topic Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card in Credit Cards

Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:38:45 GMT

Capital One recently closed a credit card that I did not use for years. How do this effect my FICO?

Re: Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:16:26 GMT

Whatever credit limit you had on there is no longer calculated in your util (percentage of your revolving balances divided by your revolving credit limits.) If it had a high CL, and you don't have a large total CL, your util might go up a bit.

It will keep reporting for 10 years after closing, helping your history. After 10 years, it will "fall off" your reports, and if it's your oldest account, or if you don't have many other accounts, you might lose a little history there.

You probably won't see any effect on your scores. You might ask if they'd be willing to report it as "closed by consumer." If they won't, just be prepared to explain the circumstances if another lender questions why they closed you down.

I hope there wasn't a balance on the card, was there?

Re: Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:01:42 GMT

Approximately how long did you not use the card before they closed it??

Message Edited by landocalrissian on 07-14-2008 06:01 AM

Re: Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:08:59 GMT

I had not used this card since 2003. I just found it odd to have Capital One close credit card accounts. I still have 2 credit cards with them that are infrequently used.

I watch my FICO vacillate 25 points back and forth. Have others had closed accounts for non usage and how did effect their FICO scores?

Re: Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:55:32 GMT

The moral of the story there is sockdrawering a CC for long periods of time probably isn't a good idea...use it, even if it's to buy a Big Gulp once every two or three months.

The closing of an account generally doesn't effect your FICO score significantly in the short run UNLESS the closing spikes your utilization by substantially lowering your available credit. Another exception is if the account closed is your only installment loan...an open installment loan is generally worth about 10 to 15 FICO points.

Of course, if you bugged CapOne and you've got good history on your other CCs, you could probably get them to re-open it.

Re: Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:59:06 GMT

Well you better use your other account's before they close them also go to the dollar store an buy a few things an pay it off at the end off the month lol. CC Companies is in the business of making money if your not gonna use the product they will shut u down.

Re: Capital One Closing a Good Credit Card

TangMeister — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:02:02 GMT

Exactly. With the current state of the banking industry and banks looking to slash/shrink credit lines deemed "unprofitable" or risky, it's best to regularly use 'em...unless you want to lose 'em. We're probably going to be seeing a lot more of this type of thing in the coming months.

@Anonymous wrote:
Well you better use your other account's before they close them also go to the dollar store an buy a few things an pay it off at the end off the month lol. CC Companies is in the business of making money if your not gonna use the product they will shut u down.