Some1 explain this re: closing cards

[Anonymous]

So is there a card that fits that desciption that you are thinking about closing?

I.e. it is your oldest open card, and it is a good 5+ years older than everything else, and there is no AF?

If so, I'd keep it open, even if it seems kinda junky.  Closing it won't hurt you now, but it would hurt you when the account drops off, which would be ten years from when you closed it.   The key thing is understanding that "age of oldest account" is an important scoring factor, and you don't want that to drop by a big margin in ten years.

[Anonymous]

It is my CapOne QS card. I never use it and it is more of a pain to me. I've been trying to consolidate my cards and only keep the ones I really use and/or are beneficial.

I closed all but 2 of my store cards this year and didn't notice any change in FICO. I got a chase card ($5k) so when I closed the 4 store cards the limits of those were only $1400 so it didn't effect my utilization.

Now I am down to all cards I use (since Barclays CLD me I closed them) except my CapOne card. The limit is $1500 and utilization isn't a factor for me since I PIF on everything. It is my oldest (open) card though. It's 4 years old. My next one is 3 yrs old. I do have some closed ones older. One is a WF card and then some that are 8-9 years old that were pre-rebuilding.

The easy answer is "keep it open it is free and doesn't harm anything" but I really am on a "if I don't use it close it" kick. Maybe I am wrong to think that way. It has not hurt me yet but I don't want it to either.

[Revelate]

There's a lot of uncertainty and doubt in the general consumer population when we're talking credit scoring, and there's tons of "credit sites" which get so much about the algorithm flatly wrong.

It's not really any wonder we see this repeatedly asked, though if you look the posters are generally newer members on average: just another piece of misinformation we beat out of people's heads .

[Anonymous]

Have you closed any cards in the last two years that were significantly older than the CapOne QS?

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

Then I think closing the Cap One is fine.  The only impact will be 10 years from now, when your "Age of Oldest Account" will drop by one year.  That will have little effect on your score.

[Anonymous]

Thx Dixie-that's what I thought but wanted to ask opinions.