@ddemari wrote:
I am still rebuilding my credit and my score cant break 660. I have opened a bit too many cards over the past two years, which has hurt me. I know everyone says you shouldnt close cards but mostly because of utilization? I have 11 credit/ store cards with only one card reporting a snall balance, total uti 1-2%. I decided to close merrick bank because of the monthly fee, small limit and huge interest.
I am working hard on getting my AAOA
up and now i am worried that I made a mistake closing that card. Should i be worried or relax lol?
Relax, it won't hurt you at all AAOA wise other than it starts the 10 year clock running where it falls off your report: FICO calculates AAOA on both open and closed tradelines, so no problem now. That's a pretty trivial penalty, as you noted the main concern is utilization which sounds like you have a fantastic handle on.
Honestly fees on unused cards are among the best reasons to close a credit card: out of my 3 starter cards, I've closed one, another I PC'd and got the AF permanently removed on, and the third is still sitting as a $0 AF tradeline farm which I need to recycle someday as it's a secured card but not reporting secured for whatever reason, but eventually I'll want the deposit back for something else... just trying to keep my credit clean for potential business card PG's in the near future, otherwise I'd be doing that sort of soonish.
