topic Re: Should I close some of my accts? in Credit Cards

Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:08:19 GMT

I have the following accounts/limits open:

Orchard 800

Juniper 800

Credit one 1450

Bloomingdales 2100

Capital one 750

Nieman Marcus 2200

HSBC 3800

WAMU 3500

My Util is 15%

I just applied for Nvy Federal card hoping for at least 10k limit on one or more cards.

If I get the Navy card, should I close the accounts with less than 1000k limits?

SHould I keep the dept store cards open?

What is the best strategy to increase my score?

I keep reading having too many cards is not good. I am also reading closing accts can be a negative. If I am able to get the Navy cards I would dramatically increase my total available offsetting the Util issue with closing accts.

Any advice would be appreciated.

All the best

Message Edited by aodmorris on 02-16-2009 07:08 PM

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:49:13 GMT

Well first wait an see if you get approved for the Nvy Federal if you close any accounts close the ones that have a AF.

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

cobaltnv — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:50:17 GMT

Do any of the accounts have annual fees? If so those are the ones I would think about closing. The department store cards are helping your credit mix so I would keep them open. In fact I would keep open any card that has no annual fee.

As far as increasing your score goes you will probably see a jump when you get your utilization below 9%. You will also likely see a jump by letting only one or two cards report a balance.

Before closing any credit cards please read the closing credit cards thread which may be found in the helpful threads post in my siggy.

Cheers

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:52:01 GMT

@cobaltnv wrote:
Do any of the accounts have annual fees? If so those are the ones I would think about closing. The department store cards are helping your credit mix so I would keep them open. In fact I would keep open any card that has no annual fee.
As far as increasing your score goes you will probably see a jump when you get your utilization below 9%. You will also likely see a jump by letting only one or two cards report a balance.
Before closing any credit cards please read the closing credit cards thread which may be found in the helpful threads post in my siggy.
Cheers

I agree.

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:23:50 GMT

I would only close those with annual fees that can't or won't be waived..just rotate cards out in your wallet every 3 months or so and just put a small balance on them or set up a donation or a recurring chrg on it like your cell phone, etc..

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:38:33 GMT

I had a $5300 secured card that went unsecured with BofA. They had a $30 a year fee. I told them remove the fee or remove the card. They removed the card. Too funny!

Going to close my account with them. It will take away from them the ability to loan out a bunch of money (Fractional reserve lending), which will make me laugh.

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:26:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I had a $5300 secured card that went unsecured with BofA. They had a $30 a year fee. I told them remove the fee or remove the card. They removed the card. Too funny!

Going to close my account with them. It will take away from them the ability to loan out a bunch of money (Fractional reserve lending), which will make me laugh.

lol i think u was a bit to forceful with them all u had to do is ask for a product change to a noun AF card many have done it here.

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:47:53 GMT

OK, thanks all.

I will keep the dept store cards.

I will wait for the Navy decision.

I will close the smaller accts with AFs.

I will reduce my util to below 9%.

Thanks for the advice!!

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:39:21 GMT

In the past month I've been able to wack Credit One, Contiental Finance, and Access. I can't tell you how good it felt to cut up those cards and move on to cards with no AFs.

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:08:14 GMT

I have been calling them and just got CLI of 4300 on Neiman Marcus, 700 on Orchard.

Closing First Premiere now and Capital one in the next few days.

Juniper said no, the backdoor is not open until tomorrow. Will try back tommorow.

I think my Util rate is below 10% now.

Hopefully in a few months I will see the difference. Been stuck at 680-700 for 9 months now. At leaste I know why, thanks to the boards here.

All the best

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:09:36 GMT

In general, there's no such thing as too many cards, other than it's tougher to keep track of them, so there's a higher risk of lates, etc. At any rate, there isn't a scoring penalty, although some members with 30 open and closed cards have gotten flags. But t here seem to be no teeth in this one.

When it comes to new applications, there's some anecdotal evidence that having a lot of low-limit cards can make it harder to get better cards. This shouldn't bother Navy, though, and it sounds like you have a good plan going.

Financial writers tend to yap about "too many accounts" --I think they're getting confused with too many apps. Once you have the cards, you're stuck with them on your reports anyway, so let any pruning be selective. As cobaltnv mentioned, a great resource is fused's "Closing Credit Cards" (linked in my siggy.)

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:18:01 GMT

I am AU on Amex with 25k limit. Does this help or hurt?

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:27:00 GMT

AU cards help if:

-- they're older than your AAoA (average age of accounts)
-- they have a good-sized CL
-- they have 0% or very low util
-- they are squeaky, squeaky clean --no late payments on that card's history

If this card fits those points, it should be helping you.

Re: Should I close some of my accts?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:35:06 GMT

Since 83,

1% Util

No lates

thanks