Does transferring credit card providers affect your credit score?

Question

I know that part of your credit score is the "average age of lines of credit". However, I'm not sure how the credit agencies determine what a particular "line of credit" is.

To be specific, my bank is currently switching all credit cards it offers from MasterCard to Visa. This, for whatever reason, involves creating an entirely new account with the bank and transferring all balances/payments from the old credit card account to the new one. My understanding is that Visa/MasterCard are not the issuers of credit (that would be my bank), but are instead vendors of infrastructure, so this shouldn't affect my credit score in any way. What makes me uncertain is the fact that it's an entirely new "account", according to my bank's home page.

Will this be reflected in my credit score as starting a new line of credit (and terminating the old one)?

Answer 1

If they told you that the move won't affect your credit score, it won't.

As you noted, neither MasterCard or Visa are the ones that hold your account; the bank is. They are telling you that it is a new account, but that is just bookkeeping. As far as you are concerned, it is the same account, as all your history is moving from the old account to the new.

If the bank is reporting it to the credit agencies in the same way, it won't affect your score. The fact that the account number is changing doesn't matter; credit card account numbers change all the time.