When would you ever close a Credit Card Account?

[B335is]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Shelly313 wrote:

Question, why would you rather not have a long term relationship with a bank/card that you never use? A relationship is still a relationship and if it is long term, wouldnt you think it would help you in some way down the future with that lender?

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I think it depends on the lendor, apr, perks, and the CL.

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Right, and, personal bias here, for many, relationships with financial institutions seem way overvalued here.   Like many things, banks want new customers.  So you generally do better by going to a new lender and getting a sign up bonus, probably a better CL than you would get via a CLI from your existing lender, and possibly better APRs depending on the market rates.   I pick and choose my products from different lenders (so savings, checkings, COD, mortgage, loans all come from different banks) so I have yet to see the benefits of relationships.   Perhaps in the higher banking tiers....

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I think I'm busted, that's my favorite line!  But I do have to agree, it's an easy excuse to app

I'm closing Amex Delta Gold within a week due to the AF and United Mileage Plus Explorer in August also due to AF.  Given the plethora of Airline devals I have totally re-thought my approach to using credit cards for airline rewards (aside from Cap1 Venture, Barclaycard Arrival, etc...).  I may look at just getting Amex SPG at some point next year and be done with it.

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

I opened most of my accounts in the same period in '07/08, so AAoA is fairly safe. I opened two new cards this year, and will consider either sockdrawer+small autobill+auto-billpay or closing the two smallest CLs. Student loan and a 20 year backdated Amex soon should help balance out the new accounts. 

Why not keep the CLs and the banking relationships? Because there's not much benefit to me in the relationship. Chasing my balance down is not a healthy relationship builder. Rewards on a no-comma TL are like 10% off a single-serving bag of M&Ms. Sure, it adds up, but you have to buy and open a lot of individual bags to save a noticeable amount of money. If the bank wants the relationship, they can give me a better account, and if not, they're probably not shivering in a corner at my closing a $500 credit line. And I'm not panicking over a loss of a mostly worthless card. 

[vpae]

I think it's time for me to close some Credit Cards when my SD or Signature gets full, lol (which is soon!)

I mean, I don't have a bunch of random store cards I don't use, I use all 3 of mine but there were a few that were purely opened for CL/Utilization purposes. Some of the cards I have now were just old TL that I've had, others were opened for BT when I was paying my debt down, and the recently opened cards were for sign up bonuses and large upcoming expenses (0% intro). I will start trimming at some point if I can't/don't have time to manage it any more.

In fact, I did close my PRG about 2-3 weeks ago because AF is coming up, and I am now interested in the Plat soon. I think this is the first card I've ever closed myself. All of my previous cards were closed on request by the bank/lender, during mortgage refi, or charged off. I may have over done my sprees in the past but luckily, there aren't too many cards out there I want still. My rebuild journey is mostly done, it's just about maintaining, gardening, and letting AAoA/score age and INQs to fall off. Thou, a SP CLI here and there never hurts nobody

[longtimelurker]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

Depending on the effects of the new EQ 08 score model, I might reconsider keeping unwanted cards alive, but so far we know only the theoretical effects of the new algorithm, not the effects in the real world.

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Just to be clear, the details about closed cards are just "new" to me, the FICO 08 scoring model itself has been in use for quite a while by some lenders.   So if your scores have been OK, no need to worry.