aaoa question

[TheR105]

I recently got approved for amex zync and the account was backdated to 1997. My oldest acct wad 9 years and AAOA 5. Now my oldest acct is 14 AAOA is still 5. Should I have received a change in my AAOA? Also, this account is being added to my utilization which I didn't think would happen.

[llecs]

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@TheR105 wrote:
I recently got approved for amex zync and the account was backdated to 1997. My oldest acct wad 9 years and AAOA 5. Now my oldest acct is 14 AAOA is still 5. Should I have received a change in my AAOA? Also, this account is being added to my utilization which I didn't think would happen.

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You got this from a FICO report, right?

AAoA would only go up if the average goes up. If you have a bunch of OC accounts making up your 5 year AAoA, then adding a new account at 1 month old or adding a 14-yr backdated account could have a very little impact on AAoA. Also, FICO rounds down the AAoA to the nearest whole number. So, for example, you could have gone from 5.1 year AAoA to 5.9 year AAoA and still show a 5 yr AAoA. You'd have to do some math to see how that played out. Remember, AAoA factors in all OC accounts, good or bad, opened or closed, and factors in the age of each account.

Per utilization, it depends on the CC-type and the FICO report you are looking at. If this is a revolving Amex (e.g. a Blue), then it is factored into util for each FICO score. If a charge like a Green, Zync, etc., then for this version of EQ it is not factored in. For this (and only this) version of TU, it is factored in (based on the high balance).

[TheR105]

That makes since to me now. Yes, I got this info from fico. Can you tell me how to calculate my aaoa?

[haulingthescoreup]

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@TheR105 wrote:
That makes since to me now. Yes, I got this info from fico. Can you tell me how to calculate my aaoa?

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Oh, boy!!!

* pulls up socks *

OK. Get a piece of paper. (Back of an envelope won't work unless you only have a few accounts. You need room to scribble.)

Write down EVERY tradeline (credit account) on your report, whether open or closed, revolving, installment, mortgage, whatever. If it's listed, count it. (One report at a time, please.) Don't count liens and whatnot.

Next to each account, write down the month and year that it was opened. Doesn't matter if it's now closed.

For each account, figure out how long ago you opened it (= how old it is) in months. If you opened it in Mar 2005, and it's now July 2011, it's 6 years + 4 months = 76 months old.

Add up the ages in months of all your accounts.

Divide this number by the number of accounts.

The result is your AAoA in months.

Divide again by 12. This will give you your AAoA in years + a fraction. OK, actually a decimal remainder, but whatever.

Multiply that fraction by 12 to give you the number of months. FICO scores by even years, rounding down, so this doesn't affect your AAoA, but it will tell you how close you are to going up a year.

So if your total age in months is (let's say) 282 months, and you have 7 accounts, that's 282 / 7 = 40.28571 ish for your AAoA in months. Divide by 12, and you have 3.35714, your AAoA in years. To turn that into years + months, multiply 0.35714 * 12, and you have 4.29 months. So your AAoA would be 3 years, 4 months and change. In 8 more months, your AAoA will be 4 years, unless you go opening new accounts and drop it again.

Aren't you glad you asked? 

eta: dang numeric typos...

[TheR105]

WOW! I'm up for the task. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain this. I really appreciate it.

[haulingthescoreup]

No prob. It's a good way to learn about how age of credit works.

Also a brisk flashback to spring of 3rd grade arithmetic, lol.

[TheR105]

I did it! My AAOA is 5 yrs 7 1/2 months thanks so much.

[Booner72]

it's a load of work to do it.  And you have to do it three times!  My AAoA is 5, 6, 7 years depending on the report!

[Booner72]

Hey, Hauling, you should stickie this CUSSWORD,  or at least copy and paste it so you don't have to do all that typing again!  I loved the socks.  Great writer.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Booner72 wrote:

Hey, Hauling, you should stickie this CUSSWORD,  or at least copy and paste it so you don't have to do all that typing again!  I loved the socks.  Great writer.

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Done!

Thank you for making me do that! I'm always to lazy to link it at the time, and then I kick myself when I have to do it again (and again, and again...)