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Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt

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kilroy8
Community Leader
Super Contributor

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt

812 effectively as good as 850.

 

You are in tip top shape in any case.

Message 11 of 17
Remedios
Credit Mentor

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt


@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short, my Fico was 850. Then I sold a house and opened this Visa account. Score is now down around 812. Nothing I can do about selling the house, but since I'll never use this card (opening it was a mistake) I thought to close it.

 


Closing it will not increase your score, they will increase over time again, but if you have no use for the card, then it's personal decision whether you want to close it or not 

Message 12 of 17
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt


@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short, my Fico was 850. Then I sold a house and opened this Visa account. Score is now down around 812. Nothing I can do about selling the house, but since I'll never use this card (opening it was a mistake) I thought to close it.

 


The only way I can think that selling a house reduced your credit score is if you had a mortgage on the property and no other installment loans.  Selling the house would cause the mortgage to report as closed and your "Credit Mix" would be impacted by not having an installment loan and incur a FICO scoring penalty.

 

If the Fidelity Visa card is less than one year old then you would have had several FICO scoring penalties. (1) A few points for the credit inquiry which would be recovered after 1 year (2) A penalty for resetting your Age of Youngest Account to zero; as the account ages you will begin to regain those points (3) A new account would lower your Average Age of Accounts.  Without knowing what exactly is one your credit report it would be difficult to estimate the impact of this penalty.

 

Bottom line is that to regain an 850 score you just have to let time elapse.  Closing the Fidelity Visa will have no impact on your score since the account will continue to report to the credit bureaus for up to 10 years before falling off.

Message 13 of 17
BallBounces
Valued Contributor

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt


@Anonymous wrote:

This particular card is a Fidelity Visa card with a zero balance that I will never use.

 


Assuming this is not an AU card, it will NOT raise your AAoA, and it will not help your FICO based score in any way by closing it.  It might harm your score by closing it, depending on your utilization of other cards, although that seems minimal in your case.  

 

For what it is worth, if it were me, I would keep the card open, even if rarely used, for several reasons. 

050719:     
021924:     


FICO 08 scores listed and are stagnated until multiple derogatory items expire over the next two years.
Message 14 of 17
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt


@Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying the cards I had when I was 18 that have been closed for 20+ years are still being counted towards credit age? That doesn't sound right.


 


No.  All accounts on your credit report are counting toward credit age.  Typically closed accounts fall off after 10 years.  So, accounts that have been closed within the last 10 years are likely still on there (you can check on CK) but accounts closed for 20+ years like you said above are no doubt long gone.

 

What month did you open that Visa card in?  Whatever it was, on the 1st of that same month next year you would expect to see an immediate jump on your Fico scores to the tune of 15-25 points.

Message 15 of 17
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt


@Anonymous wrote:

I have a credit card that I'd like to close. If I close the card it will RAISE my average credit age by roughy 1 year, but LOWER my available credit by $8,000.

 

Does anyone know FOR SURE what impact it will have if I close this card?

 


Closing the card will have no immediate effect on any age factors; it will stay on your credit report, probably for many years.

 

No one knows for sure what impact it will have, and no one can even hazard a guess since you have provided no information with which we can tell how your utilization will be impacted. We would need to know your other revolving accounts, the limits, and the balances. It may have seriously negative effect if it greatly increases your aggregate utilization percentage, or no effect at all if it does not significantly impact your aggregate revolving utilization percentage.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 16 of 17
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Need to know definitively if this will help or hurt

Credit mix counts closed loans. Closing the mortgage should not impact credit mix :

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Credit-mix-what-am-I-missing/m-p/5586595...

If you have no loan, open or closed on your record and you open one, yes you get points for Credit mix. But once you have an installment loan on your record, the points you get are mainly for amounts owed.

You shouldn’t lose points for closing an installment loan unless you have passed thresholds and realized points or unless it causes your aggregate installment utilization to cross a threshold, if I understand correctly.

For example I had no point change when I closed a loan that had a very high B/L. I went back and checked on a loan I had refinanced whenever CGID and Rev discussed it a while back and contributed my DP.

So you don’t necessarily lose points for closing a loan. However if you have realized some points for paying it down, then yeah you’re gonna lose those. That’s why you lose so many points when you pay off one that has already went below 8.9%.
Message 17 of 17
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