topic Re: Which cards are best to close? in Credit Cards

Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 15:52:31 GMT

Good Morning! I hope everyone is doing well in this crazy world!

I started my credit repair journey about 2 years ago. I started in the low to mid 500s (made A LOT of mistakes in my early 20s). I am currently in the 660s across all bureaus. I have several rebuilder cards and has I have been researching on here, I realize I no longer need them. All of my cards were opened in the past 2-3 years with some of my older ones being the ones I want to get rid of. I will list them below:

Parents Amex cards- AU past 15 years- No credit Limit card

Indigo-2 years old- 300 limit

Credit One-2 years old-600 limit

Capital One Quicksilver One-2 years old-750 limit

Merrick Bank-2 years old-1200 limit

Aspire-about a year old-600 limit

Discover It Secure-about a year old-300 limit

First Savings-about a year old-700 limit

Just approved this month for:

Capital One Platinum-1000 credit limit

Paypal Cashback-2000 credit limit.

I think I am moving in the right direction, but do not want to carry all of these cards, especially the ones with no rewards and low limits. I know my average age will hurt, but i dont want to be overwhelemed with cards. Any and all help is appreciated!

Re: Which cards are best to close?

sxa001 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:07:16 GMT

I would start with the AF starter cards, you can rebuild without them. Out of the ones with the fees I might consider keeping the CapitalOne as there is a chance it will be upgrade when your scores improve a bit more (but the Platinum could become a Quicksilver later with no fee too) Give it a bit more time and the Discover should graduate to a non-secured card.

i.e. get rid of the AF cards, and enjoy that 2% Cashback on the Paypal Card!

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Kforce — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:18:04 GMT

Parents Amex cards- AU past 15 years- No credit Limit card

~~Indigo-2 years old- 300 limit~~

~~Credit One-2 years old-600 limit~~

Capital One Quicksilver One-2 years old-750 limit

~~Merrick Bank-2 years old-1200 limit~~

~~Aspire-about a year old-600 limit~~

Discover It Secure-about a year old-300 limit

~~First Savings-about a year old-700 limit~~

Capital One Platinum-1000 credit limit

Paypal Cashback-2000 credit limit.

My 2c

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Girlzilla88 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:18:08 GMT

@Anonymous Me personally I would get rid of the Indigo and Credit One....then if you want to trim more fat maybe the Aspire and Merrick Bank but that will hurt your utilization taking those limits away just keep that in mind moving forward they years it will affect a little but since you have Cap1QS1 that is 2 years it will help not be as bad of hit But this is just my opinion personally I would keep the DISCO, Cap1 (for now until your others age then maybe get rid of the QS1 maybe...Keep the New cards of course and I'm not sure what First Savings is?!

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:19:54 GMT

Thank you so much! Im super new here, so I am still learning the acronyms! What does AF mean?

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:21:27 GMT

This is what I was thinking, but would my score take a hit with losing all of that available credit? or should i space the closures out.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:21:58 GMT

@Kforce wrote:

Parents Amex cards- AU past 15 years- No credit Limit card
~~Indigo-2 years old- 300 limit~~
~~Credit One-2 years old-600 limit~~
Capital One Quicksilver One-2 years old-750 limit
~~Merrick Bank-2 years old-1200 limit~~
~~Aspire-about a year old-600 limit~~
Discover It Secure-about a year old-300 limit
~~First Savings-about a year old-700 limit~~
Capital One Platinum-1000 credit limit
Paypal Cashback-2000 credit limit.

My 2c

You chose.. wisely

Re: Which cards are best to close?

gdale6 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:22:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you so much! Im super new here, so I am still learning the acronyms! What does AF mean?

