Going through my CR has typically been a dredging task for me. A line for each old loan (student, car, mortgages - I've refi'd my mortgage twice now), and I app'd a lot in my early 20s, I went for "aesthetic cards." After buying my house, I decided to "do the right thing" and closed a bunch of cards. So I typically only go through my CR looking for something specific.
A couple of months ago, I came across a Macy's TL, but I don't have a Macy's card. I did have a Kaufmann's card (Kaufmann's was purchased by Macy's). So I look into the account and they start asking me for DL, SSN, I told them "Um, I don't want you pulling my credit report." The CSR said, "No, we're just updating our records." Right, they pulled an inquiry and my score got hit by 6 points for "re-activating" a dormant account.
This account was opened in 1994, last used in 2000 and it was still open?
There was a TL for Home Depot/CBSD which I have been thinking this whole time is for my commercial account. But during some weekend house cleaning, I come across an old HD personal charge card. I look again at a recent CR and see there is a CL of $2,000, opened in 1997, last used in 1998 and last updated in 2003, probably when CBSD purchased them. Wow, the account looks to be still open. This explains why the CL is reporting at $2K which confused me when my commercial line is much higher, maybe $10K. Funny thing is I've been considering opening a personal HD store card for some upcoming home projects. I'll be calling today to see what my options are to get an updated card sent to me. I expect to be taking another FICO hit for this. I do hope I can just update the account like the Macy's one, I don't want to do another app.
Throw in the 35 point drop for all of my new checking/savings accounts that were recently opened and well, now that I'm subscribing to ScoreWatch, it's feeling a little devastating. As DH says, "Sometimes you need to make a mess before things can get better."
