Curious, how long till score raise when penalized for new accounts

[Anonymous]

I stupidly thought I was being smart by utulizing a lot of 0% intrest accounts to do payments monthly instead of being strained and letting my own money collect interest. I always close out the account and pay it in full (if I haven't yet) by the time the interest rates kicked in. I didn't realize that was a poor decision, I thought I was being smart. Anyway, I won't be doing that anymore, or at least for a very long time if I need it.

My fico scores are 735 (trans) and 715 (Eq). My negative is short history (I only have about 7 years now) and too many accounts opened. I wanted to get a car in Nov, but I am nervous all the new accounts will hurt my chances. If I closed out and payed any account I had before then, will I still be pentalized for the new accounts? How long until the "new accounts" opened isn't an issue anymore if I stop opening them?

Thanks so much for any advice.

[Tazman81]

Normally accounts are considered "new" for about a year or so.  But that doesn't mean to say that your credit score will go up.  I think what you are looking at is the Average Age of your accounts.  Since you opened so many accounts, FICO takes into consideration your "average age".  So, for instance, if you had 3 accounts and their ages (in years) are 10, 5, 5 respectively, then your AAoA is 6.67years.  Now, lets say we throw in 2 more accounts that have only been opened for a year.  Now you have 10, 5, 5, 1, 1.  So, your aveage age of accounts has just dropped to 4.4yrs.  If the credit card you have open is one that you wouldn't mind keeping (i.e. low interest rate) then you can just keep it open and let it age.  Also, the other accounts that you closed will continue to age as well, so time will help your score.

Have you had any other car loans?  If you have, then they will have a higher weight when you go to get a vehicle because lenders normally pull an auto-enhanced credit score.  So, if you had a good payment history on a vehicle, then that score can be higher than your current FICO.  If you had a bad payment history on a vehicle, then that score may be lower.