Quote:
Originally Posted by am_vanquish
On the most recent credit report that I pulled for myselft it showed the average length of my CURRENT accounts. So in that respect, if you close a bunch of newer cards and keep some older cards, your account history would actually improve (becasue the average of the cards still open is higher after dropping the newer cards). I'm not sure if everyone does it like this or not.
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For FICO, "average account age" is calculated
including closed accounts. If you close your oldest account--or any account--it will not immediately lower your average age. It will continue to count towards it for 10 years after the closing date, and then it will drop off your report completely. At that point, it may not hurt your score at all as your active accounts are now probably a decade older.
The only way closing credit card accounts hurts you in the immediate is because your total available credit limit will go down, which can cause it to look like you are using more of your available credit if you carry any balances.