Short YouTube clip (Daniel Rosen) in which one speaker recounts closing a long-held credit card obtained at age 16 and now suffering a credit-score penalty. The other speaker explains that closing very old, no-fee credit cards reduces the average age of credit, which can lower credit scores because longer-standing accounts demonstrate long-term responsible borrowing.
Do not do this if you are young. I shut down a credit card that I got when I was 16 years old. I wanted to stop banking with that credit union when I moved out of la. So I shut down that credit card and I am still trying to fix that ding on my record.
As long as the card doesn't have an annual fee, most of them you could just keep. The reason for this, by the way, is because when you close down a credit card that's that old, it lowers your average age of credit. And age of credit really has a big impact on your score, because the longer you've had those accounts open for, the more it's going to show that you're a responsible borrower for a very long time. So by cutting those off, it lowers your average age of credit, and as a result, your credit score may decline.
