Hi, everyone.
Another newbie, here - forums have been VERY educational. Asking for some advice here:
I'm rebuilding credit, really just started last year after a year on a secured card w/my bank. Got switched to unsecured w/my bank, then got pre-approved offers on several cards, including an AmEx green card.
Got a Chase British Airways CC, a retail card and the AmEx Green , then got an offer for the AE Gold, called and switched to Gold. After a few months of charging and PIFing $200-$300/month, they gave me the Select Items to Pay Later Option.
In Jan. 08, I had run up very high util on all my cards, and had about $600 on the revolving part of AEGold, had charged the approx. $200 I knew I'd be able to PIF for that month (plus the small payment on the revolving part), then had a medical emergency with one of my cats and ended up cornered into throwing another $250 onto my AmEx card, which I did only because I thought I'd be able to move some of it to 'pay later'.
I'd still been paying much more than minimums on all my cards, most months, no lates at all. No hints at all of any probs/changes/issues with AE. After taking care of all my other bills on Sunday 2/17 after my AE statement had cut, I went to pay what I could on that and figure out which charges I needed to move to the revolving part of it and got a "Sorry, can't approve your request" message.
I called CS, was told they didn't see any probs and I should call the Credit Dept. on Monday - it was probably just a technical glitch on AE's end. Called CD on Monday and was told they'd reviewed my account (was this the FR so many people have mentioned on here?) and credit profile (or whatever it's called) and decided to suspend my Pay Later option.
Fortunately, I still had some savings I was able to tap to cover the inordinate $450 due, but not everyone will be so lucky, so I wanted to warn people about this.
I do NOT want to keep this card!! How they handled this was reprehensible.
Any suggestions for how I might be able to cancel it after paying it off, without it hitting my score to hard?
Also, on a related note, in trying to figure out how to do so on my own, I contacted my bank to see if they'd be willing to do a CLI on my card with them (so I could then do a BT of my remaining AE balance and, I hoped, cancel AE but keep my overall total credit). Bank said no-go because of high util on all my cards (no inq on this - I was denied pre-inq because of my high util with them).
I then considered gritting my teeth and asking AE to convert me to a no-fee regular CC, so that I at least wasn't paying the beggars $110 (or maybe $150 now) a year for a card I refuse to use anymore except to keep it active and reporting. They said they couldn't just convert a charge card to a regular CC, and that I'd have to go thru the entire app/credit inq process all over. I held off and decided to consult you-all on here.
Any point in applying for a new card w/anybody with these scores, especially since my own bank denied me a CLI and AmEx yanked the Pay Later privilege? Or any other suggestions for how I might get rid of my Gold Card without hurting my score too much?
I'd appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.
as of 2/26/08, my scores were TU: 637 EQ 635 EX 622 (all my past inqs were on EX).
