Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 6,182
Registered: ‎03-29-2007
Re: Closing Aged Accounts.. Yes It Is Ok

haulingthescoreup wrote:
Yes, it counts towards your history as a seven year old card. And the 10 yr clock for its removal begins on the date you closed it, not when it was opened.

OK, just when I think I'm grasping things... I have one truly disastrous account, a J.Crew card opened 12/2004. It is a bit younger than my overall average credit age. If I leave it open (and unused!), it will fall off in 12/2014. (The so-called 10 yr clock.) But if I were to close it tomorrow, it wouldn't fall off until 9/2017? And why ten years, rather than seven? Or do the baddies within the account vanish after 7 years, while the account stays on for a total of ten years?

I know that the derogatories stay on whether open or closed, but the credit limit is relatively low and shouldn't affect my utilization (total CL $12,250, $0 balance, getting ready to put piddly-squat balances on my cards.)

So 10 years from opening or from closing? Or 7 years from opening or closing? aaarghhh

The 10 years begins when you close the account. The seven year rule applies to derogatory information. So let's say you closed this account today but you had a 30 day late back in 2005. The late would be removed 2012 but the account would not be removed from your reports until 2017. Make sense?