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Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

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Anonymous
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Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

Good afternoon everyone. I recently closed a credit card with Capital One. My reasoning behind this was that this card only has a $500 limit on it and it was an account that I opened 12 years ago in the process of rebuilding my credit. During this time this card has always had a $59 annual fee and it was most of the time waived. I have not use this card and nearly 12 years due to its low credit line and it is a card that has just set there and it's not really helping my credit resume at all aside from being an older card.  There was little to no usage with this card.  Now, my credit score is well over 800 and I have a very healthy credit resume. My concern and from what I have read was that this card with its low credit line of only $500 will not affect my score that much by cancelling but I saw no use in paying the $59 fee this year if they couldn't cancel it as they had in years past when the fee was 10% of the total credit line. I have several other credit cards now with my wife that we do balance transfers etc with and I recently had a credit card line increase with one of our cards of over $5,000 that's making out credit amount even better. How much of an impact will cancelling this card have on my credit score long-term and short-term? Thanks for all of your advice.

Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

Short term, not much impact with some assumptions being made.  Can you give some info about your credit profile?  How many credit lines, credit limits, etc.  Was this credit card your longest history of credit?

Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

I have multiple credit cards... 6 or so between myself and wife... i think i am the name on 5 of the 6. Several of these cards have over 15k limits. My balances didn't change at all. They waived the membership fee once i cancelled this card. Also, i had student loans and another card that was older than this. Thanks for your help
Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

Both my wife and I cancelled cards last year, we now have several high limit cards so losing a couple year old low limit card really had no impact.  

Message 4 of 6
noobody
Established Contributor

Re: Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

There will be almost ZERO effect on your credit profile by closing this account.
I personally did get my two old cap1 accounts annual fee permanent removed, PC to useful quicksilver and huge CLI (1200<<15K 4K<<9K), all without losing two 17 year old trade lines.
In the meantime, if you want advice from forum members here, ask questions before taking action.
EX819 1HP|TU797 1HP| EQ(Fico8 BankCard)841
Message 5 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Cancelling a credit card that has a zero balance but a very low limit...

I agree that there will be zero impact on your credit score from closing the account.  The good news is you won't have to worry about that AF any longer.  The account will continue to positively impact your AAoA until it reaches 22 years old and falls off 10 years from now.

Message 6 of 6
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