Comments on: Closing Oldest Credit Card Did Not Hurt My Credit Scores

By: ninjaFred

ninjaFred — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:52:08 +0000

TFB, you're right that columnists who say "closing a card will hurt your credit score" are oversimplifying things. And so are you. Closing a card has no immediate effect (key word being "immediate") on the age of your accounts, because closed lines are no different that open lines for age purposes. However, you will most assuredly lose the utilization help of the closed card – the available credit is gone. In your case, that didn't seem to matter because you keep your balances low. This is not always the case and certainly not grounds to suggest closing cards is good advice for everyone.

By: TFB

TFB — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:13:02 +0000

Dave – Thanks for your comments. In the linked post in which I reasoned why I canceled my oldest credit card, I also wrote "I have on my credit report accounts I opened 15 years ago and subsequently closed 12 years ago. This will just add to the list of accounts I opened and then closed." So it's going to stay on my file for a long long time. Most of the articles advising not to cancel the oldest credit card imply there's going to be a negative effect at current time, not the credit scores 10 years from now (who knows what formula they will use 10 years from now?). My experience showed that's not the case. Note the scores were pulled 6 months after the card was canceled. So they had their chance to recalculate my scores already. Even you said if and when my credit scores drop, it's likely not a large one. So who cares?

The bottom line remains that canceling my oldest credit card did not affect my ability to obtain the most favorite interest rate. That's what matters.

By: Dave Hanson

Dave Hanson — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:38:11 +0000

Hi TFB,

You write, "The scores show that canceling my oldest credit card didn’t really hurt my credit."

Actually, the most they can show is that canceling the card didn't hurt your credit YET. That is do be expected, because the trade line is almost certainly still showing on all three of your bureau reports.

Once this oldest tradeline "ages off" of your credit reports–a process that can take from months to several years, depending on the size of your credit file and other factors–you will most likely see a drop (though likely not a large one).

Regards, Dave