Annual fee

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/m-p/88458

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Girlzilla88 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:26:12 GMT

@Anonymous If your UTL is not to high on your other cards atm then you can go ahead and knock them all off at once if you want (You are not looking to do a big purchase soon are you?!) But if you have higher UTL on your other cards maybe knock them off little by little while paying down the other cards so it won't shoot your score down for Upping your UTL

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:29:15 GMT

That makes sense. The only one that I am over 30% on is Merrick bank, but that will be PIF by december. I recently have been able to pay most of my cards off and will have 0 CC debt by the end of the year. No big purchases coming up, but planning on moving next year, so I want my credit to be in the best shape possible before then. thank you.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Girlzilla88 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:32:36 GMT

@Anonymous Yes definitely sounds good be sure to pay them off completely before closing which it sounds like you are thinking about doing And remember if you are looking into HOME buying next year keep it clean of inquiries for a MINIMUM 3 months before Keep us posted how it goes so we can add more DPs for other people that may be in similar situations as you

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Girlzilla88 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:34:08 GMT

@Anonymous On a side note don't have ALL your cards reporting zero as you will get a penalty for that Be sure to have a Bank card with some utilization showing (Below 8% is fine but above 1% since sometimes they will round down to 0% if you put to little)

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:42:15 GMT

When you say Bank card, do you mean a CC from a Bank? And yea, I dont want a lot of zero balances, thats another big reason why I want to get rid of some cards. i dont wanna get overwhelmed and end up in a bad situation.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Girlzilla88 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:50:04 GMT

@Anonymous Bank or Bank Issued card So if you wanted to keep a small balance on your DISCO or Cap1 card You can have all the others at zero and keep one reporting that is fine you just don't want all of them to be zero you should do some research on the 8.9%, 29%, 49% etc UTL so you can help keep yourself in good spots Also look into AZEO that is the method of having one reporting a balance that I am mentioning to you

Re: Which cards are best to close?

HeavenOhio — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 17:16:10 GMT

@Kforce wrote:

Parents Amex cards- AU past 15 years- No credit Limit card
~~Indigo-2 years old- 300 limit~~
~~Credit One-2 years old-600 limit~~
Capital One Quicksilver One-2 years old-750 limit
~~Merrick Bank-2 years old-1200 limit~~
~~Aspire-about a year old-600 limit~~
Discover It Secure-about a year old-300 limit
~~First Savings-about a year old-700 limit~~
Capital One Platinum-1000 credit limit
Paypal Cashback-2000 credit limit.

My 2c

Welcome, @Anonymous.

This is a good list. If the Merrick card has no annual fee, you can delay closing it for a bit.

Your Capital One Platinum is a good approval. With it's $1,000 starting limit, chances are that you'll be able to grow it with time. In three or four months, call in or chat to see if an upgrade to Quicksilver is available. Being able to upgrade Platinum cards fairly early on is pretty common.

Are you using your QuicksilverOne card regularly? If so, it may be eligible for an upgrade to a no-fee Quicksilver. QuicksilverOnes are notoriously hard to upgrade, but if they're used each and every month for a year or more, there've been some exceptions. If a Quicksilver isn't offered, but the less valuable VentureOne is, take it. The object is to lose the fee. After six months have passed, chances are that a Quicksilver upgrade offer will appear at that point.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 17:25:31 GMT

This is good information to know! I do use the Quicksilver 1 pretty frequently. I was dang near maxed out on most of cards up until this summer and have paid all of them down under 30%. I will try to upgrade it in a couple of months.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

HeavenOhio — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 18:14:10 GMT

@Anonymous, you can call on the QuicksilverOne right now. If there's no offer available, try again next month. Keep trying each month as long as it doesn't wear you out.

Note that card upgrade offers don't seem to be tied to balances, light use, heavy use, etc. The only usage-related aspect we've seen is continuous use, i.e. using the card and making a payment at least once a month. And that only applies to the QuicksilverOne. The only criterion that seems to apply to Platinum upgrade offers is that you've held the card for a few months.

I was able to upgrade two QS1s after 12 or 13 consecutive months of usage. The cards were well-used during some of those months. But in other months, less than ten dollars would have been charged.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 18:15:41 GMT

Oh nice! I just call and ask if there are any upgrade offers?

Re: Which cards are best to close?

sxa001 — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 18:45:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Oh nice! I just call and ask if there are any upgrade offers?

Yes, you can call and ask them if it is eligible to be upgraded to the QuickSilver.

Re: Which cards are best to close?

GrandBaker — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 22:18:29 GMT

@Kforce narrowed it down quite well. One additional step would be to wait for a couple months and see if Capital One would be willing to move the credit line of the new Platinum card in to the older Quicksilver one.