topic Re: How bad would this hurt? in Credit Cards

How bad would this hurt?

Officer737 — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:39:58 GMT

I opened my Cap 1 secured card in August of 2015 to kick start my rebuild. Since then I have added some nice cards to my stack and I am considering closing this card out. How bad can I expect this to hurt me if I close it? It has been opened since August '15 ans only has a $250 limit on it? Or would I be better off to SD it until after 1 year or so?

Re: How bad would this hurt?

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:51:57 GMT

Close it. You have a number of better cards at this time, and you don't need a low limit secured card weighing down your profile.

Re: How bad would this hurt?

Officer737 — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:55:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Close it. You have a number of better cards at this time, and you don't need a low limit secured card weighing down your profile.

-thumbsup- That is what I was thinking but was wondering what the gurus thought! Figure it would open a slot for a better Cap 1 card like a QS if nothing else.

Re: How bad would this hurt?

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:54:29 GMT

I closed mine when the annual fee kicked in. I had moved on to better cards, as you have, and it wasn't good enough even for the sock drawer once it started costing me money. I would do the same if I were you. Let it sit, keep an eye out, and when they charge the annual fee, call to cancel. They will refund the fee and your opening deposit.

Re: How bad would this hurt?

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 02:23:51 GMT

@Officer737 wrote:
I opened my Cap 1 secured card in August of 2015 to kick start my rebuild. Since then I have added some nice cards to my stack and I am considering closing this card out. How bad can I expect this to hurt me if I close it? It has been opened since August '15 ans only has a $250 limit on it? Or would I be better off to SD it until after 1 year or so?

Personally I tend to keep an account for at least a year to avoid any type of suspicion I could be churning accounts. This would almost always only be involved in a manual review of my accounts. I would be surprised if an online app would evaluate the length of time an account was open.

In your case, I dont see any type of score penalty involved with closing it out now.

Since it only has a 250 CL, I think you easily have it covered with other accounts so your UTI will not notice it.

An account that is in good standing will continue to show in your AAoA for 10 years, so again, no penalty there.

So no score penalty for closing it now.

I agree with the others, not having it should make your profile look better.

If you were to consider making an app for another Cap1 card, I would recommend waiting at least a couple days so that it filters through all of their data bases that it is closed.

HTH

Re: How bad would this hurt?

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 02:48:58 GMT

It looks like you've already been approved for a better Cap1 card, so you can close it whenever.

Re: How bad would this hurt?

creditguy — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 03:11:27 GMT

Pack it's bags, walk it to the gate and send it on its way, it's time for that cards departure. You will be fine your in a good position now and that $250 will do your more good in your pocket than sitting somewhere at cap one.

Re: How bad would this hurt?

Officer737 — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 14:24:45 GMT

@creditguy wrote:
Pack it's bags, walk it to the gate and send it on its way, it's time for that cards departure. You will be fine your in a good position now and that $250 will do your more good in your pocket than sitting somewhere at cap one.

LOL this cracked me up a little.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I went ahead and closed it.I agree with generally keeping accounts open for 1 year but figured the low limit might look worse than a low time frame under a manual review. I have a little more than $50k of available credit in my profile, 15% utilization so figured the $250 wouldn't be that big of a loss. The little card served it's purpose which opened the doors for the cards. If Cap 1 would have been a bit more proactive on making the card a little more appealing to keep it may have been worth it. I am going to wait probably a month or more before I even think of trying another card with Cap 1, I want to groom and grow some of my other cards more unless they throw "an offer I can't refuse" at me. lol