Dillema with my very first Credit Card

[Anonymous]

Need advice,

At the age of 18 (8 years ago) I opened my very first credit card. I was right out of high school and I started working for a company called Citibank... I think you guys might have heard about it. They offered us new employees to sign up for an employee card. I was 18 without a credit card, so I did, I applied for the Citi Dividend Card with a SL of a whopping $500 and due to it being an employee card, they gave me an APR of the prime rate. After 10 months (lol) of working with the company, I decided It was time for me to look elsewhere and left the company. I never called to report this to Citi because I thought they would report it automatically. They never did and I never did either. Since then, I have only seen an increase of $30 but I have always had it at around 90% UTIL up until early January when I finally had a chance to payoff all of my credit cards off, and I did. After I paid it off, I tried my luck to PC it to a Dounle Cash card and as you can tell from my sig, they did it for me at the same terms.

I called them this morning and I spoke to a CSR about a potential CLI and whether it will be a SP or not. She said it will be a SP, so I decided to try my luck. She asked me for my income and my monthly mortgage amount. She came back and said I was declined and that I would receive a letter in the mail in 7-10 business days.

Earlier in the day I called AMEX for my ED card and they gave me an additional 2K after only being with them for a year. I also called Discover and they gave me an additional 1K after only being with them for 2 years. I called Chase too but they said they will have to pull a copy of my credit report and I decided not to proceed with the request.

So, if it wasn't my very first credit card, then I would dump it. So my question is, should I keep it even thought the limit sucks? or Should I close it and suffer the consequences of closing my first card EVER...? How bad is it to close your first card anyway? And do you guys think this might have something to do that it might still show as an employee credit card?

Almost forgot, it has no annual fee.

Sorry for the long story but I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anybody...? Lol

[Anonymous]

If it's paid off and no annual fee, I say keep it and put it in the sock drawer

[Anonymous]

Will it have a significant imact on your average age of account? If not I would give it the axe! Also how many cards do you have total now? I think it may be hurting more than helping, but am no expert on what keeps people from achieving those high limits on cards like some are here.

[Loques]

If it's helping your AAoA, I'd SD it and keep it for the time being and let some of your other accounts age and grow a bit more. Since there is no AF, it's not hurting anything and your other cards are getting good CLIs. Personally, I'm not a Citi fan - I had a Platinum (I think) with them that stayed at a $500 CL for 2 years.

[Anonymous]

The Citi Double Cash card is a very good card. I would not let that one go. It's such a good filler card for those 1% purchase categories that every other card has. With the double cash you will never get less than 2% cash back if you PIF. Low util. and pif, you should start seeing cli's.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses!

@Bureau and @Loques Not sure if it will effect the AAoA. I think it will since I've had it for a while and the other 3 cards are only 3 years old. Here's my cards:

Citi Dividend now DC $530 Limit Opened January 2008
Discover it $4200 Limit Opened March 2013
Chase Disney Rewards $2500 Limit Opened April 2014
AMEX ED $7000 Limit Opened February 2015

I have had other credit cards but have since been paid and closed.

What do you guys think after seeing my cards?

[Loques]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the responses!

@Anonymous and @Loques Not sure if it will effect the AAoA. I think it will since I've had it for a while and the other 3 cards are only 3 years old. Here's my cards:

Citi Dividend now DC $530 Limit Opened January 2008
Discover it $4200 Limit Opened March 2013
Chase Disney Rewards $2500 Limit Opened April 2014
AMEX ED $7000 Limit Opened February 2015

I have had other credit cards but have since been paid and closed.

What do you guys think after seeing my cards?

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A couple of things: it will still factor into your AAoA until it actually falls off of your CR, whether the account is opened or closed. Also, I have a feeling that Citi "buckets" their customers - meaning that the $500 CL you qualified for at 18 may not really grow. I'm not sure about it but I wonder what would happen if you applied for another Citi card? Either way, if the card is not worth the hassle for you, then close it and focus on your other accounts. If it is, then throw it in the drawer and let it work for you!

[Anonymous]

Keep it, I guess I overlooked the fact that you policy changed it to the Double Cash. As by far your oldest card coupled with the fact that Citi Double Cash is a strong rewards card there is no point in getting rid of or putting it into the SD. Use it for all your non-category spend and pay in full. If you do that they will bump your limits up at some point. 

[Anonymous]

Do you know your scores? Could be a factor in why your previous CLI was not approved. That and the high utilization.