practical AAoA score impact of closing older cards

[Anonymous]

The Fico scoring model does not count in tradelines the are inactive. Any tradeline that has no transactions with in six months will not be counted in to the fico scoring model. The closed acounts even if they are still on your credit report as you mentioned for 10 years. They are still not caculated  in the Fico Scoring model (after six months). Any benfit that they give you will be lost. 

There is no one size fits all, on how many points your score will drop. Everyone is diffrent.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Worng! If credit card is closed or inactive. Even if it still shows on your credit report it will still not be factored into the fico scoring model.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

wrong! If credit card is closed or inactive. Even if it still shows on your credit report it will still not be factored into the fico scoring model.

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SamBillo, closed accounts will most certainly count in age related factors until it drops off completely typically in 10 years. Open but inactive accounts (greater than 6 months or otherwise) will continue to count, in addition to age related factors, in aggregate UTI until it is closed by user or lender.

[NRB525]

Many people would like their accounts with baddies to be ignored by the scoring models. The strategy for accounts with baddies would be to just sock drawer the account, hocus-pocus and six months later it’s like those baddies never even happened.

[Anonymous]

SamBillo above is misinformed.

[Anonymous]

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@iv wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I guess I'm not understanding the word positive above.  What does it matter if the account is positive (or negative) if it's closed in terms of it remaining on one's report for the standard amount of time?

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I believe that @Anonymous is referring to that fact that while negative items are removed at 7.5 years by law, the 10 year "standard" for removing closed postive items is merely a convention on the part of the CRAs, and could be changed to a longer or shorter period of time by the CRAs at will. (Not that it's likely, though.)

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Yes, this is what I meant. We don’t know what can happen in the future so we just go by what happens now but its important to make the distinction when you’re speaking about future consequences I believe. 

[expatCanuck]

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@NRB525 wrote:
OP congrats on getting over 800.

Are your figures realistic, that if you closed your three oldest accounts, those are all over 10, up to 20 years old and your next oldest is 10 years max?

Which three cards are you considering closing, and why?

A no-AF card that is your oldest gets some sort of halo unless you have another more popular card that is say two years younger.

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My oldest tradeline (19 or so years) will stay ... it's over $20K.  I'm considering closing my next oldest cards, 'cause the low(ish) CLs tick me off.  If I can get a PenFed card with a decent CL, 2% back and no FTF, I'm inclined to retire the DC.  And while I rather like CB as an institution (we did well by it when we lived in New England), I no longer find use for the card.  I'm also inclined to close the Ring, moving its CL to the Uber.

Yeah, I know there's no downside in SD'ing the cards, as they have no AF's, but my goal is bigger credit limits and fewer cards - say, 6-8 25K cards.  Bottom line: if I can close cards with a negligible FICO hit, I'm inclined to do so.  I'd wager that as my scores creep towards 850, I'll manage to stay above 800 even with a short-ish AAoA.

[NRB525]

If your oldest account is a keeper, then in my opinion anything less-aged has to find another reason to keep. If it's not working for you, close it, AF or no AF.