Originally Posted by
caGALINDO
If you "downgrade" you are still opening a 'new line' of credit which will decrease your score for a few months. Even if it doesn't need a new credit check your credit would go down because the average # of years you've had credit will go down.
So downgrading is the same thing as just closing the account and opening a new fee-free card.. basically. So just ask yourself if you need another card.
This is not correct. Just closing a card will not decrease your average age of accounts.
However, if you opened an entirely new credit line (the posts below indicate you can downgrade without a new line, so non-issue in these cases) it will then be factored in to avg age and bring it down.
You do not immediately lose the years you held a cancelled card for in your avg age calculation. The immediate ding is losing the total credit line which will effect your utilization (some more than others).