My brother said I was 'credit stacking' wrong... now I'm rethinking everything

He told me I should only open one new card every 6 months instead of my usual 3 in a year. Said I was killing my average account age which makes up 15% of the score. Never really thought about the math behind it... just figured more cards meant more available credit. He showed me his 810 score with only 4 cards over 10 years. Makes me wonder if I should close my newer accounts or just wait it out. Anyone else had a family member call them out on their credit strategy?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly38510d ago

Gently push back on the idea that closing newer cards is a good fix. I mean, closing them actually hurts your utilization ratio because you're losing that available credit, and it also makes your average account age drop even more since you're removing the newer ones. Idk, maybe it's just me but I'd rather keep them open, put a small subscription on each like Netflix or Spotify, and just let them age naturally. Your brother's strategy works but it's not the only way, and rushing to close stuff can backfire in the short term.

fiona_west2110d ago

Wait @kelly385, are you saying I should keep my 28% APR card just to watch my average age creep up?