Should I close my capital one platinum secured mastercard

[Anonymous]

Hello..i am looking for advice on whether to close one of my cc with co.

I got the capital one secured mastercard limit 200$ in june 2013. The limit is still 200$ of which i think all of it was my secured amount.

I got an unsecured capital one quicksilver in jan 2015 with a limit of 500$.zero balance.

I got fingerhut revolving acct in mar 2015 with a 400$ credit line. Will be zero balance in mext statement.

I did the shopping cart trick and got express and jcrew each for 250$ yesterday.

I have been getting preapprovals for the capital one platinum mastercard unsecured for the last few weeks.

The question i have is..should i close the secured card and app for the unsecured platinum mastercard?is this of value? The one i would be closing would be my oldest acct..will this affect my score?

Or should the approach be to hold off on new app now and grow the quicksilver (5th statement cuts on june 10th..hoping for a cli)?any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add...i have called multiple times to get a cli on mastercard..so far no luck.

[Anonymous]

@Newbie84,

Congrats on your recent approvals...  So to answer your questions,

The question i have is..should i close the secured card and app for the unsecured platinum mastercard?is this of value? The one i would be closing would be my oldest acct..will this affect my score? - Don't close this secured card yet.  Not only is it the oldest account but also helps with your utilization based on the limits on your current cards.

Or should the approach be to hold off on new app now and grow the quicksilver (5th statement cuts on june 10th..hoping for a cli)?any advice is appreciated. Thanks. - I'd grow the quicksilver.  Is the CAP I platinum card a must have for you?

What are your current FICOs?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply. No..it is not a must have for me but i would rather have an unsecured version than a secured one..especially on that hasnt grown over the last couple of years.

My current ficos are in the 620s for all (exp, equifax and tu)

My only derogatory is one 90 day on the secured card which i am sending GW letters for the last 3 months.

[ScottL]

what is the shopping cart trick from express and j crew you were mentioning?

[Anonymous]

There are several threads about the shopping cart trick that explain it better than i can. In a nutshell..u go to the website, select some item..proceed to checkout..fill in your info and just before u get to payment section you will get a popup saying you are pre approved for their card..you can then apply (soft pull only..asks for only last 4 of ssn) and you will get the account.

To be honest it works only for some people and am not sure if its luck or indicative of credit profile. I have been trying once every 2 months for the past year. Never got the popup before yesterday. Once you are approved for the cards you can close the browser and do not need to complete checkout.

[ScottL]

awesome, I just tried on both sites but didnt work. Do you proceed to checkout as a guest or do you have to have an account and sign in? Do you go past the screen and into payment screen or does it just pop up as soon as you type in your info?

[traveler2005]

I would keep the secured card open and open another capital one card. Then once the next annual fee is due on secured card then close it. As far as the shopping card trick. I think it always helps to go ahead and fill out the information they ask for. Then sign into your account. This gives them the info they need to soft pull your reports. If you get to the payment page and a pop up doesn't come up its either a no go or you have your pop up blocker turned off.

[ScottL]

sweet, i just got it on the J Crew site. It wasnt a pop up, just was there at the top of the page when I got as far as the payment info. thanks!