topic Pay off closed CC or open CC first? in Credit Cards

Pay off closed CC or open CC first?

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 06:20:21 GMT

I've just paid off a high APR credit card and am ready to pay down the next card. I have two cards with the same APR, one is closed and the other is open. Both are in good standing and have a history of on-time payments. What move would best help me rebuild my FICO, pay down the closed account or the open account? I think that the paying down the open account will improve debt to credit limit ratio. But I also think it can't be good to have a closed account with a balance sitting on my credit report for long.

Re: Pay off closed CC or open CC first?

Chris679 — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 09:35:50 GMT

Both cards count toward your overall utilization %. The difference is in the way FICO will score the util for each account. Since the closed account will show a zero limit it is essentially maxed out and that will hurt your score more than the open card. I would start paying the closed one down first and maybe even try to reopen it if the terms were ok.

Re: Pay off closed CC or open CC first?

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:41:11 GMT

Thank you!

Do you (or anyone else) happen to know if I do reopen the account, does it reopen the SAME account, i.e. keep my old account start date (2004 or 2005, I believe), or would I essentially be opening a new account with a new start date that would lower my overall average age of accounts?

Re: Pay off closed CC or open CC first?

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:34:08 GMT

Try to negotiate those terms with credit card company and see where you get

Re: Pay off closed CC or open CC first?

Chris679 — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 09:23:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you!

Do you (or anyone else) happen to know if I do reopen the account, does it reopen the SAME account, i.e. keep my old account start date (2004 or 2005, I believe), or would I essentially be opening a new account with a new start date that would lower my overall average age of accounts?

Explain to them that you want to keep the history on the account by reopening the old one. If they told you to apply for a new account then just say thanks but no thanks.