I closed my accounts today

[wacdenney]

Over the past couple of years of rebuilding I made several cliche mistakes like shopping carts, as well as simply outgrown several cards that were at one time usefull.

Here's the rundown...  I currently show 8 closed accounts:

Merrick Bank - Part of the rebuilding process

MyPoints Visa - Shopping Cart

SportsmansGuide Visa - Shopping Cart

Ebates - Didn't use as like I thought I would.

WalMart - No rewards useless

Capital One QS1 - Refused to remove AF

Capital One QS1 - Former Orchard Refused to remove AF

Chase Amazon - Replaced and CL reallocated

Simplicity and Barclay will bring the total to 10 closed so that's 14 open and 10 closed.

Nope, not churning signup bonuses, just the folley of the process of rebuilding.  Live and learn and your scores grow and oportunity opens up.  Sub-Prime options like Merrick and Orchard and Cap1 serve their purpose and you move on.  You make stupid mistakes like shopping cart tricks.  You get some cards like Ebates and don't even know what you were thinking.  Amazon was a foot in the door with Chase but eventually served its purpose and was no longer needed.

It's my journey, and this is how it's gone so far.  Yeah I could have just tossed all these in the ole SD, but why??!?

[odd_dog]

Congrats Wac! I have closed many cards during my credit tenure....everyone's situation is different...those that are "into" scores I have actually had my scores increase when cancelling a card....and there are many reasons to cancel, not just because of those wonderful sign up bonuses, sometimes cards are no longer useful in ones portfolio, Apple finance for instance, no rewards (when I had the "white" card) I obtained it solely for the 0% financing and when paid off got rid of it, I was not going to use it again. Also new cards with different reward structures come out all the time, why would I necessarily keep old ones I am not using when I pick up new ones? Again we all have different wants and needs concerning a specific card, but why do a lot on here get freaky when people close accounts? I can understand explaining to someone the consequences of closing an account, and then it is UP TO THEM to decide what works best for THEM, but some here totally freak when someone does that (not on this thread, but have been around long enough here to see that) to each his or her own, teach but don't preach......UNLESS it is solicited.....and Wac believe me I am so for making things simple, with over 20 cards I HAVE To!!  LOL Good luck to you!

[chalupaman]

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@wacdenney wrote:

Over the past couple of years of rebuilding I made several cliche mistakes like shopping carts, as well as simply outgrown several cards that were at one time usefull.

Here's the rundown...  I currently show 8 closed accounts:

Merrick Bank - Part of the rebuilding process

MyPoints Visa - Shopping Cart

SportsmansGuide Visa - Shopping Cart

Ebates - Didn't use as like I thought I would.

WalMart - No rewards useless

Capital One QS1 - Refused to remove AF

Capital One QS1 - Former Orchard Refused to remove AF

Chase Amazon - Replaced and CL reallocated

Simplicity and Barclay will bring the total to 10 closed so that's 14 open and 10 closed.

Nope, not churning signup bonuses, just the folley of the process of rebuilding.  Live and learn and your scores grow and oportunity opens up.  Sub-Prime options like Merrick and Orchard and Cap1 serve their purpose and you move on.  You make stupid mistakes like shopping cart tricks.  You get some cards like Ebates and don't even know what you were thinking.  Amazon was a foot in the door with Chase but eventually served its purpose and was no longer needed.

It's my journey, and this is how it's gone so far.  Yeah I could have just tossed all these in the ole SD, but why??!?

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Do you think they'll let me move the CL of my SW card in a couple of months over to the AARP card and let me close the SW card afterwards? Besides for the sign up bonus I was able to get and all, I really just got that card to get in with Chase just like you got the Amazon Visa. Do you also think that the Chase Freedom is still a useful card despite them getting rid of some of the benefits? My Discover card is still stuck at 500 even after 7 months of having it. Ugh.

[HiLine]

Congratulations! Knowing when to stop is just as important as knowing when to start!

[baller4life]

Makes sense to me. The rebuilding process is also a learning process. We pick up useless cards that we ultimately don't really need in our quest to build credit. I ultimately only want to manage 10 to 12 cards max. So once my reports are clean next year, I will be shuffling some cards in and out my portfolio as well. At that point I can be pickier as to what cards I actually want. We all eventually reach that point in our journey! Do what works for you Wac!

[Anonymous]

Congrats on closing the accounts.   It does make life easier somewhat when it comes to managing them.

I closed 8 store card accounts on Monday night myself because Barclays closed my Apple card due to too many new accounts and inquiries.   All of the accounts I closed had a $0 balance.    I paid off Barclays and closed the cards to hopefully alleviate more issues with other creditors having a red flag over me because of all of the new activity.    

If this afffects my score,  I will live it and garden for a while and try to grow the other accounts I do wish to keep.

[MarineVietVet]

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@wacdenney wrote:

Well I closed 2 accounts today anyway...  I still have 14 left which is still a lot.  May look to close some more moving forward, but as of today goodbye Citi Simplicity and Barclaycard Rewards.  Don't let the door hit you on your way out of my portfolio! 

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Stick to your guns!! Don't let anyone make you second guess yourself on this decision.

You're the only one who knows all the particulars in your situation.

I only have six cards and that's probably too many for me at this point in my life. But the youngest card is almost eight years old and I guess I'll hang on to all of them for awhile yet.

[MarineVietVet]

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@HiLine wrote:

Congratulations! Knowing when to stop is just as important as knowing when to start!

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Excellent point!!!

[longtimelurker]

I don't think a lot of closed accounts on the report are an issue.   The only negative is that it might raise questions if they think you are churning for rewards but really the same question can arise if you have  a bunch of no-activity open cards

[wacdenney]

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@chalupaman wrote:

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@wacdenney wrote:

Over the past couple of years of rebuilding I made several cliche mistakes like shopping carts, as well as simply outgrown several cards that were at one time usefull.

Here's the rundown...  I currently show 8 closed accounts:

Merrick Bank - Part of the rebuilding process

MyPoints Visa - Shopping Cart

SportsmansGuide Visa - Shopping Cart

Ebates - Didn't use as like I thought I would.

WalMart - No rewards useless

Capital One QS1 - Refused to remove AF

Capital One QS1 - Former Orchard Refused to remove AF

Chase Amazon - Replaced and CL reallocated

Simplicity and Barclay will bring the total to 10 closed so that's 14 open and 10 closed.

Nope, not churning signup bonuses, just the folley of the process of rebuilding.  Live and learn and your scores grow and oportunity opens up.  Sub-Prime options like Merrick and Orchard and Cap1 serve their purpose and you move on.  You make stupid mistakes like shopping cart tricks.  You get some cards like Ebates and don't even know what you were thinking.  Amazon was a foot in the door with Chase but eventually served its purpose and was no longer needed.

It's my journey, and this is how it's gone so far.  Yeah I could have just tossed all these in the ole SD, but why??!?

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Do you think they'll let me move the CL of my SW card in a couple of months over to the AARP card and let me close the SW card afterwards? Besides for the sign up bonus I was able to get and all, I really just got that card to get in with Chase just like you got the Amazon Visa. Do you also think that the Chase Freedom is still a useful card despite them getting rid of some of the benefits? My Discover card is still stuck at 500 even after 7 months of having it. Ugh.

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Freedom is useful to me for the 5% categories.  We take vacation every year and stay at Marriott so I basically use Freedom to earn Marriott points at 5% in rotating categories.  My Chase cards in general are really the cream of my crop at this point.  I would be just fine with just the 4 of them alone.  Especially since getting AARP.  I use it the most hands down.