Canceling credit card to IMPROVE credit score

[Anonymous]

So about 2 years ago I opened an express store credit card. The limit is a palsy $750 and I never use it. I have 19 total accounts, 7 of them being open credit cards including this one. My 2 oldest cards are about to hit 12 years. My AAoA is 6.5 years. My total available credit is 41k. My utilization sits between 1-3%. I did the math, and if I canceled the express card, my AAoA will cross into 7.2 years. My utilization won't change at all. The only thing that will happen is my total open accounts will fall to 6, with total accounts unchanged. Now I am certain this will be an increase in nominal score, but what extraneous factors will this do if I lop off one card?

[Anonymous]

Cancelling your credit card will NOT increase your AAoA. The card will stay on your reports for 10 more years. 

[rmduhon]

It won't change the AAoA since it'll stay on the reports for another 10 years. The only thing it'll change on the reports (other than 1 less open account) is the available credit and potentially the UTI.

[Anonymous]

Our OP may be under the impression that his AAoA will change because he has seen that on Credit Karma.  The summary software Karma uses to describe one's credit reports does indeed claim that age related factors are calculated based only on open accounts, but this is untrue, whether for FICO or Vantage.  As the other posters on the thread have explained, both major models count closed accounts as well as open and therefore closing an account will not alter one's AAoA.

But.... I still think that the OP would be making a great decision if he closed it.  That's because he has nearly 20 accounts already and in that situation it is almost always a good idea to close store cards, as long as they are not your oldest account and they are cards that are worthless to you.  Store cards harm your insurance score (that's different from a FICO score).  Furthermore, there's always a chance that the OP might be able to convince the creditor to delete the account completely down the road,

[RobertEG]

A consumer can close their  credit card, they cannot cancel it from their credit report.

Deletion can only be reported by the creditor.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with everyone above that said that closing your card would not have any impact on your score.  The only impact closing a card can have with respect to score is if it results in a significant utilization change... but as you stated already that would not be the case as you are only decreasing your overall credit limits by less than 2%.