Closing cards w/ Annual Fees?

[peme6040]

I have 2 Capital One credit cards (was bought from another company) that have Annual Fees.  I don't use them at all and mainly keep them "just in case" and because they are my oldest cards on my credit report.  I've contacted them about dropping the Annual Fee but only got as far as having one of the cards having 1/2 price annual fee for one year.  I had to pay this fee, but I'm scared that if I cancel the cards, then it will hurt my credit score.  Advice?

[Closingracer99]

If you have only 3 cards and canceling 2 it would hurt unless your a low spender or pay it all off before it reports. Those cards will still exist on your report for 10 years so it wont hurt as much in that sense 

[Anonymous]

If you just paid the fee you might as well leave it open until just before you're required to pay the fee again in 12 months. The card will still report even after it is closed for 10 years, that is standard operating procedure. The only potential downfall of closing the account is that your uitilization would increase since the credit limit would no longer be calculated in to your total available credit. If it is a small CL or if you carry small balances on your other cards (or always pay in full), it should not affect utilization much, if at all. 

[Closingracer99]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If you just paid the fee you might as well leave it open until just before you're required to pay the fee again in 12 months. The card will still report even after it is closed for 10 years, that is standard operating procedure. The only potential downfall of closing the account is that your uitilization would increase since the credit limit would no longer be calculated in to your total available credit. If it is a small CL or if you carry small balances on your other cards (or always pay in full), it should not affect utilization much, if at all. 

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He would get it refunded if he paid it within the last 60 days. 

[Anonymous]

Is that specific to Capital One? I was unaware, I don't have CapOne cards with annual fees.

[peme6040]

I have 9 cards all together-6 credit and 3 store. I only carry a balance on 2 cards-soon to be 1.

[peme6040]

These 2 specific cards were bought from HSBC a few years ago. The annual fees were from them, not Capital One

[Anonymous]

I'd contact EO to see about getting the AFs waived permanently...

Oz

[peme6040]

Ozix, i tried that about 6 months ago. The most i got was half off one of the annual fees

[lg8302ch]

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@peme6040 wrote:
Ozix, i tried that about 6 months ago. The most i got was half off one of the annual fees

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Have you tried to PC these cards to no AF card versions of Cap1?  (Not sure if this can be done with cards that were taken over)