Is now a good time to close my secured card?

[Corifto]

So I've been rebuilding for about a year, after paying off a charged off BoA card that I previously had.

My situation now:

Oldest open card-  CapOne Secured, $200, 10 months old, no missed payments, 9-20% utilization since opening.

Also open- BoA Secured, $300.  2 months old. Will graduate to unsecured within 6 months hopefully.

Opened this month, CapOne Unsecured, $300.

Closed accounts-

BoA $800, opened in 01/08, closed in 05/09

CapOne, $500, 01/08 to 03/08

So with the cards I have open now, I've got $850 available credit, one secured card that won't graduate, a secured that will, and then an unsecured card.

Given that the secured is my oldest, I'm debating leaving it, versus closing it and then building a solid AAoA based on the other two before applying for more cards in a year or so when some of these recent inquiries drop off.

What say you?

[Whitneyy]

In my opinion, I would leave it open and just pay the balance in full and cut it up. But keep in mind of the annual fee so I don't forget about that. I care about the ages of cards. 

[Anonymous]

Does it have annual fees?, if not I'd just leave it if you have no pressing need for the money in the savings account...

[andemalia]

I would leave it open, There is no urgency to have it closed until you get to the prime cards when you in your 700s. By then your BoA and your Secure Cap1 won't have that much difference in age as far as how it would be scored and you might have other positive factors influencing your score stronger. 

I would ask from a CLI, I got an automatic CLI on the Cap1 Secure on my 6th statement from 300 to $600. I would keep requesting CLI if you don't get them automatically. I believe they can CLI all the way to $3000. By the time you have good credit you might have other cards match and go over this limit and it wont be a big deal.

I have my Cap1 at $600, and it's 10 month old on the current statement, in the meantime I got Barclay, Synchrony for $1000 each and Cap1 Quicksilver for $2000 and my BoA which was my first rebuilding credit card opened for a year this month converted from Secured into the BoA Rewards card with a $1500 after 8 statements.

I charge a subway sandwich on my Cap1 secure credit card and pay it off but other than that I don't use it since I have the other ones.

[Corifto]

Is CapOne still doing unsecured CLIs on the secured cards? I've had it for 10 months with zero issues at $250, and have talked to someone in the past, and they confirmed that the card has no graduation possibilities, but did not hint at the unsecured CLI, so I figured they may have stopped doing so.

[Corifto]

So I called Customer Service, and the el, and both said it's a periodic review. However, I was able to request an increase online, through the settings services area, and I should find out in a few days.

[Whitneyy]

---

@Corifto wrote:

So I called Customer Service, and the el, and both said it's a periodic review. However, I was able to request an increase online, through the settings services area, and I should find out in a few days.

---

I did that, haven't found out anything YET.

[Anonymous]

Don't close the card.  You want wait at least a year before you close the card.

[andemalia]

Yes they do.

---

@Corifto wrote:

Is CapOne still doing unsecured CLIs on the secured cards? I've had it for 10 months with zero issues at $250, and have talked to someone in the past, and they confirmed that the card has no graduation possibilities, but did not hint at the unsecured CLI, so I figured they may have stopped doing so.

---

I woke up to a $300 increase on the day of my 6th statement. I did not have to request it, it just appeared. The creditkarma forums have a lot of reviews by people who got the same automatic increase. Usually after 5 on time payments; we always left a small balance (like between $15 ad $25) on it until we learned that paying off better in terms of the general CC portfolio (we already have another furniture store card with a balance). It was originally $300.

[Corifto]

---

@andemalia wrote:

Yes they do.

---

@Corifto wrote:

Is CapOne still doing unsecured CLIs on the secured cards? I've had it for 10 months with zero issues at $250, and have talked to someone in the past, and they confirmed that the card has no graduation possibilities, but did not hint at the unsecured CLI, so I figured they may have stopped doing so.

---

I woke up to a $300 increase on the day of my 6th statement. I did not have to request it, it just appeared. The creditkarma forums have a lot of reviews by people who got the same automatic increase. Usually after 5 on time payments; we always left a small balance (like between $15 ad $25) on it until we learned that paying off better in terms of the general CC portfolio (we already have another furniture store card with a balance). It was originally $300.

---

I've had 10 payments, all on time, all in full, and nothing yet.