BOA CC questions

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of questions on BOA credit cards:

I have a BOA master card and Amex card and want to find the best option:

I want to close BOA Amex card (CL = 5K, newer card).

OPTIONS:

1. Is it possible to transfer the credit limit to my BOA master card (CL = 10K, older card)?

2. Close the Amex card and do online CLI on the mastercard from 10K to 15K?

What are the credit  implications for both the options and which one is the better option?

If i do an online CLI for BOA credit card, i believe its only a soft inquiry and wont decrease my FICO score..

Please confirm.

Thanks

[jforsyth]

I would call BofA and ask what your options are. They're probably the only people that can answer your questions about transferring credit lines.

Why do you want to close the Amex and keep the MC? The rewards on the BofA Amex are better (1.25 pts per dollar vs. 1 pt per dollar). Generally speaking, though, neither of the two cards have great rewards.

In terms of this affecting your credit, refer to this thread about closing credit cards:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/td-p/347190

To summarize, a closed, in good standing account with $0 balance will stay on your reports for 10 years and continue to help your average age of accounts (15% of your score). After it falls off your reports it will no longer be used to calculate your AAoA and will potentially hurt your score. 

If your utilization to total credit available ratio (30% of your score) increases after closing the account, then closing the account will hurt your score. However, if you're able to get your two credit lines with BofA combined before closing one of them, then this will not be a factor, as you won't be losing any of your total credit available.

So, if you're able to combine CLs before closing an account, there will be no impact on your scores for 10 years, and even then it will probably be a fairly minor impact.

Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for yr response.

My Amex card is 1pts for 1 dollar, same as MC...i want to close amex as the MC is accepted in all locations compared to amex.

[jforsyth]

The Amex shown on their site gets 1.25 pts per dollar spent. I would ask if you could do a product change to get the 1.25 pts per dollar on your Amex before you close it.

[Anonymous]

The main reason I want to close the BOA Amex card is it has lower rewards than costco amex. I want to have just one amex card.