Any thoughts on if and how many years oldest and average age max out at?

[Anonymous]

So not muddying the waters with balances and such, I'm getting rid of a 38 year old and a 15 year old AU.

On the other hand, my two new Amex approvals will be dated to '86 replacing the two lost accounts.  My average will remain the same (close to 8) and my oldest will drop from 38 to 22.

BUT. Whenever I read the MyFico reports they always say 'High Achievers have a 17 year old account on average' and 'High Achievers have an average age of 7 years'.  So doesn't it make some sense that after 17/7 there is little if any bump, i.e. if my olderst account drops from 38 to 22 I'm still way ahead of the age curve and probably gain little (or in this case lose little) from the 'drop'?

[Junejer]

Actually, nycc, what I have on my reports is 19/6.

[Anonymous]

Actually, this is a good question.

I ask myself whether it makes any sense to take the age of accounts into consideration for a timeframe that is larger than the one for reporting baddies. This is only 7 years, right? So why should I get a score increase for an account that is 8 years old? Maybe I had a really bad time back than. Just to count time without checking for quality does is not meaningful to me. Is it meaningful for the score? ... who knows?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Actually, this is a good question.

I ask myself whether it makes any sense to take the age of accounts into consideration for a timeframe that is larger than the one for reporting baddies. This is only 7 years, right? So why should I get a score increase for an account that is 8 years old? Maybe I had a really bad time back than. Just to count time without checking for quality does is not meaningful to me. Is it meaningful for the score? ... who knows?

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I totally agree. An account that has been perfect for 15-20 years should score very high as compared to one that has been good for the last 7 but had baddies on the prior 8 or 9.  Not sure how they'd do that but I'd think keeping one or more accounts perfect for two decads should be worth a lot.

[MidnightVoice]

Don't forget that closed accounts drop off after 10 years, and this means very, very old accounts are rare

[cobaltnv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So not muddying the waters with balances and such, I'm getting rid of a 38 year old and a 15 year old AU.

On the other hand, my two new Amex approvals will be dated to '86 replacing the two lost accounts.  My average will remain the same (close to 8) and my oldest will drop from 38 to 22.

BUT. Whenever I read the MyFico reports they always say 'High Achievers have a 17 year old account on average' and 'High Achievers have an average age of 7 years'.  So doesn't it make some sense that after 17/7 there is little if any bump, i.e. if my olderst account drops from 38 to 22 I'm still way ahead of the age curve and probably gain little (or in this case lose little) from the 'drop'?

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NYCCC2,

    How did you get AMEX to age your new accounts to 1986? Sorry if you mentioned this somewhere else.

Thanks for the information.

Cheers,

CobaltNV 

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, cobaltnv, welcome to the forums!

I'm not nycc2, but American Express will assign the year when you first got with them for any new cards. And if you originally got in with them as an authorized user, the date on that card can become yours as well, although sometimes it will take some calls to make all this happen

So my example is much less glam than nycc2's , but I opened my first American Express account in March 2008, and if I got a second AmEx card in January 2009, it would show an opening date of January 2008. No new account penalty, and if your earliest date is older than your AAoA (average age of accounts), it will increase your AAoA.

[cobaltnv]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Hi, cobaltnv, welcome to the forums!

I'm not nycc2, but American Express will assign the year when you first got with them for any new cards. And if you originally got in with them as an authorized user, the date on that card can become yours as well, although sometimes it will take some calls to make all this happen

So my example is much less glam than nycc2's , but I opened my first American Express account in March 2008, and if I got a second AmEx card in January 2009, it would show an opening date of January 2008. No new account penalty, and if your earliest date is older than your AAoA (average age of accounts), it will increase your AAoA.

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Hauling, 

Thanks for the info and the welcome. I have been a lurker on here for a few months now and am learning a lot from you all!!  Is this 're-aging' something that many ccc will do or is it specific for AMEX?

 

Cheers 

 

[Junejer]

Hi cobalt, I'm not hauling, but that is the one redeeming quality of Amex (my personal opinion) and is unique to Amex.

Edit: It's part of their member since...xx/xxxx thing.

Message Edited by ByrdMan on 11-24-2008 07:19 PM

[MidnightVoice]

Hi birdie, I am not hutsu.

That is why my screen name is MidnightVoice.

 

Message Edited by MidnightVoice on 11-24-2008 08:15 PM