Card Age Calculator?

[Kinglord]

Is there a resource or calculator out that that can take into account the age of your credit cards and what will happen if particular ones are closed?

I recently closed 2 sub prime cards that were opened last year, but now I am considering closing some other cards that have about 3-5 yeasr of history.  The APR is just so high, limits are mediocre and I just dont use them anymore.  My newer credit cards have such higher limits and low APR in comparison.  I do know I wont close my oldest card, just curious about the ones in the middle.

Thanks!

[SecretAzure]

I may get some unpopular responses but:

CreditKarma

If you have an account with them there's a section that has all accounts, closed and open. It doesn't have an estimator tool if you plan on closing one but you really won't notice too much difference for another 10 years after closing it anyways.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

For FICO, closed accounts are still factored into AAoA for up to 10 years typically. As long as they're being reported, they'll count.

VantageScore does not factor in closed accounts.

https://aaoa-calculator.org/

There is nothing that can tell you score gains or losses since the formula is proprietary and it would simply be a guess, at best.

[SecretAzure]

Hey there @Brian_Earl_Spilner !  I have a related question. I know that closed accounts still report for 10 years, as you have stated. My question is, why when googling this do all the articles state that it was cause an immediate decrease in scores and act as if your AAOA is going to be penalized heavily (such as in the case of closing your oldest account)? I closed my oldest account 3 years ago and it went virtually unnoticed as far as my scores are concerned.

[cashorcharge]

Love that link @Brian_Earl_Spilner 

Thank you for sharing!  I was doing it in excel!  So much easier...

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@SecretAzure wrote:

Hey there @Brian_Earl_Spilner !  I have a related question. I know that closed accounts still report for 10 years, as you have stated. My question is, why when googling this do all the articles state that it was cause an immediate decrease in scores and act as if your AAOA is going to be penalized heavily (such as in the case of closing your oldest account)? I closed my oldest account 3 years ago and it went virtually unnoticed as far as my scores are concerned.

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Hard to say without seeing the articles. In the case of FICO, as long as AAoA stays over 2 years, you shouldn't be penalized. Any score drops were probably due to utilization going up after losing the limit, for calculations.

You should take most articles with a grain of salt. While there's a lot of good info, I can usually find at least one thing that isn't correct or is written in a way that's misleading. We have people on here like @Anonymous who have compiled many datapoints and give better answers as to why something happens.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@cashorcharge wrote:

Love that link @Brian_Earl_Spilner 

Thank you for sharing!  I was doing it in excel!  So much easier...

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👍

[SecretAzure]

Good info as always from Brian! Thanks from my part as well!!

[Anonymous]

@Brian_Earl_Spilner Is most likely correct, those articles are probably referring to your total credit limit being decreased and the potential increase in utilisation.

As long as you keep utilisation in check, you should be good, any hits from ages are not typically big unless you lose your oldest by far.