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I have about 12 credit cards, but only carry less than 50% balances on the 4 best accounts (NFCU MC & Visa, Citibank Dividend & Discover) with lowest interest rates or best balance transfer offers. I have several old accounts that I make a charge on once or twice a year to keep active and to keep my scores up.
The problem is 2 of my oldest accounts are with Cap 1 and they both carry an annual fee of $39. One is my oldest active account but has a high APR 23.2% that I would never use except to keep active to help my FICO score (which is currently 787.) The other Capital 1 account is almost as old, but only has a $1800 limit and a better APR of 14.2%, but is really no use to me.
I don't really want to pay these $39 fees for cards I don't really need or use. I am planning to call Capital One before my $39 annual fee payment is due on the 7th of May. The fee on the second card isn't due until October. I was thinking of asking them to waive the fee and if they didn't, just cancel the card but I don't want to hurt my score or regret the decision down the road. I can't imagine ever needing any of the money from the limits of these cards.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what I should do or what to say to the people at Capital 1?
Do a product change with them to a Quicksilver Visa or Venture Visa or both... they don't have annual fees. Call them and see if you are eligible for a product change... if they say no, call or write to the "EO" and give them your reasoning and request and wait to hear back from them.
@Anonymous wrote:Do a product change with them to a Quicksilver Visa or Venture Visa or both... they don't have annual fees. Call them and see if you are eligible for a product change... if they say no, call or write to the "EO" and give them your reasoning and request and wait to hear back from them.
This is the right idea, but you want to ask about a change to a Quicksilver or Venture One, not Venture, since Venture has a $59 annual fee.
If it were me I would consider combining the limits into the card with the lower APR, and try to get that remaining card changed to a no-AF Quicksilver. Venture One would be fine as well (also no-AF) but the rewards are slightly less.
Just my 2¢.
@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Do a product change with them to a Quicksilver Visa or Venture Visa or both... they don't have annual fees. Call them and see if you are eligible for a product change... if they say no, call or write to the "EO" and give them your reasoning and request and wait to hear back from them.
This is the right idea, but you want to ask about a change to a Quicksilver or Venture One, not Venture, since Venture has a $59 annual fee.
If it were me I would consider combining the limits into the card with the lower APR, and try to get that remaining card changed to a no-AF Quicksilver. Venture One would be fine as well (also no-AF) but the rewards are slightly less.
Just my 2¢.
Touche!!! Combining them to 1 card (possibly QS Visa) would be good too.. you keep the combined available credit limit, eliminate 1 card and remove the annual fee.
@txtjjs wrote:
You could probably also put in a CLI request on both before combining them.
+1
If you decide to keep one of the cards, I would definitely do this before combining them, since the combination itself can 'count' as a CLI according to the Capital One website.
(Note that if you do get a CLI on one (or both) that will not impact your ability to combine.)
@dinomosin wrote:I have about 12 credit cards, but only carry less than 50% balances on the 4 best accounts (NFCU MC & Visa, Citibank Dividend & Discover) with lowest interest rates or best balance transfer offers. I have several old accounts that I make a charge on once or twice a year to keep active and to keep my scores up.
The problem is 2 of my oldest accounts are with Cap 1 and they both carry an annual fee of $39. One is my oldest active account but has a high APR 23.2% that I would never use except to keep active to help my FICO score (which is currently 787.) The other Capital 1 account is almost as old, but only has a $1800 limit and a better APR of 14.2%, but is really no use to me.
I don't really want to pay these $39 fees for cards I don't really need or use. I am planning to call Capital One before my $39 annual fee payment is due on the 7th of May. The fee on the second card isn't due until October. I was thinking of asking them to waive the fee and if they didn't, just cancel the card but I don't want to hurt my score or regret the decision down the road. I can't imagine ever needing any of the money from the limits of these cards.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what I should do or what to say to the people at Capital 1?
It's easy.
1. Just call customer service and ask if there are any upgrade offers available on those 2 accounts. They will probably offer to upgrade both to Quicksilver with no annual fee.
2. Then ask if you can reduce the interest rate on the oldest account to the 14.2% rate. If they say yes, great.
3. If they say no, wait a few days and then use the consolidation link to combine the oldest account into the 14.2% account.