be clear, opening new cards will lower the AAoA, but closing those same cards a month later will not return you AAoA back to where it was.

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If my memory serves me ... positive reporting tradelines may remain on a person's credit report for ten years (note the reporting provider may drop them later or sooner).

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I think you are probably right...it may be 10 years, and I know it is on closed mortgage account. I have seen too many people though who have 2 cards with AAoA of 6 years who become shocked when opening 4 new cards lowers their AAoA to two years. They then dicide to undo the mistake by closing the and are once again shocked that their  AAoA is still a little over two years. Once a new account opens...the damage is done...closing it later will further weaken your profile by removing the increased amt of available credit and possibly raising your utilization. I am in the camp that never closes cards unless it has an AF, after recieving enough cards it becomes much more hassle to make sure to run a few transactions through every card to prevent creditor closure due to inactivity.

[sarge12]

Hey, but it would however raise your AAoOA that is used for VS 3.0 used by credit Karma...of course almost no creditors use that score.

[HeavenOhio]

It's been mentioned here that VantageScore counts closed accounts like FICO does but that CK's software does its own thing and excludes them.

We've seen cases where accounts are dropped well before 10 years are up. Those are generally exceptions, but it seems to happen a lot when closing Credit One.

I'd expect 10 years. If a new account is dropped early, it'd be a pleasant surprise. And if an old account is dropped early, it'd be an unpleasant one.

[Anonymous]

Correct above that VS 3.0 also includes closed accounts on your credit report when computing AAoA, even though CK would lead you to believe with their software that this is not the case.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I close new cards, will my average length of credit go up? Or do they still take closed accounts into consideration? 

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When you close an account it does not immediately disappear from your report or alter your average age of accounts.

However, the conventional wisdom that the closed account stays in your report for 10 more years is not always accurate.

Equifax has stopped reporting 5 credit card accounts of mine which were closed within the past year.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

However, the conventional wisdom that the closed account stays in your report for 10 more years is not always accurate.

Equifax has stopped reporting 5 credit card accounts of mine which were closed within the past year.

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Hey SJ.  You are of course right that a closed account can disappear well before the ten year mark (typically as the result of the creditor deleting it).  Many people never experience that, but some do.  I'd be really interested in hearing more about the five affected cards in your case... if you are willing to tell us more, that is.  Specifically:

Would you mind giving us the card issuer and its name (and whether it was a store card)?  I am curious whether the cards might have something in common.

Also helpful would be the timeline for the deletion.  Would you say that the cards did stay on your report as closed accounts for (say) at least six months after being closed?  How long has it been since they were deleted? Were the five accounts deleted roughly around the same time (within two months of each other, say)?

Is this confined to Equifax?  (The closed accounts still appear on your EX and TU reports?)  We have heard a lot of reports of EQ having huge database issues in the last three months (and likely before that too).