Originally Posted by
annhedonia
What affect are these closures - card closed by issuer - having on FICO scores?
For any closure, any immediate impact on score is due to utilization (as your total credit decreases). And if you don't need to carry balances, you can control this by paying before statements cut. Average Age of Accounts isn't impacted until the line drops off your report about 10 years after closure.
For SCORE purposes, FICO makes no distinction between closed by consumer and closed by issuer. The difference is only on manual review. Cards can be closed for lack of use for example, so closed by issuer, as an isolated incident, is not a red flag.
The big impact is with Amex, who know why the card is closed. However, at least for now they seem to be keeping other cards open, so they haven't severed the relationship the way Citi and Chase did in similar situations.