Highest AoYA threshold?

[Anonymous]

I feel like AoOA is discussed most with respect to score card assignment and potential thresholds.  While most don't seem to know exact thresholds, it's speculated that somewhere around 17 years may be the ceiling, where everything else above that is gravy.  It's also thought I think by most that there have got to be some thresholds along the way, although being to identify them is no doubt a challenge.

My question is more about AoYA, score card assignment and thresholds with this factor.  It's well-documented that crossing from below 1 year AoYA to 1+ year is an important threshold.  Is there another at 2 years?  At what point does this factor reach its ceiling and the rest is just gravy?  I would think it's considerably less than the AoOA factor.  I'd imagine if someone hasn't opened a new account in 3 or maybe 5 years max that they'd be considered as low risk as possible relative to that factor.  I'd like to hear from those that know more about this subject, or even those that would just like to speculate like I just have.

[Anonymous]

I received a big boost in a number of models when my Age of Youngest Account (AoYA) went from 11 to 12 months.  (My profile is very stable and always had the same FICO 8 score for month 8, 9, 10, and 11.)

For TU FICO 8 that was 825 to 850. 

For EQ FICO 04 (the EQ mortgage score) it went from 776 to 817.  This is much more significant than you might think, since it is one point away from a perfect score.  (A perfect score in the EQ mortgage model is 818.)  A portion of that huge jump may have to do with a couple inquiries falling off in Jan/Feb of this year (correponding to months 11/12) but I can't tease out the difference since I get my mortgage scores only once a year (at most).

I am personally skeptical that there could be any benefit to having an AoYA greater than 24 months, and there may be no benefit after crossing the 12 month line.  It's also quite possible that some FICO models give a 24 month benefit and others stop at 12.

In the non-FICO LexisiNexis model, which tends to be more punitive of new accounts than is FICO, it stops at month 24.

Worth observing that the effect on dirty profiles may be much less (if at all).  That's because AoYA affects scorecard asignment with clean profiles and may have no effect on dirty profiles (Thomas Thumb would know more about that).

[Anonymous]

I hear you.  So then, you're thinking that the max the ceiling may be is at 24 months, but quite possibly max scoring benefit is realized at 12 months. 

That's actually pretty good news, as I would have thought for top-notch gain one would have to go 3+ years without opening an account.  I suppose when assessing risk, there likely wouldn't be much of a difference between someone that hasn't taken on a new account in say 1.5 years verses 3 years, so I sort of get it.

[Anonymous]

Before I add any speculation based on my scores over the last few years I would like to confirm the day/date that age thresholds are crossed for all 3 bureaus on fico 8.

I had previously assumed that Transunion and Equifax used the actual opening dates in age calculations and only Experian was based on the first of the month no matter which day the accounts were actually opened since that is the opening date given when viewing my credit reports. I recently read on here that all 3 bureaus use the first of the month for aging except for inquiries that use the actual day of the month it occurred. 

As an example a youngest account opened on 8/16/14. Would the AoYA be 1 year on 8/1/15 or 8/16/15 or 9/1/15? My current understanding is 8/1/15. 

Thanks in advance. 

[jamie123]

Last year I bought a house and closed on February 10, 2017. I came home from the closing and apped for and received 3 credit cards. This meant that I had 4 new accounts for the past year and my EQ FICO 8 score hovered around 720+ or - a few points during that year.

My EQ score was 717 on 3/31/18. On 4/3/18 my EQ score jumped 46 points without any credit cards reporting that day. The mortgage and the 3 new cards turned more than 1 year old at that point and my oldest card turned 6 years old.

The only thing that I can reason for my score boost is the loss of the 3 credit card inquiries, the 3 credit cards and mortgage turning more than 1 year old and my oldest card turning 6 years old. Could the aging really account for 46 points?

I have a total of 10 credit cards now, the mortgage, an 18 month auto loan and 2 closed SSLs on my reports so the 4 new accounts really hit my scores pretty hard when they reported.

[Remedios]

08/01 is correct. 

[Anonymous]

---

@jamie123Last year I bought a house and closed on February 10, 2017. I came home from the closing and apped for and received 3 credit cards. This meant that I had 4 new accounts for the past year and my EQ FICO 8 score hovered around 720+ or - a few points during that year.

My EQ score was 717 on 3/31/18. On 4/3/18 my EQ score jumped 46 points without any credit cards reporting that day. The mortgage and the 3 new cards turned more than 1 year old at that point and my oldest card turned 6 years old.

---

I'm a bit confused as to your timeline above.  You stated you closed on a house on 2/10/17 and then came home and apped for 3 CCs.  If taken literally, that means you apped for the CCs on 2/10/17 - Is that correct, or did you wait a bit?  The reason I ask is because your AoYA would have hit 1 year on 2/1/18 if that were the case (if you opened all of the accounts any time in Feb 2017).  That being said, you're saying that your score didn't increase 46 points until 4/3/18, over 2 months later.  A lot can happen in 2 months for one thing, but the inquiries would have already been unscoreable from Feb 2017 and your AoYA would have been 14 months on 4/3/18.  My point here is that I don't believe based on the timeline of events that you provided that your 46 point increase a week ago was due to these 2 factors (inquiries, AoYA).  Had you pulled your credit scores at all in Jan/Feb/Mar of this year?

[Anonymous]

edit... deleted duplicate post originally auto flagged as spam

[Anonymous]

---

@Remedios wrote:

08/01 is correct. 

---

Thanks for the confirmation using my hypothetical example.

When my AoYA crossed the 1 year mark I only had monthly fico scores from Transunion fico 8 and Equifax fico 5 (mortgage score). These scores also did not come with any utilization or balance information so I have been unable to isolate fico 8 individual scoring factors prior to december 2015 when my TU scores became much more consistent and predictable. 

My AoYA crossed 1 year in October 2015, but I did not see a big jump of 29 points on TU fico 8 until December 2015 when my oldest account crossed 6 years. So I believe jamie123 and I may have both experienced a rebucketing event when AoOA was 6 years and AoYA was 1 year. 

I also did not see an increase for AoYA of 2 or 3 years on TU and EX. I only have sporadic data on EQ fico 8 so I can't speculate much on that score.

Sorry I can't be more help on this particular topic. 

[Anonymous]

Interesting regarding the potential threshold for AoOA at 6 years.

Has anyone experienced any gains at all from AoYA hitting 2 years?  I'm wondering if all points are realized at the 1 year mark, or if there are some left on the table for the 2 year mark.