Mom2Hannah wrote:
Like many credit card holders, I received a statement of “new terms” for two store credit cards that I currently carry. Honestly, I am not concerned about most of the new terms (which include upping the interest rate to 21.77%) as I never carry a balance. I use the cards only to earn the store rewards, and always pay them off in full every month. The one sticking point for me is that they want to charge me $1 for every paper statement they send me. THIS I cannot accept… I am a model customer who uses these cards monthly and pays in full promptly. I cannot believe they would slap me in the face with a surcharge for sending me my bill.
My question is… How much do you think my credit score would be affected by dropping these two cards altogether? I currently have FICOs of 810 and 801… they are high, and I would like them to stay that way! If these cards go away, then my ratio will obviously be negatively impacted. I only have four credit cards, one student loan, and one mortgage. If I eliminate two of my four credit cards, I am afraid it will greatly impact those scores. I WANT to just cancel the cards out of principle, but am afraid in the long run it will cost me more than $24 a year to lose the cards.
Welcome to the forums!
Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason why you'd rather have mailed statements? My money life got so much easier when I switched everything to online. It's much more secure --we used to have our mailbox raided, especially around the beginning of the month. (Still do, in fact.) Now all they can get are our Bed, Bath, and Beyond fliers and church bulletins.
Anyway, it probably won't affect your scores at all, if these are typical store cards with low-ish CL's (credit limits,) and if you have enough others to take up the slack. fused (one of the moderators) has a great thread on the implications of
closing credit cards. It might help you think through the whole process.
But honestly, if it were me, I'd just switch to online, especially if you still use these cards for rewards. You can always pull up the pdf version of your statement and print it out, if you want to keep a hard copy on which you notate your payments, etc. It does cost them money (printing, handling, postage, returned mail) to send mailed statements, whereas online statements are practically no cost to them.
Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 12-15-2009 04:42 AM
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
