It will not affect your credit history and AAoA for many years. But it will affect your overal utilization, your number of cards reporting a balance, your AZEO, etc... So it depends on how you use your cards, how many tend to report a balance and how much of a balance. Vs not wanting the hassle factor of keeping track of all these cards.
I have quite a few that I don't use but I keep them around for the score boost. But I enjoy keeping track of everything, it's a game to me. Some people don't care to mess with it, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I went through cutting last June. My scores are all 730-760 so it really wont hurt. I like fewer cards with larger credit lines. I only got the Amex platinum for the 150k MR bonus, and with the other perks I can make money off of this one. I think Discover is going to go next as I think those guys really dont like me, all they want to give is $3k.
I'd agree with others to proceed with caution. I'm all for trimming the fat but there's no guarantee that the accounts will continue to report for 7-10 years.
Experian deleted my seven oldest accounts last year. The accounts were only closed in June of 2016. The result? My Experian score dropped by roughly 20 points overnight which hurt because EX is used by most creditors in my state so that score was already lower than the others. My TU and EQ scores were much stronger so the drop didn't help.
Best wishes in whatever you choose to do.
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@SweetCreditObsession wrote:I'd agree with others to proceed with caution. I'm all for trimming the fat but there's no guarantee that the accounts will continue to report for 7-10 years.
Experian deleted my seven oldest accounts last year. The accounts were only closed in June of 2016. The result? My Experian score dropped by roughly 20 points overnight which hurt because EX is used by most creditors in my state so that score was already lower than the others. My TU and EQ scores were much stronger so the drop didn't help.
Best wishes in whatever you choose to do.
I had a similar experience with Equifax. One day it dropped five closed accounts, each of which had been closed for just a year or so. My AAoA is 6 months lower on Equifax than it is with the other two bureaus.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@SweetCreditObsession wrote:I'd agree with others to proceed with caution. I'm all for trimming the fat but there's no guarantee that the accounts will continue to report for 7-10 years.
Experian deleted my seven oldest accounts last year. The accounts were only closed in June of 2016. The result? My Experian score dropped by roughly 20 points overnight which hurt because EX is used by most creditors in my state so that score was already lower than the others. My TU and EQ scores were much stronger so the drop didn't help.
Best wishes in whatever you choose to do.
I had a similar experience with Equifax. One day it dropped five closed accounts, each of which had been closed for just a year or so. My AAoA is 6 months lower on Equifax than it is with the other two bureaus.
Thank you for sharing your experience. My AAoA is lower as well. I didn't check to determine how much so but it's by years. My oldest accounts were all 17 years and that dropped. Now my oldest account on my EX is 14 years old. My overall account age was also reduced by a couple of years. It was a real pain and there is no recourse.
@Jeffster1 wrote:Closed my rebuilders...OLLO, Mercury and Merrick...months ago.
When I finish gardening around April, and after a couple of approvals hopefully, my Cap Ones are on the chopping block.
Moving on up 