topic Re: Should I close in Credit Cards

Should I close

Anonymous — Sat, 08 May 2010 21:37:17 GMT

Hi all,

I was wondering if I should close my orchard bank cards, or keep them for the history. At some point I would like to get a high limit card, and use that as my primary card, however right now I have no use for any more credit. They both have an af of $49, and the interest rate for the mc went up to 19.99%, and the visa went up to 14.99%. I called to get the interest rate restored but they declined, however they did credit half of the af on the visa card. I have never been late on any of these cards. I have one baddie left from an old cap 1 card on my EX, and TU that is scheduled to fall off next year. Here is a little more history

Macy's- $0/1500cl, opened in 2000

Orchard mastercard- $0/1600cl, opened in 2005

Orchard visa- $0/1550cl, opened in 2007, 2% cash back on all purchases

Capitalone visa- $48/1050cl, opened in 2007, no af

Amex zync- $175.00/ (just made the payment to $0 today), $20 af

Mortgage- 100,000( not looking to buy again for about 5yrs)

Car loan- 6023.00 left to pay. Will be paid off by the beginning of next year. (Will not get another one til this one falls to pieces)

Student loans- $6500

Re: Should I close

Anonymous — Sat, 08 May 2010 22:12:37 GMT

The history will stay for 10 years after you close it.

I would only close 1 of them for now. I think you should have at least 2 cards in Visa or MC category.

Re: Should I close

Jazzzy — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:53:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,

I was wondering if I should close my orchard bank cards, or keep them for the history. At some point I would like to get a high limit card, and use that as my primary card, however right now I have no use for any more credit. They both have an af of $49, and the interest rate for the mc went up to 19.99%, and the visa went up to 14.99%. I called to get the interest rate restored but they declined, however they did credit half of the af on the visa card. I have never been late on any of these cards. I have one baddie left from an old cap 1 card on my EX, and TU that is scheduled to fall off next year. Here is a little more history

Macy's- $0/1500cl, opened in 2000
Orchard mastercard- $0/1600cl, opened in 2005
Orchard visa- $0/1550cl, opened in 2007, 2% cash back on all purchases
Capitalone visa- $48/1050cl, opened in 2007, no af
Amex zync- $175.00/ (just made the payment to $0 today), $20 af
Mortgage- 100,000( not looking to buy again for about 5yrs)
Car loan- 6023.00 left to pay. Will be paid off by the beginning of next year. (Will not get another one til this one falls to pieces)
Student loans- $6500

If you close these, you will still have Macys, Cap One, and AmEx. You certainly don't need the Orchard cards. Your Macy's is much older than the Orchard cards, so you're not gaining a thing in history. The Orchard cards will continue to add to your average age of accounts for approx. 10 years after you close them.

One of the few reasons to keep a card with an annual fee is if you are making more in rewards than the annual fee is costing you. I don't know about rewards on your other cards, but if the Orchards aren't making financial sense, I wouldn't keep them.

Re: Should I close

jaysdad2k — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:14:49 GMT

You might consider what this would do to your utilization if you close the Orchard cards. Between the two Orchards and the Cap One, your total available credit is $4,200. From what I understand, Macy's has stopped reporting balances on the store cards, and I don't know if that is a Visa or not.

But if you close both Orchards you are down to the Zync which reports highest balance and the Cap One at $1050. If you run into an emergency the credit available would be a lot less, and if you happen to let say, $500 report on Cap One your Util is at 50%!

I combined my two Orchards a couple of years ago, so I have only one AF, which was halved last year. You might want to bite the bullet one more year, get the history with Amex and get an Amex credit card when that EX is clean as possible.

Re: Should I close

joestay — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:19:39 GMT

Before you close any account, you should charge up that Zync Card so that it will start reporting the highest balance. This will get your total credit line up on your report. Then start closing the cards you want to close. Then you won't have to worry about utilization.

Re: Should I close

Anonymous — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:19:10 GMT

Thanks guys for your help. I think I will try to combine them, and see how that goes. If not I will only close one of them until I have some more history with amex. I have an emergency fund so I'm not too worried about having to use my card for that, but thanks for the heads up