Closing older credit card account

[Yankee2]

I've been reading a lot of past posts regarding this subject, but have a few questions regarding my situation.

From what I can tell from past posts, your AooA can be a closed account. (was thinking differently) let me know if that is not the case....

To give a little background. My credit score is bounces from 790-805. My AooA is 20 years, AoAA 6.4 years, AoYA 6mo. I have 11 active accounts, 10 CC and one auto loan. CC age are (years) 20,15,12,6,3,2,2,2, 9mo., 6mo. Auto Loan is 1 year.

The 20 year card is a store card. 

I'm wanting to close the 15 year card due to not able to PC it to anything, and has no benifits anywhere close to my other cards. I know the consensis is to just sock drawer the card and use it once every 6 months or so. However, doing the math, it seems the more accounts you have, the less affect it will have. (good or bad)

Knowing if I close the account, it stays for another 10 years which allows the other accounts to age. So... my two questions....

1) At what point does AooA and AoAA not make much of a difference. (5, 10, 15 years?)

2) Knowing the 20year card is a store card, is it still in my best interest (knowing the answer to question 1) to still keep the 15 year old card.

Don't want to go through the effort to keep a old card for no real reason.....

Thanks!

[Yankee2]

Forgot to mention it's my highest CL card, but normally my utilization at 4-5% every month so i'm still will be no where near the 8.9% cutoff...

[CramEiko]

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Knowing if I close the account, it stays for another 10 years which allows the other accounts to age. So... my two questions....

1) At what point does AooA and AoAA not make much of a difference. (5, 10, 15 years?)  NOT SURE 

2) Knowing the 20year card is a store card, is it still in my best interest (knowing the answer to question 1) to still keep the 15 year old card. IMHO - IF by closing them you aren't affected by combined overall UTI then there would be less to manage - a win in my book.

Don't want to go through the effort to keep a old card for no real reason.....

Thanks!

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 Good Luck!

[SouthJamaica]

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@Yankee2 wrote:

I've been reading a lot of past posts regarding this subject, but have a few questions regarding my situation.

From what I can tell from past posts, your AooA can be a closed account. (was thinking differently) let me know if that is not the case....

Yes it can be

To give a little background. My credit score is bounces from 790-805. My AooA is 20 years, AoAA 6.4 years, AoYA 6mo. I have 11 active accounts, 10 CC and one auto loan. CC age are (years) 20,15,12,6,3,2,2,2, 9mo., 6mo. Auto Loan is 1 year.

The 20 year card is a store card. 

I'm wanting to close the 15 year card due to not able to PC it to anything, and has no benifits anywhere close to my other cards. I know the consensis is to just sock drawer the card and use it once every 6 months or so.

Yes that is certainly my view

However, doing the math, it seems the more accounts you have, the less affect it will have. (good or bad)

True

Knowing if I close the account, it stays for another 10 years

No guarantee of that. I've had accounts dropped within a year of closing.

which allows the other accounts to age. So... my two questions....

1) At what point does AooA and AoAA not make much of a difference. (5, 10, 15 years?)

Your AoOA will always make a difference.

Once your AAoA is going to stay above 12 years or so, then it doesn't make much of a difference.

2) Knowing the 20year card is a store card, is it still in my best interest (knowing the answer to question 1) to still keep the 15 year old card.

Closing it will probably not have much impact, unless there are any untoward utilization changes as a result of closing it.

Don't want to go through the effort to keep a old card for no real reason.....

Thanks!

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[Yankee2]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Yankee2 wrote:

I've been reading a lot of past posts regarding this subject, but have a few questions regarding my situation.

From what I can tell from past posts, your AooA can be a closed account. (was thinking differently) let me know if that is not the case....

Yes it can be

To give a little background. My credit score is bounces from 790-805. My AooA is 20 years, AoAA 6.4 years, AoYA 6mo. I have 11 active accounts, 10 CC and one auto loan. CC age are (years) 20,15,12,6,3,2,2,2, 9mo., 6mo. Auto Loan is 1 year.

