@Anonymous wrote:Hello all, I've been addicted to log in everyday now, have been doing much research on credit cards and to keep track of all of mine. I just recently learned about the shopping cart trick and was approved for three, ( Victorias secret, j.crew, and express to be exact) and only after I got those cards, I learned about AAOA. I had no idea what it was before that, which kind of shocked me. My oldest credit card was a discover that I opened a little over a year ago, and I logged into creditkarma to see that my AAOA was 7 months. I'm pretty sure it will go down now because I opened three store cards and also just got approved for the chase sapphire preferred. So my question is, how important is AAOA with the credit score? I don't plan on applying for anymore cards, and the only reason I used the shopping cart trick was to increase my overall CL, and I plan on PIF each month and just watching my cards grow.
If AAOA is not as important, do I just have to worry about making on time payments and utilization?
Thank you.
AAoA is one of the factors that go into your credit score. On time payments and util are other factors. I'm not going to go into the whole shoppping cart trick thing because what was done is done. I do strongly suggest you read up in detail about what impacts your credit score and ask any questions you need before making another move with your credit.
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I wouldn't worry too much about your AAoA when applying for cards to be honest. Yes, it is a part of your score (10% New Credit, 15% Credit History Length) but I agree focusing on keeping your reports clean, using your cards responsibily, and having pristine payment history is the most important. Age of the accounts will come with time. Unfortunately nothing can make Father Time move any faster. 
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@Anonymous wrote:Just an FYI for future reference, Credit Karma doesn't factor closed accounts into AAoA, while FICO does. I don't both with CK's AAoA. They have me at 1 year 8 months, while my FICOs are at 5-6 years.
Oh wow, that's good to know. I wondered why they had me at just over 5+ years when my CR show 9 (almost 10) years. Thanks for the info jdt!
@Anonymous wrote:AAOA has been extremely weird for me. Didnt start using credit cards until April 2014, and wasnt until a year later when I joined here and started taking my credit more seriously.
I have several student loans up to 13 years old. The strange thing is after adding over 7 new accounts my AAOA has only dropped from 2years 9 months down to 2 years 2/3 months.
I think my scores would have nose dived if it wasn't for those old accounts. Somehow they are factoring in. And I have even seen my AAOA and score go up after disputing some loan payment reporting...when sometimes for other people it can hurt your AAOA.
My CK and myfico AAOA have always been the same...maybe because I don't have any closed accounts. But have several closed loans though.
FICO does Average Age of Accounts (AAOA) and includes closed accounts.
CK does Average Age of Open Accounts (AAOOA?)
CK is not accurate for FICO in this case; honestly CK is best in the market for report access, but some of their stats about a report are laughably bad and this is one such example.
Regarding AAOA, it is pretty minor comparitively; I have a dirty file so this is all going to be magnified for a clean file but to give you an example: When I went from AAOA 2 years to 1 year (during an app spree) I lost 4 points on a FICO 8 model. When I just recently went from an AAOA of 3 years back down to 2 years after yet another slew of accounts, this wasn't a fully clean datapoint for a number of reasons but it looks as though I've lost around 5-6 points on it.
As Cally correctly states, you'll get credit age and therefore increased AAOA over time. The vast majority of people within 2-3 years get every single card they need (want vs. need changes over time for the majority of people on this forum, the "Ooooh Shiny!" effect wears off credit approvals typically), and then it's just things like new car or new mortage and occasionally if some godlike rewards card comes out perhaps applying for that, but realistically the vast majority of credit improvement is simply never being late on a payment and never paying less than the minimum.
We don't really know what the max score with a minimum AAOA is but based on some reports for people in their building stage it's right around 760 for FICO 8 which doesn't suck. It may require around 5 or more years to hit close to 850 though, but since anything north of 760 is still gold-plated, it's not really an important goal.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:AAOA has been extremely weird for me. Didnt start using credit cards until April 2014, and wasnt until a year later when I joined here and started taking my credit more seriously.
I have several student loans up to 13 years old. The strange thing is after adding over 7 new accounts my AAOA has only dropped from 2years 9 months down to 2 years 2/3 months.
I think my scores would have nose dived if it wasn't for those old accounts. Somehow they are factoring in. And I have even seen my AAOA and score go up after disputing some loan payment reporting...when sometimes for other people it can hurt your AAOA.
My CK and myfico AAOA have always been the same...maybe because I don't have any closed accounts. But have several closed loans though.
FICO does Average Age of Accounts (AAOA) and includes closed accounts.
CK does Average Age of Open Accounts (AAOOA?)
CK is not accurate for FICO in this case; honestly CK is best in the market for report access, but some of their stats about a report are laughably bad and this is one such example.
Regarding AAOA, it is pretty minor comparitively; I have a dirty file so this is all going to be magnified for a clean file but to give you an example: When I went from AAOA 2 years to 1 year (during an app spree) I lost 4 points on a FICO 8 model. When I just recently went from an AAOA of 3 years back down to 2 years after yet another slew of accounts, this wasn't a fully clean datapoint for a number of reasons but it looks as though I've lost around 5-6 points on it.
As Cally correctly states, you'll get credit age and therefore increased AAOA over time. The vast majority of people within 2-3 years get every single card they need (want vs. need changes over time for the majority of people on this forum, the "Ooooh Shiny!" effect wears off credit approvals typically), and then it's just things like new car or new mortage and occasionally if some godlike rewards card comes out perhaps applying for that, but realistically the vast majority of credit improvement is simply never being late on a payment and never paying less than the minimum.
We don't really know what the max score with a minimum AAOA is but based on some reports for people in their building stage it's right around 760 for FICO 8 which doesn't suck. It may require around 5 or more years to hit close to 850 though, but since anything north of 760 is still gold-plated, it's not really an important goal.
Interesting. I just wish certain things weren't so mysterious. Scores don't always have the most impact...obvious from my denial from BOA. (later approved from joint app...dumb idea, should have just waited). I dont get why I was able to add ten inquiries since april and then all the sudden one month have a 50 point increase on each bureau. What could have triggered that? I dont think it was the utilization going down a few points. This whole time I thought having a 120 day late loan error was going to hinder my scores until it fell off. Guess I will never know.
I don't get credit 100%. I probably never will. But it is kinda refreshing to hear that my scores are pretty darn close to "gold-plated" lol. I dunno. I don't really feel like thats what my scores are. I still feel like they are in the 600's from my starting limits, CLI denials, etc. But its from being impatient. Life is good. As long as I can get a bonus a few times a year, I will be content.
How old is the 120 day late?
Hard to say but between age and pattern of lates (in FICO 8) entirely possible it got discounted; certainly would account for that potential jump where not much else would. Even the surprise installment utilization change is usually on the order of 25 points, but without really looking at the reports it's hard to say.
It's generally not worth worrying over once you get to a particular level; now that my mortgage is sorted and I'm in an extended flat period, as long as my score gets to 760 in 2 years when the last of my issues is gone, I'm not going to worry about it other than random datapoint testing.