topic Re: Closing CCs? in Credit Cards

Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 05:35:01 GMT

My first ever cc was the Capital One Securred card I got when I was 21. They gave me 200$ with a 49$ deposit and it’s been moved up to 500$ within the first year of opening it. I am now 26 years old and that secured card is my oldest credit line.

Should I close it? I don’t use it except for my Apple Music subscription. But other than that I don’t even have the physical card anymore. Since then I have brought my credit score to around 755-765.

Should I cancel my Kohl’s, AE(American eagle), and slate cards along with my secured just to get rid of some cards? I never use any of them. Right now I’m around 2,800$ in cc debt on a 0% promo on the cash + so I’m around 15-16% of credit utilization I believe maybe less

Thank you in advance for replies. Using my iPhone so might have misspelling
My credit cards I have so far are in rank of age

Capital One secured 500$
Kohls 300$
US Bank Cash Rewards 6,000$
American Eagle 400$
Chase Slate 500$
Chase Freedom 4,500$
Amex Everyday 9,000$
Discover IT 3,400$
US Bank Cash Plus 5,000$
US Bank 365 5,000$
US Bank Platinum 16,400$

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 06:25:34 GMT

If no annual fee, i'd keep them as it helps your history and average age of accounts. If you have an AF, I'd look into upgrading the card into something without one. Also might want to request a credit limit increase. Any cards you don't use, make sure you have alerts set up for when a charge is made to protect against fraud.

Re: Closing CCs?

HeavenOhio — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 21:04:22 GMT

You're not going to change your utilization by much, so there are no worries there.

What are the ages of your accounts? Will your AoOA (age of oldest account) and AAoA (average age of accounts) eventually be dropping by much? If not, go ahead and close. You might want to close Capital One anyway if it hasn't unsecured.

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:46:19 GMT

IT's not just AAOA, its also how old your oldest account is, which is a factor. Keeping open your oldest account is a good idea if you can without an AF. I still have my credit line from when I was 21, and its a factor on my scores still to this day.

Re: Closing CCs?

UpperNwGuy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:52:01 GMT

I would go ahead and close all four of them and focus your energies on the cards with larger credit limits. Also, you have four US Bank cards. That's too many from one bank. See if you can combine them so that you're left with only two US Bank Cards.

Re: Closing CCs?

fltireguy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:08:44 GMT

I would close it.
First of all, the people that are saying keep it open for average age of accounts are incorrect. The card even if you close it today, will continue to report it's positive history for the next 10 years. It won't have any effect on the age overall.

Second, with the credit limit, it's virtually useless this point anyway.

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:10:20 GMT

The secured card does have an annual fee of 30$

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:24:34 GMT

About the4 from usbank I have to call and reallocate to combine but they wont do it

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:33:12 GMT

I have tried to call in the past but they won’t reallocate the credit. Sorry for the typos

Re: Closing CCs?

galahad15 — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:42:47 GMT

Just curious if you have considered asking US Bank to PC your Cash Rewards card to another Cash+?

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:51:54 GMT

@fltireguy wrote:
I would close it.
First of all, the people that are saying keep it open for average age of accounts are incorrect. The card even if you close it today, will continue to report it's positive history for the next 10 years. It won't have any effect on the age overall.

Second, with the credit limit, it's virtually useless this point anyway.

It won't necessarily continue reporting that long, many times its removed far earlier than that. As I mentioned, I still have my oldest account now that is at 24 years of history opened when I was 21, that has a very positive impact on my credit history -- keeping your oldest account active is definitely helpful.

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:20:08 GMT

I could call about PC my cash rewards. Do you know if it would be a hard pill?

Re: Closing CCs?

UpperNwGuy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:38:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@fltireguy wrote:
I would close it.
First of all, the people that are saying keep it open for average age of accounts are incorrect. The card even if you close it today, will continue to report it's positive history for the next 10 years. It won't have any effect on the age overall.

Second, with the credit limit, it's virtually useless this point anyway.
It won't necessarily continue reporting that long, many times its removed far earlier than that. As I mentioned, I still have my oldest account now that is at 24 years of history opened when I was 21, that has a very positive impact on my credit history -- keeping your oldest account active is definitely helpful.

I closed my oldest account with 43 years of history four months ago. My credit score has not decreased. And it won't, because closed cards stay on your record for 10 years.

By the way, I just checked my most recent Experian credit report, and it is still reporting a Synchrony account that closed in October 2007, nine years and eleven months ago!

