topic Re: Closed First Credit Card! in Credit Cards

Closed First Credit Card!

IFtkkdx428 — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 05:09:44 GMT

I’m employed in the banking industry and in most cases I recommended customers keep their oldest credit card open.

Emphasis on ‘most’ as most don’t have 8 open credit cards (or accounts) on their credit report or below 9% utilization or a ‘top tier credit score’ (740+).

I had called Huntington Bank to plaice an international travel notice and it took 90 minutes to speak to a representative. This is actually common and has happened to me 3 times in the past year. Due to this, I closed the credit card when I spoke to someone.

After some thought, I decided to also close my first credit card with Capital One. I have been been wanting to do this for few years now.

I closed my first credit card, after 9 years and 2 months of being open. It felt good!

Age: 30

Annual Income: $115,422 (Household)

Monthly Rent/Mortgage Payment: $0

TransUnion VantageScore 3.0 (Provided by Credit Karma on (4/16:2022): 817

TransUnion VantageScore 3.0 (Provided by Capital One on 4/15/2022): 817

Experian VantageScore 3.0 (Provided by Chase on 4/22/2022): 816

Equifax VantageScore 3.0 (Provided by Credit Karma on 4/16/2022): 820

TransUnion Model 8: (Provided by Discover on 4/4/2022): 839

TransUnion Model 8 (Provided by Huntington on 4/11/2022): 832

TransUnion VantageScore 3.0 (Provided by AMEX on 4/16/2022): 817

Equifax Score 8 Model (Provided by Citi on 3/22/2022): 848

Credit Card Utilization: 0%
Percent of On Time Payments: 100%

AAoA: 5 YR 1 MOS

Oldest Open Trade Line: 9 YRS 2 MOS

Newest Open Trade Line: 1 YRS 7 MOS

Total Accounts: 14

Total Open: 8

Total Closed: 6

Total Credit Limit: $194,500

TU Inquiries: 1

EQ Inquiries: 0

EX Inquiries: 1

Derogatory Marks: 0

Current Credit Cards

Chase Freedom Visa

Credit Limit: $4,500

Card Issued: Jan/2014

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%

American Express Blue Cash Everyday

Credit Limit: $30,000

Card Issued: Nov/2014

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%

Discover It

Credit Limit: $41,500

Card Issued: May/2015

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Credit Limit: $29,900

Card Issued: September/2018

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 1%

Citi Double Cash

Credit Limit: $28,200

Card Issued: September/2018

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%

BMO Harris Bank

Credit Limit: $15,000

Card Issued: September/2020

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%

Synchrony Bank, Lowe’s

Credit Limit: $35,000

Card Issues: April/2020

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%

Citi Costco Anywhere

Credit Limit: $10,400

Card Issued: September/2020

Credit Card Utilization Rate: 1%

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

CYBERSAM — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 05:06:44 GMT

Good for you! 👍👍

Unfortunately most starter CCs won't grow! I closed my starter cards too. Feels good to have decent open cards on CR 😁

It still going to report for another 10 years so your not going to see much effect on your score.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

SUPERSQUID — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 08:10:51 GMT

Hi,

If you browse the forum you will see plenty of folks with top tier scores, and some with dozens of credit cards. i'm a lowly rebuilder.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

redpat — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 09:27:25 GMT

Good for you.

Remember utilization only matters if you are seeking credit, it has no memory. There is no need to micromanage your monthly credit scores. So use them if you can pay them.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

folks19 — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 11:19:25 GMT

You need to do what makes you happy, but I wouldn't close my oldest account unless there's an AF. Instead, I would just freeze the card and destroy it while keeping the account open.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

NRB525 — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 11:20:32 GMT

Yes, MyFICO posters tend to skew Multiple in the category of "number of cards". It makes it easier to close the oldest card.

Congrats on closing the cards. It can be part of maintaining a healthy view toward credit.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

BijouMan — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 12:09:54 GMT

Didn't know Discover could give you that high of a credit limit.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

K-in-Boston — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 15:57:52 GMT

Nice job trimming the fat. Your next oldest cards are close enough that even when those fall off your reports in about a decade, it's not going to make a substantial difference whatsoever.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

unsungivy — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 16:29:47 GMT

Closing your oldest CC, for whatever reason, can feel very freeing! For most of us it was what we could get, and even if it's not a bad card, we've moved on and it's emotional clutter (in my case it was closing my oldest card from 2002 and keeping my next oldest from 2003, which I could justify).

Marie Kondo that @#$&!

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

Citylights18 — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 19:24:10 GMT

I'm definitely considering closing a couple of my cards. I have 6 business credit cards now so my spend is not reaching as much of the personal cards.

AMEX Gold is on my chop list with the $250 AF. I've only had the account for 2 years (May 2020) so my average account length will go up.

Eventually may bump up my CSP to a CSR. First I should unload AMEX points and some of my other awards before I start buying hotels on it and I'm really not flying much where I can take advantage of priority pass.

Generally I'm a fan of trimming and pruning the lineup as a goal. My average account length is right around 5 years and my entire Chase card lineup was taken out from 2-3 years ago.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

KJinNC — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 20:03:17 GMT

In February 2019, I had no credit cards, and I'd had none for many years. In 2019, I opened:
- Citi secured
- Capital One secured
- Primor Green Dot secured
- Discover secured
- Amazon Store Card (unsecured)
- Credit Union unsecured card
- Amex Gold
- Amex Delta Gold

- Amex Hilton
- PayPay MC
- Apple Card

The ones in bold are the ones I still have (and I may close Apple ... and I was thinking about closing PPMC until the 3% PayPal thing). In other words, I closed most of them. I figure it doesn't matter for me since I still have many cards and they are all aging together. I post this mostly to say, closing cards won't hurt anything as long as you don't blow up your utilization. I have never gotten a negative "reason" or in any other way seen a negative consequence for closing these cards, though admittedly, I have a weird profile ... but so do a lot of people on this forum.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

OmarGB9 — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:53:12 GMT

@Citylights18 wrote:
I'm definitely considering closing a couple of my cards. I have 6 business credit cards now so my spend is not reaching as much of the personal cards.

AMEX Gold is on my chop list with the $250 AF. I've only had the account for 2 years (May 2020) so my average account length will go up.

Eventually may bump up my CSP to a CSR. First I should unload AMEX points and some of my other awards before I start buying hotels on it and I'm really not flying much where I can take advantage of priority pass.

Generally I'm a fan of trimming and pruning the lineup as a goal. My average account length is right around 5 years and my entire Chase card lineup was taken out from 2-3 years ago.

Closing an account wouldn't make your account age go up. It'll still stay on your reports and continue to age for up to 10 years, but your current age/average age of accounts won't all of a sudden go up.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

Lest — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 01:36:24 GMT

Just closed my Capital One with AF that is my 2nd oldest and had it to start off my credit history.

Re: Closed First Credit Card!

PlatinumCredit — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 02:16:43 GMT

I too closed my oldest card with capital one. It was my card of 15 years, and they refused to really give me any increases or product upgrades. It was the old capital platinum card that charged a 36 a year annual fee with no benefits to having it. It was only a 3k credit limit, so my strategy was to get an increase on an existing card of 3k + and then close the account which I did. Now all my cards have a cash back element to them. I only have one capital one card left (I once had 3), and that's the quicksilver. Felt good to get rid of that old card, it just didn't have any use for it.