If the card you're downgrading is one of your oldest credit cards, best to keep it open and not close it,
since average age of accounts is an important part of your credit score
Not exact matches
At the same time, being careful and cautious about opening new
accounts can be helpful as well,
since these younger
accounts can affect the
average age of all your
accounts.
To achieve an excellent score, you need to be especially careful about shutting down long - standing
accounts, and you shouldn't open too many new
accounts at once,
since this can drag down the
average age of your
accounts.
At the same time, being careful and cautious about opening new
accounts can be helpful as well,
since these younger
accounts can affect the
average age of all your
accounts.
So if you want to cancel the business card before an annual fee hits and you can't get a retention offer, there won't be much
of an impact on your credit score
since your utilization will go unaffected as will your
average age of accounts.
You'll often lose some key benefits to your card when you change it to a no annual fee version but you'll still be able to benefit
since you're allowing your
average age of accounts to
age by keeping the card.
This means that you want to keep your oldest credit cards,
since they help lengthen your
average age of accounts and counterbalance the negative effect
of closing cards you've only had a short time.
The
age of your oldest
account, the
average age of all your
accounts, and how long
since you've used certain
accounts are among the items scored.
Your FICO ® score takes into
account how long your credit
accounts have been established, including the
age of your oldest and newest
accounts and an
average age of all
of your
accounts, how long specific types
of credit
accounts have been established and how long it has been
since you used certain
accounts.