Closing too many recent CC- Advice ??

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Close them. A ding to your AAoA is most likely all you will see on your CR. Plus the APR's on those types of cards tend to be really high.

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OP will not see any ding to AAoA from closing a card, because it will remain on OP's report for 10 years.  

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On the contrary, those accounts will no longer report as active and will not increase the average AAoA. However they will be factored into the total amount of accounts thus making the AAoA shorter.

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This is incorrect information for the purpose of Fico scoring.  Some websites with FAKO scores, such as Credit Karma, may factor closed accounts differently.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Close them. A ding to your AAoA is most likely all you will see on your CR. Plus the APR's on those types of cards tend to be really high.

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OP will not see any ding to AAoA from closing a card, because it will remain on OP's report for 10 years.  

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On the contrary, those accounts will no longer report as active and will not increase the average AAoA. However they will be factored into the total amount of accounts thus making the AAoA shorter.

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This is incorrect information for the purpose of Fico scoring.  Some websites with FAKO scores, such as Credit Karma, may factor closed accounts differently.

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Thx for the clarification

[Blackbeauty212]

Yes, your UTL is the one thing you should worry about before purging.. 

To offset the loss of available credit, see about getting CLIs on the cards you plan to keep. Try the lenders that will do SP CLIs first before taking a HP for a CLI. 

But you should still make a plan to close cards you will never use again. Credit Hoarding is BAD!

[Anonymous]

Credit unions are very adamant about closing cards when you're looking for a mortgage, so if you're trying to refinance with a credit union you're playing their game.

[Anonymous]

Try someone like a Alliant. both my mom and brother got offered Kick-Butt credit cards when they got their car loans. That would take care of any available credit dips

[austinguy907]

I would also not change too much until you refi your auto but, then again auto is installment not revolving and tends to be easier to get anyway because you have collateral for the loan.  Also, with the auto loan I would recommend using a CU and avoid the big banks to get a lower rate out of the gate since most of the big banks start at 5-6% and CU's right now are anywhere from 1.75%-4% for a middle of the road score.

As for the cards I would keep the name brand ones i.e. visa/mc/disc/amex

I would keep these:

Walmart - 6k - has MC version available (sync)

Amazon- 6k - has Visa version available (chase)

Amazon Chase - 5.5k

Paypal MC -3k

Barclay MC - 2k

Discover- 2k

Target- 2k - potential upgrade to V/MC version

Captital One QS1 - 500 (Want to PC this to QS)

Amex BCE - 500

Freedom UL - 500

With the ones to keep I would CLI each of them and try to absorb some of the CL losses of closing the below CC's that way.  Also, with time they will grow significantly better if you garden them and strengthen your profile more with time and letting things age.

Dump these:

Fingerhut- 3k limit (opened back in 2013 to help build credit)

Old Navy- 2k limit (opened in 2013)

JC Penny-1.2k limit (opened 6 months ago)

Conoco/Phillips- 1k limit (opened last month)

Belk- 1k limit (opened last month)

Goodys- 350 limit (opened 6 months ago, for my mom)

VS Angel - 500

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Credit unions are very adamant about closing cards when you're looking for a mortgage, so if you're trying to refinance with a credit union you're playing their game.

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Members have a right to eliminate the board if they want to if they feel like they're playing a "game".

It's not really a "game" anyways. Just don't close out a credit card... It's not too much to ask for if you're going to save 3% on interest on a mortgage. 

@A 200,000 house @ 6.92% = $1,320 a month. 

@A 200,000 house @ 3.92% = $946 a month. 

If you want a close a credit card and remove revenue from a member-owned institution, and then call it a game to earn $374 a month in savings at the same time, well I guess I just don't see the logic.  The credit union is saving you a lot of money either way and you're basically giving them the finger by taking away one of their revenue streams. 

After all, the credit union has to get the money to lend from somewhere, and it's members like you. You have to look out for your financial institution so they can look out for you in return. 

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I think people in general worry too much about closing cards when they don't need to worry.

You are keeping several cards and you will see little to no difference from closing the dead weight. Close them and move on. I agree with you that it's pointless to have a drawer full of unused cards in the long run.

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Agreed!

I used to worry alot but not anymore. Not a big deal to close cards nowadays.. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'm going to go ahead and close them. I will just wait two weeks until after I get my car refinanced so that there wouldn't be any problems.

The last time I tried to refinance my car last year, they told me my debt-to-income ratio was too high. So I have paid down almost $8000-10000 of debt since last year. Today my scores came out to 705, 702, 706. I'm just hoping it is enough to get the best rate!

[Anonymous]

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@Blackbeauty212 wrote:

Yes, your UTL is the one thing you should worry about before purging.. 

To offset the loss of available credit, see about getting CLIs on the cards you plan to keep. Try the lenders that will do SP CLIs first before taking a HP for a CLI. 

But you should still make a plan to close cards you will never use again. Credit Hoarding is BAD!

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I am going to try the 3x credit limit for Amex next week after 61 days. My limit is only 500, so the max I could go is $1500 . I will try a soft pull increase on Discover too, so I can make up for the limits that I am losing. I'm not going to mess with any of the Synchrony cards. They have been scaring me lately.