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Cancel newer cards to increase age of accounts?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Cancel newer cards to increase age of accounts?

I've been rebuilding my credit over a couple of years and in doing so I have 8 credit cards. I started with secured cards and over time if a bank offered me an unsecured card or wanted to upgrade me to an unsecured account, I have taken the offer. It has felt like a slow crawl from 490 to 660, for sure. 

Recently in December of 2020 I had two banks that I had secured cards with offer me unsecure cards and I took them. One was Capital One and the other was Credit One. They both had low limits $500 and $300, but I figured they add to me available credit which I needed because my highest cards were secured cards and overall I only had about $2500 of available credit.

They did bring my score up quite a bit. Plus my average credit age was about a year and a half. Things were finally starting to look good. I bank with Citizens bank and while I was online there was an ad in my banking app saying I was preapproved. So I thought what the heck I will check to see if it is legit. I have all 3 credit bureaus locked down so if they tried to check my credit then I knew they couldn't. To my surprise I was approved for World Mastercard with $7500 and 1.8% cashback. Totally stoked, the wheels of dtermination have gained momentum. ! Things are going great it seemed then came the bummer, I logged into my Transunion and refreshed my score and bam, my score had done a nose dive from 660 to 590, I feel totally defeated. I have been trying to reach 700 so dilligently. 

So from what I can tell it must have dropped my score because my average age of accounts went down to 1 year when the account was opened. I have no hard inquiries on the big 3, but it does appear that Citizens also reports to a 4th bureau (Just an FYI). If I were to close the 2 prior accounts that I mentioned earlier, I think it would actually raise my credit length and wouldn't dramatically affect my available credit.

 

My question to the credit gurus on here, is that a smart move or a dumb move? My payment history is 100% on-time and I pay off my blances each month. Thanks in advance for any insight that is offered!

4 REPLIES 4
OmarGB9
Community Leader
Super Contributor

Re: Cancel newer cards to increase age of accounts?

Unfortunately closing accounts won't raise your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) or credit length. Also, opening a new account wouldn't drop you 70 points either. What score are you looking at/where are you getting it from? If it's from Credit Karma or TransUnion directly, pay it no mind as no major lenders use it (it's a Vantagescore 3.0).


Last App: 1/10/2023
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Currently rebuilding as of 04/11/2019.

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Message 2 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Cancel newer cards to increase age of accounts?

I do use Credit Karma sometimes mainly because they offer tips and explanations for score changes. But that score is coming straight from Transunion. I primarily check Transunion for updated info since I can refresh it daily and I get my Fico scores from Experian once per month. I should clarify that the score I gave was a vantage 3.0 score not FICO. 

 

According to Experian my FICO for Transunion is 618, but I will not know if it has been impacted for another 28 days. I paid off the last collection that was on my report 2 days ago but I don't think that has had time to affect anything yet. I did have a balance of 1205 when the account was reported, so it was reported before my payment was reflected. The only alert that I received from Transunion was, 

 

New Account A new account has appeared on your credit report. Here are the details of this inquiry:Date Reported: 03/17/2021

 

Message 3 of 5
thornback
Senior Contributor

Re: Cancel newer cards to increase age of accounts?


@OmarGB9 wrote:

Unfortunately closing accounts won't raise your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) or credit length. Also, opening a new account wouldn't drop you 70 points either. What score are you looking at/where are you getting it from? If it's from Credit Karma or TransUnion directly, pay it no mind as no major lenders use it (it's a Vantagescore 3.0).


OP says logged into their Transunion account so that's Vantage 3. 

 

@Anonymous you need to view your FICO scores.  Vantage behaves very differently than FICO and the majority of lenders use FICO to make credit decisions.

 

You can get all 3 FICO 8 scores from Experian's CreditWorks Premium service.  They offer a $1/7-day trial - just be sure to cancel before the trial ends if you don't want the monthly service ($24.99).

 

https://www.experian.com/consumer-products/compare-credit-report-and-score-products.html

 

Edit:  and I was typing as you posted - you already know about Vantage and FICO I see...   your FICO scores wouldn't have such a dramatic response to a new account.

 

Personal Aphorism:"Forget What You Feel, Remember What You Deserve"
Starting FICO 8s | 09/2017: EX 641 ✦ EQ 634 ✦ TU 647
Current FICO 8s | 04/2022: EX 796 ✦ EQ 793 ✦ TU 790
Current FICO 9s | 04/2022: EX 790 ✦ EQ 788 ✦ TU 782
2022 Goal Score | 800s

My AAoA:
4.6 years not incl. AU / 4.9 years incl. AU
My AoOA: 9.2 years not incl. AU / 11.2 years incl. AU
Inquiries: EX 0/12 ✦ EQ 0/12 ✦ TU 0/12
Report Status: Clean
Garden Status:  


Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.
Message 4 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Cancel newer cards to increase age of accounts?

Thanks for the information everyone. I'm glad I asked before panicking and making it worse!

Message 5 of 5
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