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I have 2 cards that are almost maxed out and they both have annual fees on them.
Orchard MasterCard - $400 limit - Balance is $ 322.27 and AF is $79.00
Credit One Vista - $975.00 limit - Balance is $878.59 and the AF is $99.00
Orchard MC is my oldest card which was opened in 2004 and Credit One opened in 2006. I have the following other cards opened within the last 2 years:
NFCU Nrewards Visa - 4/2008
NFCU Platinum MC - 4/2008
Juniper Mastercard - 2/2008
Chase Visa - 6/2008
Macys - 3/2008
Target - 2/2008
Exxon Mobil Gas Card - 6/2009
If I pay down Orchard MC to zero balance should I close the account or leave it open? It is my oldest CC opened in 2004. I will most likely get the annual fee of $79 cut in half as they have done for me the past few years. My AF will hit my account on May 4th.
I also have a Chapter 13 BK that was just removed from all of my reports last month. I filed in back in 4/2003. Yeah!!!
My reports are all clear of any negatives and the BK and I have had no late payments on any of my cards since I filed Chapter 13.
My Equifax Fico is currently 636 and I am disputing one item left over from my BK that was reporting as a negative open item.
Thanks for your thoughts and advice.
RJ
Closing both of the AF accounts will pull your AAoA down from about 3.5 to just under 3 because you have so many new accounts, so its not really going to ding you so much there. Your risk lies in closing your oldest account. I'm not sure how much that is going to hurt you. Do you have any loans, etc that are older than your new credit card accounts? When you pay down those cards . . . . (if you intend to) your scores will increase drastically! I did the same on DH accounts and his jumped into the 700s!
Thanks for the info cruthisfamily. :-)
I do have a Auto Loan with Capital One that was opened in Sept. 2008. All my really old accounts disappeared when my BK was discharged and removed.
I am so looking foward to paying everything off and raising my Fico score...
Bobby
@cruthisfamily wrote:Closing both of the AF accounts will pull your AAoA down from about 3.5 to just under 3 because you have so many new accounts, so its not really going to ding you so much there. Your risk lies in closing your oldest account. I'm not sure how much that is going to hurt you. Do you have any loans, etc that are older than your new credit card accounts? When you pay down those cards . . . . (if you intend to) your scores will increase drastically! I did the same on DH accounts and his jumped into the 700s!
It's always right to watch your AAofA - but closing accounts will not affect your AAofA at this point. Reading this thread (sticked up top of this forum) will help: Closing Credit Cards - Fused
And I agree wholeheartedly with cruthisfamily - paying down your cc balances will help your scores tremendously. After you get them paid down (less than 9% balance on one, zero balance on the others), you'll see some good score improvement. (edited - sorry forgot you already have quite a few cards).
Congrats on all your good work and cheers! on that bk falling off!! You are in a great position - continue that good rebuilding effort!
Closing those rebuilder cards will not affect your AAoA because both open and closed accounts are figured into it. They will stay on your reports for usually 10 years after closing. I'm not one to advise closing accounts in most situations but there are exceptions. Pay the Orchard and Credit One off and then close them. You also will save $178 a year in annual fees.
IMO
From a BK years ago to:
8/09 TU-765 EQ- 783
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
3/10 EQ- 800
You can do the same thing with hard work
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I would drop Credit one and keep Orchard at 1/2 annual fee. HSBC has good cards you could get to later. Credit one does not and it is too expensive.