was it a bad idea to close my C.C

[mikey78]

Closed Accts:

BOFA C.C opened 1/2003 AF 39.00 CL 500

2 First premier C.C 1/2003 Af 49.00 x2 CL 250 & 300

HSBC Discover opened 2007 AF 35.00 CL 300

Capital One C.C opened 2010 AF 29.00 CL 750

Considering to close

Capital One C.C opened 2007 AF 29.00 CL 2500

was it a good move to close the accounts?? they all were paid on time no missed payments etc..
I just felt I shouldn't be held hostage by the annual fees to help my credit score

[myjourney]

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@mikey78 wrote:

Closed Accts:

BOFA C.C opened 1/2003 AF 39.00 CL 500

2 First premier C.C 1/2003 Af 49.00 x2 CL 250 & 300

HSBC Discover opened 2007 AF 35.00 CL 300

Capital One C.C opened 2010 AF 29.00 CL 750

Considering to close

Capital One C.C opened 2007 AF 29.00 CL 2500

was it a good move to close the accounts?? they all were paid on time no missed payments etc..
I just felt I shouldn't be held hostage by the annual fees to help my credit score

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Before you close any more did you attempt to have any AF waived?

Cap1 for sure would have 

[mikey78]

Capital One said i don't have annual fees but i have membership fee which i'm charged 29.00 at that point I just told them to transfer me to the closing department and sounded happy

First premier C.C's they wouldn't remove the annual fees but they were willing to to credit me the money for the fees but that was before i realized that i shouldn't cancel cards that were going to do such things as crediting the annual fee amounts
but they were charging some weird charges (2 -3 dollars) to my account every statement even with a 0 balance

HSBC wouldn't waive anything or give me CL because they were brought out by Cap One

and the Capital One i'm considering of closing they wouldn't waive the so called "membership fee" or give me CLI but after many transfer's they finally lowered my APR from 22.9% to 17.99% for 6 or 7 months and at that point it will be at prime rate again
Cap one reps are dumb when i asked my what my apr is right now they said 0% uh.. they read that because i paid off the full balance every statement lol took them awhile to figure out my real APR

[ltspongebob]

That was my question as well.  Turns out that the wisdom suggests that you keep them unless the AF is too much vs. the CL.  I closed an old Orchard account becuase the AF was coming due and it was $59 for a $700 CL; not worth it anymore for me, I've out grown them.

[myjourney]

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@mikey78 wrote:

Capital One said i don't have annual fees but i have membership fee which i'm charged 29.00 at that point I just told them to transfer me to the closing department and sounded happy

First premier C.C's they wouldn't remove the annual fees but they were willing to to credit me the money for the fees but that was before i realized that i shouldn't cancel cards that were going to do such things as crediting the annual fee amounts
but they were charging some weird charges (2 -3 dollars) to my account every statement even with a 0 balance

HSBC wouldn't waive anything or give me CL because they were brought out by Cap One

and the Capital One i'm considering of closing they wouldn't waive the so called "membership fee" or give me CLI but after many transfer's they finally lowered my APR from 22.9% to 17.99% for 6 or 7 months and at that point it will be at prime rate again
Cap one reps are dumb when i asked my what my apr is right now they said 0% uh.. they read that because i paid off the full balance every statement lol took them awhile to figure out my real APR

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With all avenues closed and if it fits your profile then you made good sound decisions 

[longtimelurker]

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@ltspongebob wrote:

That was my question as well.  Turns out that the wisdom suggests that you keep them unless the AF is too much vs. the CL.  I closed an old Orchard account becuase the AF was coming due and it was $59 for a $700 CL; not worth it anymore for me, I've out grown them.

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Well, I think there is a mixture of wisdom!   Actually, most are OK in closing cards with AF if you cannot get them waived, and some issuers are more willing to do this than others.

Simply: closing can mean a drop in AAoA around 10 years from now.  For many, their credit will look very different then.   Also AAoA isn't that big a part of the score.   The major impact is in overall utilization, closing a card drops the CL from your available total, so any outstanding balance on all cards becomes a bigger fraction of available credit.  Closing small credit limit cards that you got early on is unlikely to impact utilization to a great extent (although closing several such cards at once might add up).

All this is against the certainty of the AF (if it's not waived) and I think for many closing the card is the right thing, providing you have enough other credit.

I'm an advocate of closing cards you don't want, AF or no AF, so the AF case is pretty clear to me!

[mikey78]

Thanks for the reassurance
good judgement or not it's something i'm going to have to deal with since it's already closed and past the point of reopening

the one comic i find in this is that i can't believe capital One rep told me i'm not being charged annual fee but only a membership fee 29.00
isn't that the same thing?? o.O

but i did tell them "oh OK can i cancel my credit card now"

[mikey78]

i am also considering to close my oldest capital one card 2500 CL because they charge annual fee or membership whatever they like to call it

29.00

on the other hand i'm considering to leave it open and put it in the close and pay the annual fee so they can continue to report to the credit bureaus

and maybe buy a cup of coffee with it once in a blue moon

[longtimelurker]

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@mikey78 wrote:

i am also considering to close my oldest capital one card 2500 CL because they charge annual fee or membership whatever they like to call it

29.00

on the other hand i'm considering to leave it open and put it in the close and pay the annual fee so they can continue to report to the credit bureaus

and maybe buy a cup of coffee with it once in a blue moon

---

Your choice!  $29 a year isn't tons of money, but it's hard to say what value you will get from that over the years.   On one hand, it might increase your score just enough when you apply for a mortgage that you get the best rate, so savings hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.  Or it could get compromised and trash your credit for years!   But, most likely, it will have very little impact. 

[mikey78]

IT's now my oldest Credit card i have now that i have opened in 2007
next oldest are store cards that i opened in 2009

and the other cards i have they were all opened in the past 1 month so they will all be 2013

i guess i'll wait to decide what i'll do until i find out what my application status will be from amex blue rewards which is in process with the recon dept