Chopping of the Synchrony accounts one by one

[sdwalt]

I have way too many cards, and I have a bunch of Synchrony cards that I will never use. I have not been hearing great things about them so I was able to get the balance off all of them and the purging begins. JC Penny and its $10000 limit gone.....76 card 5000 limit....gone. I have more but I am just going to watch and see how my scores act. I have a 8K paypal visa and 10k walmart MC that will be gone in the next few months. I am no longer a fan of the company and sometimes you have to pull the plug. I have good cards with NFCU and PenFed, so why keep crappy cards?.

[Anonymous]

Agreed.  If they are cards that you don't use, no need to have them.  As long as you are a PIF type of person and aren't carrying balances on your non-store cards, the reduction of your overall limits won't significantly impact your utilization and thus your scores should remain relatively constant.

[grillandwinemaster]

Congrats on trimming the fat!

[jdxprs1]

Pardon my ignorance, but they have no annual fee and cost nothing if you don't use them. Why not just sock drawer them and let them get closed eventually for inactivity?

[grillandwinemaster]

Reason 1: Less probability of fraudulent activity

Reason 2: Less hassle managing only the cards you need.

Reason 3: by closing, you won't reach your CL ceiling

In the end, to close or not to close is really subjective. 

[stellar]

Reason 4 is that some people prefer to have "closed by consumer" rather than "closed by credit granter" or "closed for inactivity" on their reports.

But each person is different, some people value leaving it open as long as possible.  Either way is fine.

[Erusidhion]

    I would say just cut them up/shred them and let Synchrony close them on their own for inactivity if there is no annual fee. And the only reason I'm saying this is because I've noticed that after them closing a couple of my cards due to inactivity; even marked closed they've been updating every month as paid after they've been closed for a few months... bonus points I suppose for age/payment history. I've read of a few other issuers on MF that keep updating every month even though the account is closed. I'm not sure why they do it but I'm not complaining.

    I agree that after getting big card limits/CLOC/LOC from NFCU/Penfed that have huge limits, they kind of easily replace your other low/high limit cards that maybe you only had to pad utilization and never used. Good luck in whatever you decide! I want to close a few myself but I'll just let them close by themselves. I already shredded the ones I know I'm getting rid of.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Congrats with your decision to lighten your load. While i wont necessarily agree those cards are "crappy", id like to think my cards serve some purpose other than bathroom fodder, i do agree that with some excellent cards and limits from Penfed and Navy it can make those decisions much easier.if Navy ever gives me a proper limit i hope to do the same .

[Anonymous]

Grats on thinning. Did the same last year where I dropped six store and bank cards worth over $50K. Did not affect utilization due to PIF attitude! Only thing I forgot ... not leaving a monthly balance on something ... oops the score tanked on that!

[odd_dog]

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@grillandwinemaster wrote:

Reason 1: Less probability of fraudulent activity

Reason 2: Less hassle managing only the cards you need.

Reason 3: by closing, you won't reach your CL ceiling

In the end, to close or not to close is really subjective. 

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+100000000000000   never understood the thought process of keeping something like OPEN CREDIT sitting in a drawer when you clearly are not using it for anything, I can see keeping something if it gives you status with airlines or hotels, but to keep just because it is "free" amazes me....and as for util well if you truly pay in full what do you need padded util for?