Closing OLDEST Account DOES Affect your FICO Score

[CA4Closure]

My oldest credit card was a Capital One Platnium that I opened in November 2000. When I had a foreclosure, Capital One removed the rewards portion of this credit card and implemented a $5 monthly fee in 2011. I kept asking them to remove this fee and reinstate my rewards. I was never late with them and they responded no because of my foreclosure.

Today my FICO scores are 834, 845, 830 so I asked Capital One again to remove this $5 monthly fee and allow me to upgrade this card to a Venture card with the same interest rate of 9.9%. Their answer was no. So I asked to speak to a manager. Same line, NO!

Two weeks ago I cancelled this card. My Chase Freedom Unlimited credit score dropped from 830 to 799! My average age of account went from 18 years 10 months to 5 years. Now my oldest account, Discover It, is 5 years 7 months! My Utilization is <1% and the Capital One card only had a $6,500 credit line which has been relaced by NFCU increasing my credit line from $15,000 to $25,000!

[Anonymous]

No it doesn't.

Unless something has changed, the score you're getting from your Chase FU card is VS 3.0, not Fico.  That's a meaningless and nearly irrelevant score.  You referenced your Fico scores above.  Why don't you pull those scores again and you'll have an apples to apples comparison.  I have no doubt that your Fico scores will remain the same, as closed accounts are considered exactly the same as open accounts when it comes to AoOA.  The account age drop that you're referencing is no doubt what you're seeing from the Credit Journey fluff summary page, which is just BS that has no bearing at all on the scores that the vast majority of lenders use.  

I also suggest that you revise the title of your thread, as it may mislead others in the future.  Perhaps closing your oldest account may impact a VS 3.0 score would be more fitting, but even that statement isn't something I can verify as being accurate or inaccurate.

[Jnbmom]

As stated above unless this is your actual FICO score, there isn’t really anything to be concerned about or analyzed🤔

[Anonymous]

First off, how did you go from AAoA of 18 years 10 months to 5 years by killing one 19 year old card? My math isn't that bad! You had to have more than one 19 year old card to have that average. And even if it were deleted it wouldn't have that effect, cuz you have to have a few cards to have that average with a 5 year old card.

Next, how did you ask for an upgrade today for a card you cancelled 2 weeks ago?

Really?

[SouthJamaica]

---

@CA4Closure wrote:

My oldest credit card was a Capital One Platnium that I opened in November 2000. When I had a foreclosure, Capital One removed the rewards portion of this credit card and implemented a $5 monthly fee in 2011. I kept asking them to remove this fee and reinstate my rewards. I was never late with them and they responded no because of my foreclosure.

Today my FICO scores are 834, 845, 830 so I asked Capital One again to remove this $5 monthly fee and allow me to upgrade this card to a Venture card with the same interest rate of 9.9%. Their answer was no. So I asked to speak to a manager. Same line, NO!

Two weeks ago I cancelled this card. My Chase Freedom Unlimited credit score dropped from 830 to 799! My average age of account went from 18 years 10 months to 5 years. Now my oldest account, Discover It, is 5 years 7 months! My Utilization is <1% and the Capital One card only had a $6,500 credit line which has been relaced by NFCU increasing my credit line from $15,000 to $25,000!

---

Closing your oldest card would have no immediate effect on your FICO scores unless the account were also removed from your credit reports, which is highly unlikely. Something is off in your description of events.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
First off, how did you go from AAoA of 18 years 10 months to 5 years by killing one 19 year old card?

---

I believe that he accidentally wrote AAoA instead of AoOA (thread title) as evidenced by the fact that Chase's Credit Journey fluff summary page only displays oldest [open] account, not average age of accounts.

[Anonymous]

I'm reminded of the carpenter's credo: measure twice, cut once. 

[Anonymous]

ok BBS, but how do you explain the 2nd discrepancy?

I cant upgrade something I cancelled 2 weeks prior. Just makes me wonder if this is a joke or what?

[Anonymous]

What do you mean?  I don't follow you.

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
First off, how did you go from AAoA of 18 years 10 months to 5 years by killing one 19 year old card? My math isn't that bad! You had to have more than one 19 year old card to have that average. And even if it were deleted it wouldn't have that effect, cuz you have to have a few cards to have that average with a 5 year old card.

Next, how did you ask for an upgrade today for a card you cancelled 2 weeks ago?

Really?

---

We should really stop posting in this thread since OP has lost interest, but I just want to say this in response to your post @Anonymous 

1. OP was probably talking about a Vantage score, which would only include open accounts in average age of accounts.

2. I think OP was saying the cancellation came after, and in response to, the denial of an upgrade.

Since this will be my last post in this thread I would like to make it clear that the OP's headline is dead wrong, and the closing of one's oldest account does not, in and of itself, affect the average age of accounts factor in FICO scores. Years down the road, it might. Even sooner than that it might, if it falls off the credit reports sooner than average. But the closing itself has no immediate effect, and the account will continue to be factored in as long as it remains in the reports.