Harms of canceling a brand new unused American Express Gold Card

[Anonymous]

I want to know if my credit score will be drastically affected if I cancel an American Express Gold Card I was approved for. I applied using Ticketmaster's website which was linked with American Express and offers an instant approval decision as well as access to Pre-Sale concert tickets. My daughter wanted pre-sale tickets to a show but unfortunately the pre-sale time frame had ended by the time we finished applying for the card. I just applied today and since we have no use for it (other then access to pre-sale tickets which we can no longer buy) I want to cancel the card. The offer I received was 1 year with no annual fee and an annual fee of $125 after the initial first year. I am not interested in paying the annual fee otherwise I would leave the credit line open to help boost my util. ratio. I want to know what the best option for me is now. Should I keep the card for a year and cancel it prior to having to pay the annual fee? Should I keep the card and actually use it for one year and then pay off the balance and cancel it? Since I don't intend on using it should I jut go ahead and call right away to get it canceled or is this a bad idea? I do not intend on opening any other lines of credit or applying for any loans anytime soon. I have a stable mortgage and car payment at the moment and other credit cards that I use on a regular basis. My credit score is around 730-740 and at the moment I am willing to risk dropping a few points to close the card but I want to know what option is in my best interest. All advice/comments welcome. Thank you!

[Bobert22]

Welcome to myFico Forums!

Since you already took the Hard inquiry hit for the application, I would just use it while its free for the first year and the on the 11th month either cancel the card or talk to AMEX CSR to see if they can downgrade you to another card that is more affordable for you. This way you'll build a relationship with AMEX as well, if in the future you decide to apply again you can have them backdate your account member since date to when you applied for the Gold card.

Also the Gold card is a charge card, which has no pre-set credit limit (so wont affect your credit utilization).

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply Bobert.

For the moment being I will leave the account open.

What I am now considering doing is inquiring whether I can add my daghter as an authorized user.

She recently applied for her first secure credit card as she is trying to build her credit. She has student loans that have already been paid so now she is just trying to raise her credit score and it would be great if I could help her out.

Thanks again.

[danielodonoll]

I open a credit card to and closed it cause it was not going to be a great card and the limit was like 1 k out of 120k my total limit on 10 other cards
If you not gonna use it loose it,IMO Good luck

[Dustink]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply Bobert.

For the moment being I will leave the account open.

What I am now considering doing is inquiring whether I can add my daghter as an authorized user.

She recently applied for her first secure credit card as she is trying to build her credit. She has student loans that have already been paid so now she is just trying to raise her credit score and it would be great if I could help her out.

Thanks again.

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AMEX is a good bank in terms of adding AUs. They allow you to set up spending controls ect.

They also report history to the agencies, so yes...it will build her score

[boomhower]

I'd say keep it for now.  Wait until you get the card and the welcome kit. Take a good look at it and all the benefits the card comes with, there are a lot of them.  Keep for a year and if at the end of the year if it's not worth it to you cancel it or downgrade to the Green card if you wish to continue having a charge card but at a cheaper price.  Keep in mind it is a charge card and not a credit card so there is no balance to carry and it will not affect you utilization.

[Repo-ed]

You took the hit to your score for adding a new card (AAoA has now gone down), as well as a new INQ.

[thom02099]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply Bobert.

For the moment being I will leave the account open.

What I am now considering doing is inquiring whether I can add my daghter as an authorized user.

She recently applied for her first secure credit card as she is trying to build her credit. She has student loans that have already been paid so now she is just trying to raise her credit score and it would be great if I could help her out.

Thanks again.

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Yup, agree with the others...you've got the HP hit, might as well take advantage of the new TL while you can. 

AMEX is a very good source for children to learn about managing credit.  You can add them as Additional Card Members (their term for AU), you'll need to provide the DOB and SSN for your daughter, she will get a separate card with her own number, and it will be automatically linked to your account.  You can set limits if you'd like, as well as alerts.  It's a great card for monitoring the kiddos usage while they learn about credit.  I did that with both my kiddos, they've been very responsible in managing their cards, and have gotten the benefit of a prime TL on their credit reports. 

[mikka1]

I'd kill this card right away not waiting for a year to pass, but my rationale might not work for everyone :-)

I have recently started to play this "miles&points game" trying to jump only on offers with generous sign-up bonuses. Amex has been particularly good recently in offering such bonuses (e.g. they offered 100k MR points for Platinum in January, 50k for Premier Rewards Gold even twice over last couple of months). But one of the conditions of such offers is that you should not have another Amex charge card at least 3 months prior to applying for a card with bonus.

That said, keeping this Amex for longer time might prevent you from benefiting from another nice offer in future. I'd personally axe it right away.

...

But if you are not interested in playing this "miles&points game" (which is completely normal unlike what I am doing now ), then disregard what is written above, keep it now and just cancel it 1 month before your AF hits. I don't see how extra card might harm you.

[webhopper]

I think adding your daughter as an AU is a great idea. Keep in mind that the balance has to be paid in full each month, unlike a regular credit card. You can always downgrade to a green after the 1 year is up. I like amex, and I plan on making my daughter an AU when she is old enough. Also, with AUs you set their spending limit to something reasonable, which makes it a good choice for teaching teens and young adults how to use credit responsibly

Good luck with whatever your decision is.