Hello everyone. 
Has there been any data collected or knowledge as to what is the swee spot for AAoA? 3yrs? 7yrs? or what?
Or have you seen a jump in your scores when you crossed a certain threshold in your AAoA for your accounts.
The reason for the question is that I will soon be doing an app spree, but I am concerned what affect the new accounts will have on my AAoA.
Currently, I have the following:
# of accounts: 14 accounts
AAoA: 13 yrs 9 m
Oldest Acct: 21 yrs
All but 2 of the accounts are closed. The opened accounts are 1 CC (opened Feb of this year) and 1 SC (6 yrs old).
All the accounts I will be app'ing for are solid CC, no store cards. I will be app'ing for 6 cards. I'm waiting to see what my Fico score will be after my util get reported as <1% (should be in the next day or two). I expect a 30-40 or so point jump from it.
I realize that this could also be a question that applies to the Credit Card forum. Decided to post here as AAoA will affect my Fico score. 
Thank you inadvance for taking the time out to responde.
@Anonymous wrote:The way "sweet spot" is most often used is to mean the best place for a thing to be. (Not to the left, not to the right, not higher, not lower, etc.) It's a term that originated from tennis or racquetball, I believe: meaning the single point on a racket at which it makes most effective contact with the ball. In that sense there is no single sweet spot, since higher is always better.
But I am pretty sure what you mean is the threshhold beyond which you'd get markedly diminshing returns for elevating it further.
Your AAoA is 13.75 now on 14 accounts. Given that you are thinking of adding six accounts with 0 age, that means your new AAoA will be
(13.75 x 14 ) / (14 + 6) = 9.6
9.6 is plenty high enough. I believe that the veterans here have shown (though actual live test cases) that it is possible to score 850 with an AAoA of 8.0.
On the other hand, bear in mind that AAoA and inquiries are not the only factors implicated in adding new accounts. There are others, e.g. "age of newest account" and "how many of my accounts total are new" (that last metric is probably a percent).
But sure, if you want to add six accounts and they are all things you really want, then go for it. Your AAoA is no concern in your case. And you have done the careful analysis and planning -- you aren't engaging in addictive or impulsive behavior, which is probably the most important thing.would
CreditGuyInDixie, thank you for responding. It's always good to get your input!
Yes, I was thinking of threshold. And no, I"m certaintly not impulse adding (atleast I don't think so). The cards I'm apping for all have a purpose. I think I have a pretty good lineup as I chose cards based on my current spending habits and for very specific purposes. I will only app if my score get high enough to get the best rate.
Do you think a Fico 740 BankCard score is good enough to get the best rate on these cards (barring other factors):
*PenFed Promise Visa
*Amex Blue Cash Preferred
*Costco Citi Visa
*NFCU Visa cashRewards
*USAA Cash Back Rewards Plus American Express
*UNIFY/WESTERN Visa Platinum (fixed rate card)
I am app spreeing to avoid applying over time and so the cards can age at the same pace. After this, I plan to garden for 1.5 - 2 yrs until I apply for a mortgage. It is my intention to be intentional and purposeful as I certainly don't want to find myself having more cards than are useful to me or that I can juggle.
Thank you for all your help.
@Anonymous wrote:App spreeing has a lot to be said for it. Much easier to figure out when all your new cards cross a certain age, etc. It's the approach many folks here take so you are in good company.
My own style in the last couple years is to only apply for a card when I see a particularly lucrative promotion on it. For me that makes applying for many cards at the same time less easy, since the best promotions seem to be staggered in time.
You mention that you only want certain cards if you can get the best rate on them. I am gonna sound like a colossal dummy, but I don't know what my interest rate is on any of my cards. That's just because I never pay any interest. So if the interest rate was 3% or 30% I don't think it would have any practical impact on me.
Because I know so little about interest rates and also because I only caught the CC apping bug after my scores were over 820, I can't give you any reliable advice about what a 740 will get you. Other folks will know far better, especially the people in the CC forum.
My choices are typically based on the reward package offered by the card and on the promotion that comes with it. I missed the Saalie Mae card last year which would have been perfect for me (5% cashback on gas, groceries, and bookstores). I still kick myself for that!
TBH, the app spreeing freaks me out a little, but I really don't like applying for credit of any kind, so spreading it out will only serve to prolong the torture for me. I pay attention to the APR rate because, IF for some reason I do have to carry a balance on any of them, I want to try to minimize the damage so to speak. I am apping for atleast one low rate card (Unify) for that purpose, but still prefer to see fairly low APRs on cards I might carry. In truth, since these are variable APR cards, the interest rate can increase - but I try not to think too much about that!
The plan is to PIF every month. Period. That way, I pay zero % (which I love!). In examining the rate of cards with rewards/cashbacks and those without, the interest rates are typically higher on the rewards cards. So it makes no sense to me to get cashback/reward cards if a person is going to carry a balance because the higher interest rate effectively wipes out any savings they may collect. Atleast that is how I see it from my over-simplified way of looking at these things. 
I've seen several posts that indicate a Fico score of 760 can pretty much get you the best rate from lenders (barring other factors), but I think it will take me another 6 months (if I'm lucky), to reach that score. I don't want to wait that long! LOL!
LOL on the Sallie Mae (you can stop kicking yourself) - as you said - another great deal will come along.
Thanks again!
@Anonymous wrote:you should consider spreading your apps accross credit angents .. 1 for each.. and they wont see each other during apping...
smarzig, thank you for responding.
Across credit agents? Do you mean credit agencies or something else? How do I go about doing that?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:you should consider spreading your apps accross credit angents .. 1 for each.. and they wont see each other during apping...
smarzig, thank you for responding.
Across credit agents? Do you mean credit agencies or something else? How do I go about doing that?
Agencies yes.
Like 1 CC app hits EX, 1 CC app hits EQ, 1 CC app hits TU .. you would have to research which card pulls which.
Why ppl dont do more of that when spreeing is beyond me.