Does Returning a Non-Acivated CC affect my FICO?

[Anonymous]

On the advice of a Certified Financial Planner, I applied for a Zero Interest Balance Transfer card, the idea to move some exisitng c/c debt to this one to expedite a pay down.

I used the Discover Card website and received the Your Approved message.  What that message didn't tell me was that the CL was less than helpful.

I am considering returning the card unactivated and unsigned - would this hurt my FICO?

Or should I just pop in a drawer and use it for trivial charges like once every six months?

[taxi818]

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@Anonymous wrote:

On the advice of a Certified Financial Planner, I applied for a Zero Interest Balance Transfer card, the idea to move some exisitng c/c debt to this one to expedite a pay down.

I used the Discover Card website and received the Your Approved message.  What that message didn't tell me was that the CL was less than helpful.

I am considering returning the card unactivated and unsigned - would this hurt my FICO?

Or should I just pop in a drawer and use it for trivial charges like once every six months?

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First. stop thinking in the terms of hurt.

no such thing. will it effect it. absolutely. regardless if you activate it or not. as once you were approved. it will affect you AAOA. average age. and more than likely. the limit will be put into your total credit limit for utilizaiton. which should not affect much. depending on the depth of your credit. it can drop. or not be affected. but one thing for sure. you can't put the egg back in the chicken. good luck.

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

On the advice of a Certified Financial Planner, I applied for a Zero Interest Balance Transfer card, the idea to move some exisitng c/c debt to this one to expedite a pay down.

I used the Discover Card website and received the Your Approved message.  What that message didn't tell me was that the CL was less than helpful.

I am considering returning the card unactivated and unsigned - would this hurt my FICO?

Or should I just pop in a drawer and use it for trivial charges like once every six months?

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Your Fico is already going to take the hit for the inquiry, AAoA and the new account. It will report even if you close it, I say SD it and use it every 6 months, it does have some advantages th 5% rotating categories and their Discover deals. Welcome to My Fico

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am considering returning the card unactivated and unsigned - would this hurt my FICO?

Or should I just pop in a drawer and use it for trivial charges like once every six months?

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As stated above you've already done the damage by opening the account.  Look again over the Discover and see if it is of use to you.  IMO you might as well leverage it if you can.

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@Anonymous wrote:

What that message didn't tell me was that the CL was less than helpful.

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CL's are based on your credit and income.  The tricky thing with applying for a card for a BT is that typically when you need one your utilization is high which adversely affects not only your approval odds but the limit and APR you're likely to receive.

Just as example, back at the end of 2012 I apped for Chase Slate and was approved for a $2K limit with the highest APR offered.  At the time my utilization had been at least 60% for quite some time.  6 months later I dropped utilization to well under 10% and Chase instantly approved two cards with $25K limits.  Those cards had a set APR but the other cards I apped for around that time with APR ranges were issued with the lowest APR offered.

Not saying that dropping your utilization will give you such limits as all the other factors used in assessing credit matter as well and I have no idea what your credit is like -- just demonstrating how constricting high utilization can be.