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:37:18 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
@fltireguy wrote:
I would close it.
First of all, the people that are saying keep it open for average age of accounts are incorrect. The card even if you close it today, will continue to report it's positive history for the next 10 years. It won't have any effect on the age overall.

Second, with the credit limit, it's virtually useless this point anyway.
It won't necessarily continue reporting that long, many times its removed far earlier than that. As I mentioned, I still have my oldest account now that is at 24 years of history opened when I was 21, that has a very positive impact on my credit history -- keeping your oldest account active is definitely helpful.

I closed my oldest account with 43 years of history four months ago. My credit score has not decreased. And it won't, because closed cards stay on your record for 10 years.

Sure, it doesnt hurt you now because you have a long credit history. But with someone with a short credit history aging accounts is very important. Closed accounts do not always stay on for 10 years, thats a huge misunderstanding. They usually do, but not always.

Re: Closing CCs?

UpperNwGuy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:41:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
@fltireguy wrote:
I would close it.
First of all, the people that are saying keep it open for average age of accounts are incorrect. The card even if you close it today, will continue to report it's positive history for the next 10 years. It won't have any effect on the age overall.

Second, with the credit limit, it's virtually useless this point anyway.
It won't necessarily continue reporting that long, many times its removed far earlier than that. As I mentioned, I still have my oldest account now that is at 24 years of history opened when I was 21, that has a very positive impact on my credit history -- keeping your oldest account active is definitely helpful.

I closed my oldest account with 43 years of history four months ago. My credit score has not decreased. And it won't, because closed cards stay on your record for 10 years.
Sure, it doesnt hurt you now because you have a long credit history. But with someone with a short credit history aging accounts is very important. Closed accounts do not always stay on for 10 years, thats a huge misunderstanding. They usually do, but not always.

I just checked my most recent Experian credit report, and it is still reporting a Synchrony account that closed in October 2007, nine years and eleven months ago!

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:49:18 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
I just checked my most recent Experian credit report, and it is still reporting a Synchrony account that closed in October 2007, nine years and eleven months ago!

Hence the comment "They usually do, but not always." You should strive to get your average age of accounts north of 20 years, so closing accounts can put a damper on that goal.

Re: Closing CCs?

digitek — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:55:42 GMT

Can anyone put to hard facts about how Age of Oldest Account effects FICO scoring?

I'm not talking about how the oldest account weighs into the Average Age of Accounts, which it does, but just Age of Oldest Account by it's own.

Since accounts only show for 10 years, the day you close your oldest account you start a 10 year timer where the Age of Oldest Account will change to your next oldest account.

Since I refinanced my house and effectively closed my old mortgage, I have almost a 5 year gap between my oldest account and my second oldest. I'm all about closing unused CC's, I have done it a few times myself, but not my oldest, it's that USAA Amex in my sig, just have Netflix on it and Autopay. Hope they never close it =D

Re: Closing CCs?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:53:27 GMT

@digitek wrote:
Can anyone put to hard facts about how Age of Oldest Account effects FICO scoring?

I'm not talking about how the oldest account weighs into the Average Age of Accounts, which it does, but just Age of Oldest Account by it's own.

Since accounts only show for 10 years, the day you close your oldest account you start a 10 year timer where the Age of Oldest Account will change to your next oldest account.

Since I refinanced my house and effectively closed my old mortgage, I have almost a 5 year gap between my oldest account and my second oldest. It's that USAA Amex in my sig, just have Netflix on it and Autopay. Hope they never close it =D

DIfficult to put an exact %, but according to myfico, 15% of your credit score is "lengh of credit history". This is further broken into 2 categories -- average age of accounts and oldest account. From the site: "Most high achievers have an average age of 9 years or more". "High achievers opened their oldest account 25 years ago on average".

Re: Closing CCs?

galahad15 — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:54:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I could call about PC my cash rewards. Do you know if it would be a hard pill?

Sorry not 100% sure, but as far as I am aware and to the best of my understanding, most (all?) cc issuers should be open to considering a PC request without a HP. I have had a dozen or so PCs on my current card collection over the past 4 years or so, and none of them were ever a HP. ETA: I do know that there were quite a few forum posters who were able to successfully PC their Cash Rewards cards to Cash+, maybe one of them could hopefully chime in as well?

Re: Closing CCs?

digitek — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 18:03:01 GMT

Thanks for that info, I had not seen that before.

If my oldest had an AF and I didn't use it I'd probably close it, but if it had no AF I would not close it. I'll close all other CC's that I don't use anymore, and have closed a few, but not my oldest.