topic Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees? in Credit Cards

Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 02:47:11 GMT

I have 2 Capital One credit cards (was bought from another company) that have Annual Fees. I don't use them at all and mainly keep them "just in case" and because they are my oldest cards on my credit report. I've contacted them about dropping the Annual Fee but only got as far as having one of the cards having 1/2 price annual fee for one year. I had to pay this fee, but I'm scared that if I cancel the cards, then it will hurt my credit score. Advice?

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Closingracer99 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 02:53:57 GMT

If you have only 3 cards and canceling 2 it would hurt unless your a low spender or pay it all off before it reports. Those cards will still exist on your report for 10 years so it wont hurt as much in that sense

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 02:55:00 GMT

If you just paid the fee you might as well leave it open until just before you're required to pay the fee again in 12 months. The card will still report even after it is closed for 10 years, that is standard operating procedure. The only potential downfall of closing the account is that your uitilization would increase since the credit limit would no longer be calculated in to your total available credit. If it is a small CL or if you carry small balances on your other cards (or always pay in full), it should not affect utilization much, if at all.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Closingracer99 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 02:55:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If you just paid the fee you might as well leave it open until just before you're required to pay the fee again in 12 months. The card will still report even after it is closed for 10 years, that is standard operating procedure. The only potential downfall of closing the account is that your uitilization would increase since the credit limit would no longer be calculated in to your total available credit. If it is a small CL or if you carry small balances on your other cards (or always pay in full), it should not affect utilization much, if at all.

He would get it refunded if he paid it within the last 60 days.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:01:52 GMT

Is that specific to Capital One? I was unaware, I don't have CapOne cards with annual fees.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:05:45 GMT

I have 9 cards all together-6 credit and 3 store. I only carry a balance on 2 cards-soon to be 1.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:07:45 GMT

These 2 specific cards were bought from HSBC a few years ago. The annual fees were from them, not Capital One

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:35:10 GMT

I'd contact EO to see about getting the AFs waived permanently...

Oz

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:37:46 GMT

Ozix, i tried that about 6 months ago. The most i got was half off one of the annual fees

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

lg8302ch — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:46:22 GMT

@peme6040 wrote:
Ozix, i tried that about 6 months ago. The most i got was half off one of the annual fees

Have you tried to PC these cards to no AF card versions of Cap1? (Not sure if this can be done with cards that were taken over)

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 04:01:18 GMT

No I havent tried. Ill have to call and ask

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 07:04:15 GMT

Would you please share what the annual fees were before you got them to reduce it?

thanks

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 13:25:22 GMT

@peme6040 wrote:
No I havent tried. Ill have to call and ask

Let us know what they say to PCing to one of their cards. Assuming your other scores are similar to the 713 score, you could also apply for a couple new cards that might give you benefits that you'll like, then close the old ones. The HPs will hurt for 6 months or so, and you'll take an AAoA hit, but those are temporary, and between the AF savings, potential signup bonuses, and possible new returns on cards, you might get some good cash savings.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

takeshi74 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:31:43 GMT

@peme6040 wrote:
I had to pay this fee, but I'm scared that if I cancel the cards, then it will hurt my credit score. Advice?

Don't overlook the stickies. This thread is linked in the Helpful Threads sticky in this subforum:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/m-p/347190?jump=true

I'd also recommend looking into PC'ing first.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Closingracer99 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 20:07:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Is that specific to Capital One? I was unaware, I don't have CapOne cards with annual fees.

For any card with an AF i believe by law? or idk I know i read somewhere else here you have 60 days from paying the AF to get a refund with capital one at least

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:43:36 GMT

JRE-the annual fee's are $59 each.

I called Cap One today and the only PC they can give me is for a card that also has a AF on it. So, I'm going to probably close down one of my cards that I realized has a very high APR (26.99%) on it (All my other CC have APR's of 15.99% and below. The card I'm closing also has the lowest credit limit that I have with all my cards. I have been receiving offers from Discover and American Express lately so I believe I will see what they have to offer me.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

peme6040 — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:10:11 GMT

So I decided to apply with Discover. I'm glad I did. I'll be replacing a Cap One card that had an APR of 26.99% and credit limit of $900 and AF of $59 with a Discover card with 0% starting APR 12.99% after that $7500 credit limit and no AF....I'm tempted on closing the other card that has an AF and a limit of $950 b/c this Discover card makes up the loss of both.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Imperfectfuture — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:26:25 GMT

I thought of closing my legacy visa (rebuilder, $75 annual fee) after getting Amex, but was convinced to keep until next annual fee. Adds to AAoA.

Re: Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

Anomalous — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:44:47 GMT

@peme6040 wrote:
So I decided to apply with Discover. I'm glad I did. I'll be replacing a Cap One card that had an APR of 26.99% and credit limit of $900 and AF of $59 with a Discover card with 0% starting APR 12.99% after that $7500 credit limit and no AF....I'm tempted on closing the other card that has an AF and a limit of $950 b/c this Discover card makes up the loss of both.

Not a bad idea. Congratulations on the Discover! Thanks for sharing. I have a similar Cap1 card.