Credit One

[Schmoopylicious1]

Long time lurker here. I hope I'm posting in the right spot! 

I started rebuilding in February of this year. My first card was a Credit one card with a 300. limit. The limit hasn't budged one iota. I had never been late, never over limit and always paid more than the minimum. I finally got fed up. I paid the card in full last week and waited until it posted to the account. This morning I called to cancel it, and was met with the most unprofessional CSR. He wanted to know why I was cancelling, and I told him exactly why. Lack of cli, annual fee etc...

He had the nerve to tell me I was making a huge mistake. Uh...what???

He looked to see, if after 11 months, I was eligible for an increase. He came back with a big fat no. He said the reason was that my account hasn't been opened long enough. They really didn't offer me anything to stay with them. Didn't even offer to waive the upcoming annual fee. He just repeatedly told me I was making a mistake by closing my account, and tried making me feel guilty about it. 

I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders kicking them to the curb. By the way, my fico scores are so close to 700, I can almost touch it. 😄

[AllZero]

Congratulations on your card closure! Onward and upward.

[Anonymous]

Credit One is a subprime lender, sometimes referred to as a predatory lender.  You did yourself a favor by dumping them.

Do you have another card or cards, or are you now without any open revolvers?

[Schmoopylicious1]

I do have other cards. I have cap1 secured, Mission lane and a few store cards. My overall utilization is 19%. 

[Adkins]

Congratulations on closing your account! I always recommend to request an official letter, on company letterhead, stating the account is closed with a zero balance. Then put that paper with this year's tax paperwork. Just a CYA in case they try any funny business down the road. 

[HeavenOhio]

Welcome, @Schmoopylicious1.

You did the right thing. Credit One will try to tell you that you're harming yourself by closing their card when the reality is that you're doing yourself good. The best advice is to try and avoid Credit One in the first place. The second best advice is to use the card as little as possible and close as soon as possible.

[rostrow416]

If they weren't trying to keep you, there's no reason to stick with them.  They have their purpose but once they aren't working for you, they are time to go.  Once they put the annual fee back on my card, I'll be dumping them too, as of right now, they are buried in my sd.

[Anonymous]

Why wait until they hit you with an AF to cancel?  Wouldn't it make more sense to just pull the plug before that to avoid it?

[KJinNC]

Closing a card, in general, will not hurt your credit except in specific situations that do not apply in this case. Those situations are:

1 - Closing it reduces your total credit limit significantly and therefore increases your total utilization significantly. For example, if you have a $1,000 card, a $2,000 card and a $5,000 card, closing the $5,000 card would likely increase your utilization significantly.

2 - Closing the card takes you below three cards in total. You get a small scoring bonus with three cards.

Financially, closing a card could hurt you in terms of cash back/rewards if it's a card that benefits you in that way and you can't replace, but this is also not that situation.

Closed positive accounts stay on your credit for ~10 years after closing, so, closing it won't hurt your account age for a long time and won't matter by then.

JMO, good luck!

[HeavenOhio]

If you have a small number of cards (three or fewer or maybe five or fewer), the loss of an open card may cause a small scoring ding. But unless you're trying really hard not to rock the boat, the loss of a couple of points is probably worth being rid of Credit One.

When it comes time to apply for a new card, your potential new lender will like the history of the closed card just as much as it likes the history on open ones.