Trying to understand difference in Experian score

[Anonymous]

From November to February, my FICO 8 is down 7 points. Only changes are available credit has increased from $6850 to $16000 - same cards, no new hard pulls, just credit line increases. Utilization is basically the same $ wise - about $300 on one card only. One inquiry aged passed 12 month mark. Charged off Citi card aged off. I closed two Merrick accounts but didn't think with my average account age of 13 years it would make much difference. Maybe this was my mistake? :/ I'm very anxious for my mortgage scores to go up a bit - I either need Experian up 5 points or Equifax 3 points. The way my FICO 8 is not moving up though does not seem hopeful. Did I really do so much damage closing the Merricks (both about 8-9 years old, my other ones are under a year old).

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

From November to February, my FICO 8 is down 7 points. Only changes are available credit has increased from $6850 to $16000 - same cards, no new hard pulls, just credit line increases. Utilization is basically the same $ wise - about $300 on one card only. One inquiry aged passed 12 month mark. Charged off Citi card aged off. I closed two Merrick accounts but didn't think with my average account age of 13 years it would make much difference. Maybe this was my mistake? :/ I'm very anxious for my mortgage scores to go up a bit - I either need Experian up 5 points or Equifax 3 points. The way my FICO 8 is not moving up though does not seem hopeful. Did I really do so much damage closing the Merricks (both about 8-9 years old, my other ones are under a year old).

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Closing the Merricks accounts wouldn't have affected your average age of accounts; they stay on the report for a long time, probably in the neighborhood of 10 years.

It is possible that the disappearance of the old Citicard account affected your 'oldest account' and/or average age of accounts.

The way your FICO 8 is moving may or may not be indicative of what's going on with your mortgage scores.

[JLK93]

What is your AAoA before and after the Citi card aged off?

How many open credit cards do you have?

[JLK93]

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@Anonymous wrote:

my average account age of 13 years

my other ones are under a year old).

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Is 13 years your AAoA for all accounts or your average age of open accounts?

[Anonymous]

My average account age is over 13 years thanks to some ancient student loans. Unless they also look at average age of your credit cards only somewhere? I have four cards - Amex $3000, Walmart $6000, Chase $6000 and the big Fingerhut $400.

[Anonymous]

AAoA is for all. For open should not be too far off thanks to my 28ish year old student loans. Yes, I really suck.

[JLK93]

What diid your AAoA change to when the Citi card aged off?

[Anonymous]

It would have increased since Citi was only about 10 years old. I'm guessing it must be the ^&%$ Merricks. I was tired of paying a monthly service charge for them when I have better cards now and didn't think it could hurt me. But given I got my utilization down to about 2% this month (it had been 9% on two cards vs 2% on one) I don't know what else it could be. Hopefully my Equifax mortgage score refusing to budge has nothing to do with the Merricks. I think I am just in Bucket Hell on the Equifax and that not much is going to change unless I get the blotches off my report (student loans in default, 30 day lates on old car payment and a charged off Target card, later paid). Experian though must be because of the Merricks. Thanks for y'all's help with this.