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I wish I never got them, but I needed them to rebuild my credit. I got them back in 2011 and 2012, respectively ($250 and $300 limits). Uggh, they haven't increased my limits on these cards and I'm paying $7 and 6$ monthly on these cards. My AAOA is pretty low and these are the only cards that are keeping that up. I don't want to be kept hostage by these cards forever, though. I want to call them up and tell them to shove it.
But alas, I don't want my score to take a hit.
UPDATE: I closed my accounts today. The rep was not happy at all. She asked for a reason and I said that my limits were low and I didn't want to pay the monthly service fee, the annual fee and that I no longer need the card. I also asked if I had anything pending in terms of payment. I asked if there is reference number I needed. She just simply replied with flat "no" for each question. She said I will be receiving a statement, but I forgot that I get them online only.
Is there anything else that I need to watch out for? I'm going to be checking both accounts to make sure they don't slip something in. These people are shady! I'll copy and paste this as the latest post, too.
I closed my credit one card, my score went up.
Note: I forgot to add that you may be able to call First Premier and see if you can get the annual fee removed/decreased along with the monthly maintenance fee if you feel like you need to keep these somehow. Maybe they will or maybe they won't. I will close mine regardless at the 2 year mark. Everyone has their own plan to follow.
Closing these two cards will have zero impact on your Average Age of Accounts. Open or Closed they remain on your credit history for 10 years since last activity I believe. The only thing this would affect is your utilization percentage. You'll be losing out on $550 towards your utilization. So if you had $1800 overall credit and you were using 10% of that, $180 of $1800; once you close the accounts you'll be using $180 of $1250 which will bring your utilization to about 14%. It will cause a slight score drop then.
As for closing out a card you never use and not feeling any kind of regret for doing so even though it's costing you money monthly to keep it open... I can't help you there. I haven't had to close any secured/subprime cards yet myself and it will be an interesting experience for sure. Some people are glad to be rid of the cards as they are just used as a tool to build credit quickly and then jump ship. But some people may not want to close them because of some type of attachment or bond that was formed.
Closing these cards will only affect utilization. It's really your decision what you want to do in the end. Good luck my friend because I am not looking forward to this day myself when I close my first credit rebuilding cards.
@Anonymous wrote:I wish I never got them, but I needed them to rebuild my credit. I got them back in 2011 and 2012, respectively ($250 and $300 limits). Uggh, they haven't increased my limits on these cards and I'm paying $7 and 6$ monthly on these cards. My AAOA is pretty low and these are the only cards that are keeping that up. I don't want to be kept hostage by these cards forever, though. I want to call them up and tell them to shove it.
But alas, I don't want my score to take a hit.
Close them, BOOM - $156 saved! that's better than most sign-up bonuses! They have served their purpose, time to move on
I'll take 30% of the first year's fees as my consultant fee, please and thank you!
Thank you all for the information. Yes, the $550 would be a drop in the bucket utilization-wise. I have $50K+ available credit, so I'm not worried about that. I'm at 14.4% utilization currently, and without them, i'd go up a just a tiny bit. I'm only worried about AAOA. I may try them and see if they will waive the annual fee (I just paid it on one of them).
By no means am I bonded to these cards. They were a necessary evil and that's it.
@longtime_lurker wrote:I'll take 30% of the first year's fees as my consultant fee, please and thank you!
The check is in the mail. You don't report to any bureaus, do you you?
@Anonymous wrote:
@longtime_lurker wrote:I'll take 30% of the first year's fees as my consultant fee, please and thank you!
The check is in the mail. You don't report to any bureaus, do you you?
Your AAoA won't be affected because the closed accounts stay on your CR for 10 years.
And I will report to all of them, including Chex and ADS and LexisNexis, and the local news stations - so it better be!
I agree! Closing them can only help you!
Dump 'em! You don't need 'em!