Closing Unused Cards

[Anonymous]

The store cards would be high on my list to close unless I shopped there frequently and got some benefit from the card.

[Anonymous]

In my personal opinion, I'd keep the Freedom Unlimited, one of the 2% cards, and the Cash Magnet. That Unlimited has a pretty good history, so I'd see if I could PC that into something more useful, like the Freedom for 5% catagories you may use. I have both the DC and the PPMC, but I decided to keep both because Citi has the price rewind and its a bigger bank with future PC options but the PPMC's limit can grow like a weed (from what I hear). The Cash Magnet, while not a super helpful card, has got you in with Amex so I'd keep it. Get rid of the TJX and the Belk (I never liked store cards unless you really like shopping at said store). As for Amazon or Walmart, I'd keep the one is more useful to you (if at all). Both have long history, so I would only close one for now unless you really don't use either. If Barclay's is your oldest, try to keep it open. However, if you have other CCs near that age (like your Amazon, Walmart), closing it won't hurt too much,

TL,DR: Don't close most or all of your 4+ year cards, but close the store cards. See if you can PC FU to Freedom

Also, if I were in your shoes, I'd be thinking about which "path" would be more useful to me, the potiental Chase trifecta or the Amex trifecta (or duelfecta? bifecta?). A Freedom paired with a CSR or CSP would be good, as well as an Amex gold perhaps with the Cash Magnet. Depends on what is useful to you and what point system you like. 

Good Luck!!

[pinkandgrey]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They won’t fall off your credit report for 10 years since they’re positive tradelines so if you aren’t using them and you aren’t carrying balances on other cards, feel free to close them, I would just make sure they’re at least a year old before doing so - too soon can spook the issuer.

Your utilization buffer will go down but that’s the only negative effect. 

There should be no difference between notation on who closed the card when you’re talking about a positive tradeline. Whether you closed it or they did doesn’t matter. 

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+1

I would type up an answer, but why bother when this^^^ is what I would have written lol

[kdm31091]

I've always just closed cards when I found them to be no longer useful, and it has never hurt my score. As long as your utilization won't skyrocket by closing the accounts, you will likely see no difference by closing the useless accounts. You can choose to stick the card(s) in a drawer and wait for the issuer to close due to inactivity, but I don't see much advantage in doing that, since you still have to monitor the account for fraud.

In an ideal world, yes, you would keep the accounts open for a year or so before you close them. As long as you don't make a habit of rapidly opening and closing, though, I don't think it's really a big issue. You don't want to appear to be bonus churning, but I think an occasional closure before the account is "old enough" is totally fine.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure this topic has been asked before, but I prefer a personal response, sorry.

I have a number (5+) of rather useless cards that I haven't touched in a long time, and I will most certainly NEVER use them again. I did read a post about cards being closed by major issuers with 6-12 months of no purchases; I have already passed these timeframes on some cards, with no closures, so I'm probably lucky.

At this point I'm really interested in going down to a handful of cards that I actually use... 

So the main point of this is to ask your opinions on closing unused cards, before any action is taken for inactivity. I know that the card stays on my report for 7 years, and shouldn't affect my AAOA negatively until it falls off. I also understand my utilization / overall available credit would be negatively effected. Should I just go ahead and close cards I never plan on using again? Or keep open for age, utilization, option to PC in the future, etc... but also risk an account closure. I also don't know how much an account closed by grantor effects my credit report if there was no negative behavior on my part. 

Any advice will be appreciated.

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My advice/opinion is that if you know you're not going to use them ever again and they serve no purpose, they should be closed. That's not always a popular opinion around here, but in the end you should do what you want to do. You can also just ignore them and let the banks close them. There's no difference in scoring between whether you or the creditor closed the card.

Depending on your other cards, you may well not have any negative impact at all for closing them. Someone with $100,000 in credit lines closing out $10,000 worth of useless store cards isn't going to see any negative impact provided they've been using their remaining $90,000 responsibly.

Unless you're the churning type who never plans on having any cards older than a year or two, by the time these cards fall off your report you'll have other cards with age to hold things up in their place, so not much concern there either.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on how much you spend in each category too.

A solid 2% on everything card paired with a handful of 3-5% on the categories you spend the most in is a sensible strategy.
If for example you spend $1000 on category X per year is the $10 extra you get from 3% over your base 2% really worth it?

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It really depends on how much you spend in each category too.

A solid 2% on everything card paired with a handful of 3-5% on the categories you spend the most in is a sensible strategy.
If for example you spend $1000 on category X per year is the $10 extra you get from 3% over your base 2% really worth it?

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This exactly; people get caught up in excitement and add more and more category cards. Sometimes people forget about the diminishing returns.

[Anonymous]

I think the store specific cards are useless and should be closed first. Then I would look at any cards not being used with annual fees and close those next.

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure this topic has been asked before, but I prefer a personal response, sorry.

I have a number (5+) of rather useless cards that I haven't touched in a long time, and I will most certainly NEVER use them again. I did read a post about cards being closed by major issuers with 6-12 months of no purchases; I have already passed these timeframes on some cards, with no closures, so I'm probably lucky.

At this point I'm really interested in going down to a handful of cards that I actually use... 

So the main point of this is to ask your opinions on closing unused cards, before any action is taken for inactivity. I know that the card stays on my report for 7 years, and shouldn't affect my AAOA negatively until it falls off. I also understand my utilization / overall available credit would be negatively effected. Should I just go ahead and close cards I never plan on using again? Or keep open for age, utilization, option to PC in the future, etc... but also risk an account closure. I also don't know how much an account closed by grantor effects my credit report if there was no negative behavior on my part. 

Any advice will be appreciated.

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I suggest you have an account closing spree and close all the cards you don't want on the same day.  I did that 18 months ago (closed 5 store cards and 3 bank cards), reducing my open lines of credit from 14 to 6.  There was no impact on my credit score, and life is so much easier without having to worry about those unused cards.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

For reference here's the list of cards, asterisks beside the ones I feel are useless to me.. IE I should've never applied for it... If you want to share what you'd cancel / keep...

Lots of new CC's, some may be over a year, lots of the cards are from app sprees 3-4 months apart.. I've realized my errors, and looking to correct it and drop the dead weight..

Propel = >12 mo

PNC Cash Rewards = >12 mo

*Freedom Unlimited = 4 years (500 CL, moved to prime visa, no other UR cards to benefit, have 2% cards..) PC to Freedom, Keep for Oldest Account

*Double Cash = 3 years (Paypal offers 2% upfront, higher CL, but I do like having a citi card, and I do get good APR / BT offers) Keeping?

*Cash Magnet = >12 mo(another 1.5% i have no use for, low limit, never used...) Close

*PayPal MC = >12 mo (high limit, but no speial offers like I get from Citi) Close

Cash+ = 1 year

*Barclays Rewards= 4 years (worthless to me, oldest CC, will never use, but has good limit, but can't PC) Close it. Use Freedom / Freedom Unlimited as Oldest Card

Prime Visa = >12 mo

BOA Cash Rewards = >12 mo

Discover IT = 3 years

Care Credit

R2G SC

*Amazon SC = 4.5 years Redundant, Close it

*Walmart MC = 4 years

Zales SC

PayPal Credit

*Belk SC (never use) = >12m Close it

*TJX SC (never use) = >12m Close it

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Many of these can be closed. I agree with the other comments to PC the Freedom Unlimited to Freedom. That slot has long term potential if you ever decide to build up a Chase Trifecta, because of the 5/24 restrictions, and value of the Ultimate Rewards (which you might not yet realize, but learnings happen   )