Originally Posted by
MDtR-Chicago
Average Age of Accounts includes closed accounts, as well as open, as long as they still appear on the report - generally 7-10 years after you close them.
The real issue is ensuring you keep the single oldest card open, so that you have a very old card to count toward the Length of Credit History metric. But you only need one card for that (and maybe 1 or 2 as backups, in case your oldest card is closed out of your control).
If that 12 year old Slate is the oldest account in the entire portfolio, it probably makes sense to keep it around.
Here is a good discussion from myfico on short/long-term effects of closing accounts:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Cred...7190?jump=true
I agree. It seems like a whole bunch of people, needlessly, hang on to numerous cards that they don't use, under the fallacy that otherwise their credit score will dramatically change if they cancel those cards.
As you said, retaining the oldest card is MOST important, + the second oldest card as a back-up. Everything else can be dumped.