Lessons on combining credit cards

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Yes the older of the 2 cards was my oldest open account. The older card (closed) is from 2013. The one I combined it with was opened 2015.

@Anonymous, I think you're right. I was recently told to let a small balance report to boost my score a little, but I didn't realize that I should only carry it on one card. This is why I love fico forums. I wish I could change the title of this thread now haha

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What is the age of your oldest open account as of now?  (Given that the Cap One is closed.)

If the CapOne card was opened in May 2013 (say) and your current oldest open card was opened in (say) Nov 2013, then when the closed Cap One card falls off your report it will have almost no impact on your Age of Oldest Account.  In the example above you'd from an Age of Oldest of 15 years (in May 2028) to an Age of Oldest of 14.6 the next month.

Where people get into trouble is when (for example) their oldest account is 22 years old, their next oldest is 2 years old, and then they close the 22 year old account.  When the old closed account finally falls off the report, their Age of Oldest will drop by 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Open dates:
Cap one quick Mc was 10/13 (closed/combined)
Next oldest is Macy's store card 12/14
Then cap one quick visa 01/15

[Anonymous]

So your Age of Oldest will drop by a year ten years from now.  Not a problem. 

[HeavenOhio]

The AoOA (age of oldest account) difference isn't big enough to get overly concerned about, particularly if the closed card hangs around on your reports for 10 years or so as expected. It's a 14-month drop if you still have the Macy's card and a 15-month drop if your combined Capital One card becomes the oldest. If there's a point loss involved (which may not even happen), it'd be small, and you'd regain it in 14–15 months.

AAoA (average age of accounts) will drop too, but that should also be negligible. Had you chosen to close the newer card rather than the older one, it's likely that AAoA would still have dropped slightly.

The bottom line is that your choice was fine.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info and encouragement, guys. I've built my score from the low 400's to Ex 695, TU 700, Eq 700 and I'm still learning A LOT. I want to finance a car soon so any drops scare me haha. Thanks again!