The 20 year card is a store card. 

I'm wanting to close the 15 year card due to not able to PC it to anything, and has no benifits anywhere close to my other cards. I know the consensis is to just sock drawer the card and use it once every 6 months or so.

Yes that is certainly my view

However, doing the math, it seems the more accounts you have, the less affect it will have. (good or bad)

True

Knowing if I close the account, it stays for another 10 years

No guarantee of that. I've had accounts dropped within a year of closing.

which allows the other accounts to age. So... my two questions....

1) At what point does AooA and AoAA not make much of a difference. (5, 10, 15 years?)

Your AoOA will always make a difference.

Once your AAoA is going to stay above 12 years or so, then it doesn't make much of a difference.

2) Knowing the 20year card is a store card, is it still in my best interest (knowing the answer to question 1) to still keep the 15 year old card.

Closing it will probably not have much impact, unless there are any untoward utilization changes as a result of closing it.

Don't want to go through the effort to keep a old card for no real reason.....

Thanks!

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I agree that the AooA makes a difference, but wondered when the cutoff is when you don't get anything extra as it ages.

My thought is, the 20year card is a store card. If that store goes under, there is no guarentee that it will remain on my credit report for the next 10 years. (Happened to me on my Sears card... another subject....)

Lets say I close the 15 year and the 20 year also go away... poof... as you mentioned... Is my 12 year credit card next in line still old enough not to cause a change in score? ( you said AAoA above 12 is not much different)

[RobertEG]

When you close a revolving account, it could subsequently be deleted from your credit file/report in two separate ways.

The CRAs conduct their own housekeeping by removing accounts that have been closed for approx 10 years.

There is no provision of the FCRA governing required deletion of closed accounts, and it is strictly a decision made by the CRA.

They will delete when they feel that the information is no longer relevant to others.

Since most derogs that have occured on the account will be removed after approx 7 years from initial delinquency, most if not all of the possibly relevant payment history will be gone by at least 7 years after closing, and any BK will be gone no later than 10 years after closing.

Thus, incomplete history remains available after 7-10 years, which is the approx period chosed by thte CRAs to remove these accounts.

You can reasonbly expect no deletion by the CRAs until at least 7 years after closure, and 10 years appears to anecdotally by the norm.

However, after you close an account in good standing, creditors will often then decide for business purposes to report deletion of the entire account with one or more CRAs.  That removes any need to monitor the account for any information updates, or to process any possbile consumer disputes or good-will requests that might be made.  It saves them time and money.

You cannot tell why a given account was removed simply by its disappearance from your credit report.

You always run the risk of immediate deletion of a closed account in good standing that is separate from the normal ten year period conducted by the CRAs.

If deletion occurs substantially prior to 7 years after closure, it was likely removed by reporting of deletion by the creditor, and not done by the CRA.

[Anonymous]

My understanding has been that generally any AoOA above 17 years or so is just gravy, as is an AAoA above 8 years (some say 92 months, or 7 years, 8 months).  Being above those values is always nice since you can take a drop and still have those factors maximized, of course.

[SouthJamaica]

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If deletion occurs substantially prior to 7 years after closure, it was likely removed by reporting of deletion by the creditor, and not done by the CRA.

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I once had 5 closed accounts drop off my EQ report. Each of the 5 had been closed a year or less. They were all good accounts, with different lenders.

[Yankee2]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My understanding has been that generally any AoOA above 17 years or so is just gravy, as is an AAoA above 8 years (some say 92 months, or 7 years, 8 months).  Being above those values is always nice since you can take a drop and still have those factors maximized, of course.

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That's what I was hoping. If I garden a few years, I'm close to where I need to be even considering worst case.

I figured no reason to go through hoops for no reason. I'm not worried about trying to get 850.... If I can stay 800 I'm happy..

[Anonymous]

Yup.  No real world benefit of 850 over 800, that's for sure.