First Premier Credit Cards

[music2hisears]

I have 2 First Premier Credit cards ( $0/$325 and $295/$475 ). Since opening these two, I've also opened two Orchard Bank ($0/$300 and $265/$500) and a Capital One ($1200/$1500). My next step is to completely pay off the other First Premier credit card. Afterward, because of the high interest and monthly fees and annual fees, I'd love to close both of them, but I'm afraid of the consequences to my credit score. I'm rebuilding my credit and wanting to buy a home later this year, and wondered about waiting until after then to close them. Any suggestions or advice? It has taken me a year to raise my score by 100 and I really don't want to sabotage it at this point.

[chasmith]

You seem to owe about $1700 on limits of $3100.  You can't afford to close those cards until your utilization without the $700 they provide will be less than 30%, IMHO.  If you pay off the second and close them your debt is reduced to $1400 on a limit of $2400.

[phillyguy12]

yea 1st premier is hard, trying paying them off and only charging a small amt to each every month and paying before the statement cuts u may avoid the monthly fee that way because I believe that fee may only apply when you have balance . i would say try to get 350 cli on each of your other cards then payoff andclose 1st premier. if positive info they will remain on your reports for 10 yrs. just find out if when asking for cli if it's a hard or soft pull. if you are trying for a house later this yr u should try to avoid hard pulls as they may ding your score some. if you can't get the cli keep them open unit after you close on your house, but if you call them and say you are considering closing the accounts they will waive most if not all of the annual fee. they had me on the phone for awhile trying to convince me to keep my account open. was offered to waive annual and 100 nc cli and told it's not recommend to close account because it will neg impact score. In Dec I applied for barclay card got approved for 1300 limit closed my 1st premier which had cl of 600 and my score of 684 did not change and did reflect both the close and the new line