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Closed 8 Credit Cards

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tbenz6876
New Contributor

Closed 8 Credit Cards

I just closed 8 Sub Prime Credit Cards today because I have a AMEX, BoA Platinum Visa, and Business Visa, and a NFCU Visa now. Should this help my score because of closing the sub prime cards, or is this going to kill my score.
Message 1 of 19
18 REPLIES 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

I can't say what exactly what will happen to your scores, but I am sure there will be some who say it will hurt your score because your util will increase.  However I believe you did the best thing for long term financial success.  It will prevent you from going on a cc spending spree, and will probably do away with af's, and you don't have to worry about keeping track of so many cards.  Having a lot of cards increases risk of late payments and such.
So in my opinion - congrats on having the courage to get rid of 8 cc's!


Message Edited by tlh908 on 12-12-2007 09:56 PM
Message 2 of 19
tbenz6876
New Contributor

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

Well I still have 5 cc. The main reason besides the cards being Sub Prime there was a monthly fee that was recurring every month even though I was not using the cards, As for the Util goes the other cards get paid off every month except for the NFCU Visa. I keep a balance on that card because I use it mainly for business.
 
Message 3 of 19
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

The one thing that might hit you is when these closed cards finally stop reporting, but that will be ten years from now. Since one of the score factors is credit age (longest individual and overall average), this will drop when these fall off, but it probably won't have that great of an effect.

Were any of these cards a lot older than the 5 that you kept? If they're only a couple of years older, you will probably see very little score impact when they finally stop reporting.

Congrats on dumping the duds!
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 4 of 19
tbenz6876
New Contributor

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

Three of the cards were 3 years old and the other ones were less than a year. All 8 of them had very little CL $200 and $300.
 
The major ones that I kept are fairly new as well but they have 5 and 10k CL.
Message 5 of 19
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards


@tbenz6876 wrote:
Three of the cards were 3 years old and the other ones were less than a year. All 8 of them had very little CL $200 and $300.
The major ones that I kept are fairly new as well but they have 5 and 10k CL.



So when they fall off in 10 years, your credit age will drop from 13 years to 11 or so, 12 if any of the new cards were opened prior to 12/2006. You might get a tiny hiccup, if 12 years is one of those tiers for credit scorecards, but I think it would be pretty short-term. By then, your current cards should be in such excellent shape that the score impact would be minimal.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 6 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

So this is new. Every time I've come across a thread where someone talks about the effects of closing a card and why its such a big no no, they give the impression that average age and length of credit history contribution from a CC stops when they become closed. Just like a closed account stops contributing to your util as far as CL is concerned.
 
I haven't read that the effect is felt not when the card is closed but when it is finally deleted. Until now that is.
Message 7 of 19
Red1Blue
Super Contributor

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

I have 16 Cards, I should look into reducing them down to 4 or 6 in the next few months.
Message 8 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards

The effects on your score are going to depend largely on your remaining utilization.  The cards will remain on the report for the next ten years so its not like they will disappear and be as if they never existed.  If your uti is good, you will probably see no ill effects.
Message 9 of 19
MidnightVoice
Super Contributor

Re: Closed 8 Credit Cards



berraco58 wrote:
So this is new. Every time I've come across a thread where someone talks about the effects of closing a card and why its such a big no no, they give the impression that average age and length of credit history contribution from a CC stops when they become closed. Just like a closed account stops contributing to your util as far as CL is concerned.
 
I haven't read that the effect is felt not when the card is closed but when it is finally deleted. Until now that is.


In terms of age, all open and closed accounts are used in the calculation (except for my EX CR - they seem terribly confused about the age of my accounts  Smiley Sad)
The slide from grace is really more like gliding
And I've found the trick is not to stop the sliding
But to find a graceful way of staying slid
Message 10 of 19
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