topic Re: Closing a credit card in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Closing a credit card

joeyv1985 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:16:43 GMT

All,

First time poster to this board. I recently got approved for a Citbank Double Cash CC, which should arrive sometime next week.

I'm pondering on closing my Credit One Platinum Card(COPC) which I opened up back in November 2019, which has no annual fees. I needed the the credit "bump" to increase my CL, thus decreasing my utilization. There was no hard inquiry upon opening the CC. Also, I closed a Capital One GM card with only a $500 CL back on 11/1/2019, which I opened about a year prior. With that said, should I close COPC? If so how much can I expect a credit hit on my scores? Or should I just leave it open?

Thank you in advance.

Credit One ($1,550 CL) Opened 8/2014

Capital One($4,000 CL) Opened 10/2015
Capital One GM($500 CL) Opened 10/21015 Closed 11/2019
Credit One Platinum($1,500 CL) Opened 11/2019
Citibank Double Cas Back($11,000 CL) Opened 1/22/2020

Total CL: $18,050

Joe

Re: Closing a credit card

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:29:57 GMT

If there’s no annual fee I would just put it in the sock drawer and leave it alone. I don’t know what else is on your record but you appear to have a thin file.

Re: Closing a credit card

joeyv1985 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:41:17 GMT

Hey Birdman,

Thanks for the response. You're correct, my file is pretty thin. Took a hit 10 years ago during the great recessing and I ran into some medical issues as well during that time. Credit Score is now 700+ accross all bureaus and Fico/Vantage Models. It took a while, but I'm back to where I was with a Mortgage and a car in in garage. I think I'm going to keep it open and just tuck it away. Too many opening and closing of CC's will probably raise a red flag.

Cheers

Joe

Re: Closing a credit card

glockrunner — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:37:25 GMT

I would definately keep open your oldest card especially since you have new ones just opened. And keep at least 4 open revolving credit cards.
I went down to 3 and took a hit.

Re: Closing a credit card

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 01:31:47 GMT

I agree with the others. Keep the oldest one open and tuck away. As for the Credit One card, you might be able to get away with closing that one since you just opened it last year. I had the same situation with a Discover card, which I had for only a year around that same time and I don't think it affected my score.

Re: Closing a credit card

dragontears — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:31:49 GMT

The card you want to close is 3 months old? If so, I would not close it at this time just to prevent your report from getting the appearance of a "churner"
A person might be able to look and think "oh credit one is not a company that you churn for bonuses" but with most lenders it is a computer that makes the decisions

Re: Closing a credit card

joeyv1985 — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:46:32 GMT

Gotcha. Thank you.

Re: Closing a credit card

jamie123 — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 17:09:03 GMT

Credit cards are the foundation of rock solid high credit scores that will stay with you for life. A credit card account is really the only type of credit account that if managed properly will stay open for life. Even 30 year mortgages get paid off in 30 years but how many people do you know that have lived in the same house for 30 years?

One of the most difficult areas of credit scoring to satisfy is AAoA (Average Age of Accounts). By having 3 to 5 or more well aged credit cards you won't have to worry about this difficult category anymore. The only way to satisfy this scoring category is with time and yes, that's why you want to open a number of good credit cards as soon as you can and try not to close them.

Credit Card Removal

joeyv1985 — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:04:53 GMT

All,

I'm pondering on removing a Credit One(Highlighted) credit card from my arsenal. I don't really have a long file on my CC's because I hit a bump in the road about 8-10 years ago. Since then I'm back on solid footing and I've been able to acquire some pretty solid/premium CC's. Below is a list on what I have currently, 6 CC's. I would like to trim that down to 5 CC's and eventually down to 3-4 CC's without adversly effecting my Credit Score. Please feel free to chime in. Thanks.

Credit Card Date Opened Credit Limit
Credit One 8/2014 $1,500
Capital One 10/2015 $4,000
Credit One* 11/2019 $1,500
Citi Double Cash 1/2020 $11,000
Citi AAdvan Plat 2/2020 $8,500
Chase Saph Pref 2/2020 $5,000

I was initially declined for the CSP, however I was able to get one after calling the Recon line last night.

Re: Credit Card Removal

recoveringfrombk7 — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:07:55 GMT

What are your balances, if any? There's no reason not to close both Credit One cards if balances are low and your utilization is not going to shoot up. Now that you're getting prime cards you can start to trim cards with fees/AFs.

Re: Credit Card Removal

joeyv1985 — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:13:30 GMT

Hello,

The Citi Double Cash card currently has a balance of about $2400 on it. Capital One has a $500 balance. Everything else has a zero balance. Credit One charges me an annual fee of $95-100 on the older card.

Re: Credit Card Removal

recoveringfrombk7 — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 00:25:40 GMT

If you don't want to cancel it, call and see if you can get the fee waived. Eventually you'll want to cancel it though. 100/yr for no perks is not a permanent card.

Re: Credit Card Removal

Revelate — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 00:44:42 GMT

@joeyv1985 wrote:
All,

I'm pondering on removing a Credit One(Highlighted) credit card from my arsenal. I don't really have a long file on my CC's because I hit a bump in the road about 8-10 years ago. Since then I'm back on solid footing and I've been able to acquire some pretty solid/premium CC's. Below is a list on what I have currently, 6 CC's. I would like to trim that down to 5 CC's and eventually down to 3-4 CC's without adversly effecting my Credit Score. Please feel free to chime in. Thanks.

Credit Card Date Opened Credit Limit
Credit One 8/2014 $1,500
Capital One 10/2015 $4,000
Credit One* 11/2019 $1,500
Citi Double Cash 1/2020 $11,000
Citi AAdvan Plat 2/2020 $8,500
Chase Saph Pref 2/2020 $5,000

I was initially declined for the CSP, however I was able to get one after calling the Recon line last night.

Just close it, and actually close the other Credit One card too.

You can pay off any revolving utilization issues and beyond that it's a non-event from a credit perspective,

I just kicked a 30K line to the curb, my scores didn't even flinch and if they had, I could make them righteous by paying down a little more next month.

Re: Credit Card Removal

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 17:59:20 GMT

Yeah now that you’ve listed your cards and told us your fees I would get rid of both of the Credit ones. 12 months from now you can think about adding one or two.

Re: Credit Card Removal

joeyv1985 — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 18:33:42 GMT

That's what I'm going to do. I'll shoot for an upgrade from Capital One as well. Thanks Birdman.