capital one: combining cards

[jonben123]

How do the interest rates work with combined cards? Average of remaining interest rates or do they soft pull credit and give you a new rate? For instance:

Card 1: 10%

Card 2: 20%

Card 3: closing

New interest rate on combined card = 15%

[dragontears]

Your interest rate on the card(s) that are not being closed will remain the same, there is no "averaging"

[jonben123]

I guess my question was in regards to capital one option to combine cards? If I have 3 cards total and want one account, I will close one, and combine the remaing two. Since the remaining two cards will be combined into one account, how do they determine the interest rate of that one card?

[dragontears]

When you combine one cards is "combined" into the other and is closed. The one combined into retains its interest rate

[jonben123]

Ah gotcha. So this combining is not an option if I have 3 cards with them?

[dragontears]

You will have to check your account and see which are eligible for combination

[bustinloose82]

I assume combining will also result in a hit to credit score since it's closing one of the accounts?

[Anonymous]

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@bustinloose82 wrote:

I assume combining will also result in a hit to credit score since it's closing one of the accounts?

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Closing accounts doesn't hurt your score at all -- it stays on your credit report for another 10 years as a positive.

The only way closing an account hurts is if you carry balances and your utilization goes up, but since you're moving credit limits before closing, it should have ZERO negative effect.

Oh, the other way closing an account might hurt is if you end up with fewer than 3 open CCs.

[SunriseEarth]

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@bustinloose82 wrote:

I assume combining will also result in a hit to credit score since it's closing one of the accounts?

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YMMV.  It would have no effect on your AAOA (until the CC falls off your reports in ~10 years), but you may have an effect on UTIL.   

[SunriseEarth]

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@jonben123 wrote:

Ah gotcha. So this combining is not an option if I have 3 cards with them?

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You could combine them all, but not as a single transaction.  And as has been said, the terms of the card you combine into will remain the same; only the CL changes.   The donor card(s) will be closed.