My cousin the 'credit guru' told me to close my oldest card and my score dropped 60 points in one month

3 comments

3 Comments

Man I felt that "credit guru" thing in my bones. My buddy who's always bragging about his 800 score told me the same thing last year, said closing old cards was a power move to simplify things. I closed a card I'd had since college, one I barely used but had like 7 years of history on it, and my score tanked 55 points in a month. It took me almost 8 months to get it back up, and I was just kicking myself the whole time. The thing is, those "gurus" forget that your credit history length is a huge chunk of the score, and closing the oldest account hits you right there. I hope your cousin at least bought you a coffee after that drop, because man, that's a rough lesson to learn the hard way.

jessica7071mo ago

Ugh yeah that sucks. My cousin did something similar @ben_lewis, but she opened a new card right before closing an old one instead of spacing them out. Took a 40 point hit and had to wait almost a year to get back to where she was.

-2

price.ben1mo ago

Oh man, @jessica707 that's rough (but also kind of funny in a tragic way). Timing those moves is like trying to parallel park in a tight spot - mess up the order and you're stuck paying for it for months.