Re-opening closed cards

[drkaje]

This is probably an incredibly stupid question.

After the divorce I had some CC balances with BOA, one of the cards was used by the ex. After making the last payments in 2007, I closed them. It was more or less one of those wanting to feel done with debt associated with that period things, not a matter of poor service and they worked reasonably well with me despite  many mistakes on my part.

Fast forward a few years, haven't had any late payments in over 5 years and even though BOA contains several late payments the cards were opened in 1995/1996. I'm wondering if it's even possible to get them re-opened and how much it would help considering they'd be almost three times older than any of my new cards.

The call to ask really wouldn't cost me anything. I'm just trying to get a feel for how possible recovering an old account is with BoA.

Jake

[Walt_K]

I highly doubt they will do it.  With most (all?) companies, the only time you can reopen a card is right after it was closed if you can establish it was some kind of mistake that resulted in account closure.  They'll tell you to reapply.

[Anonymous]

You know, I have no idea about this, but I'd venture to say it's not possible.

I hope for your sake I'm wrong.

Wishing you the Best of Luck!!

[drkaje]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You know, I have no idea about this, but I'd venture to say it's not possible.

I hope for your sake I'm wrong.

Wishing you the Best of Luck!!

---

Thanks for the kind words and thoughts!

I'm fine credit-wise, aside from high utilization, and have cards from Citi, Chase and an Amex. My curiosity was more along the lines of what wold change if the average age of my accounts were increased. I'm in decent shape and could get a mortgage, car, additional card or whatever. Was just wondering if it was worth the effort and also thought there was a remote possiblity that goodwill may work a year sooner if an active account holder were asking versus someone who closed years earlier.

I've been beating down the utilization and will have one of the cards to $0 in about 9 months.. with lots of overtime, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Hey, like you said in your OP, it can't hurt to call and ask right?

You just never know, until you ask.

I would call, all they can say is no.

I'm rooting for you!!!!

[drkaje]

I sent out a goodwill letter this morning to see if five years was a pound of flesh, LOL! In the letter I mentioned regretting closing the accounts and so on. I'm gonna wait until there's a response before calling on the old accounts. Weird thing is they still send me privacy updates every so often.

[chan85]

I work for BOA and I have seen closed accounts reopened, but IDK if it will be a backdate on your credit file or if it is considered a new app as far as from a reporting aspect. But I would just call and ask to see what they say, they may simply direct you to reapply, and I believe reopening an account will still result in a hard pull because they do go over everything again.

[drkaje]

Another pull wouldn't be an issue if it added age to the report.

I'll give them time to reply before doing anything.

Thanks!

[anybodii]

Closed accounts are still considered with your AAoA, so although it would help to be backdated, they still help now. Although after 10 years they'll be taken off record