Originally Posted by
bobert24
I can certainly see your point, and I probably should have clarified that I'm planning to get more out of these churns than just an increased score. For example, I just picked up the SPG card, so in addition to increased AAoA, I'll be getting 30k SPG points. The fact that it's Amex just put it a little higher up on my list.
And yes, obviously AAoA is only 15% of your score, but that's still the 3rd most important factor. For me, it's also really the only negative mark on my report. It's really pretty darn weak compared to everything else. Consider this something of an investment - it'll be a little annoying up front, but having extra accounts that are 3-4x older than my AAoA sure isn't going to hurt anything.
It's effectively changing the past. It's like being able to go back in time and open more cards, with higher credit limits, than you ever could have at that point in your life. If you had missed payments when you were younger, and all of a sudden found out that there was a way to erase those from your report, would you not jump at the chance?
Because it's not worth getting FRed or having 5 recently closed accounts or wasting credit pulls just to artificially boost your AAoA? Don't get me wrong, I'm in the same boat; low AAoA but was added as an AU long before my peers could even app for a CC. So the more Amex I get, the more I improve my AAoA.
But the point is, what's the endgame? Sure, everyone wants a good score, but after 740 does it really matter? What matters is whether you get denied or not on your app sprees. You could improve your AAoA, but at the expense of hard pulls and # of accounts. If any of your accounts get a second look they'd see a bunch of closed accounts (as well as hards from Amex if you pull from the same bureau).
tl;dr: way easier to just hold good amex cards like SPG or plat and churning BGR/PGR/DL/Hilton/etc normally, instead of "apping for a bunch of cards, closing them in 2-3 months, repeat"