Closing CC's question

[Shellie]

If I close one or more of my most recent CC's will it help my AAoA?

What are the main drawbacks to closing cards?

[jre]

No, if you close it it will stay on your report for up to ten years. During this time it will factor into your AAoA. As far as drawbacks, you lose available credit, which helps your overall utilization %.

[Shellie]

Thanks

[Lasardo]

You have to weigh how much available credit you will lose. I know someone that closed all her cards and she lost 100 points!

[jre]

Which card you thinking of closing and why?

[RobertEG]

There will, as stated, be no negative affect on AAoA provided the creditor does not choose to delete the account.

After closing, if the account has no remaining debt, the creditor may choose to delete in order to clear out their files.

If any prior derogs were reported under the account, then deletion would remove any possibility of disputes related to the account.

After 10'ish years from closing, the CRA may choose to do their own housekeeping, and delete the account. 

[SunriseEarth]

I'm of the philosophy that there's no need to close CCs, unless they're costing you money or if there are too just many to manage properly.   I think it's good to show at least a year's worth of positive payment history on a TL, even if it's a bunch of zeros. 

AAoA will not be affected by closing, as these TLs will still appear on your CRs for the next 10 years. 

As mentioned, the main drawback would include possible raised UTIL.

(Edit: corrected from "lowered" to "raised"....yikes!)

[Anonymous]

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@SunriseEarth wrote:

I'm of the philosophy that there's no need to close CCs, unless they're costing you money or if there are too just many to manage properly.   I think it's good to show at least a year's worth of positive payment history on a TL, even if it's a bunch of zeros. 

AAoA will not be affected by closing, as these TLs will still appear on your CRs for the next 10 years. 

As mentioned, the main drawback would include possible lowered UTIL.

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Actually, your utilization would be raised and not lowered with CL being excluded from factoring in.

[SunriseEarth]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SunriseEarth wrote:

I'm of the philosophy that there's no need to close CCs, unless they're costing you money or if there are too just many to manage properly.   I think it's good to show at least a year's worth of positive payment history on a TL, even if it's a bunch of zeros. 

AAoA will not be affected by closing, as these TLs will still appear on your CRs for the next 10 years. 

As mentioned, the main drawback would include possible lowered UTIL.

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Actually, your utilization would be raised and not lowered with CL being excluded from factoring in.

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ACK!   Typo there!   Thanks for pointing this out!    Yes, cutting out a TL could RAISE your UTIL.