Exchanging and/or Merging Credit Cards

[Im2snaz4u]

Hey There-

Just looking for answers to a couple questions. Just for some background my credit repair journey started 2 &1/2 yrs ago with a Kohl’s card lol. Now my scores are TU 730, EQ 739, & EXP 756. Just got approved for my goal card a Delta Amex with SL of $10,000. Also just got a BMW Mastercard (the rewards can be used for maintenance and my car payment) with a SL of $15,000.

My questions are about a few of the cards I got at the beginning of my journey. 1st of all, how bad is it to just cancel cards? Does it really hurt your credit? I have 2 Cap1 cards (SL of $750 & $1100) and 2 Credit1 cards (SL of $500 & $1500). I was wondering if I cld have them combined so I’d have 1 Cap1 card with a SL of $2000 and 1 Credit1 card with a SL of $2000. Do companies even do that?

Also, is there. Limit on how

Many cards from a company you can have? Like how many Cap1 cards can you have, etc? I have 2 Citi cards a Citi Double cash (SL $3200) and a Citi Costco (SL $8900). I’d like to exchange my DoubleCash for a Citi Diamond Preferred. Will companies let you exchange one card for another? Or can you have 3 Citi cards??

Any help or an answer to ANY of these questions would be so appreciated!!

Thanks

Debbie

[Aim_High]

Congrats on your rebuild progress, @Im2snaz4u (Debbie) and your recent new approvals.  Those are great!

Do lenders allow credit limit consolidation?  Sometimes.  It depends on the lender.  In the case of Capital One, they no longer allow limits to be consolidated.  I'm unsure about Credit One.

Is closing cards a bad thing for your credit profile or score?  Not necessarily.  In most cases, a card's history will continue to report for age on your credit file for up to about 10 years, but they can also drop off sooner or even much later.  Your credit is new enough that dropping a 2.5 year old card won't matter much in the long term for credit age.  Besides age of accounts, the other factor for closing is how it impacts utilization.  If you have balances and lower your Total Credit Limits, it could raise your total utilization rate.  That would impact score.  Also if you have few open accounts and close accounts, you could lose scoring benefits from the number of accounts or number of accounts that are reporting 0% utilization.  In your case, it sounds like you've got enough cards and limits that neither of these would matter. 

Do lenders have limits on total number of cards?  Yes, that is common but the number depends on the lender.  I believe Capital One limits a consumer to three total accounts.  In my case, I have six Chase accounts and I've seen other profiles with that many or more from various lenders.   Yes, you can have at least three Citi cards, and I believe the limit is even higher than that. 

Do lenders allow product changes?  It depends on the lender and the specific cards in question.  Some lenders do not ever allow product changes.  Others allow them with stipulations to include not between personal and business cards or even within certain "families" or groups of cards they offer.  For example, an AMEX charge card can only be PC'd to another AMEX charge card (Platinum - Gold - Green.)   I believe a Citi Double Cash can be product-changed to a Diamond Preferred, but hopefully other members will chime in with their experiences.  The best idea if you want to do these things is to call the customer service number for that lender to discuss.  While sometimes you'll get different answers from different representatives, it's a good place to start.

[Kforce]

1) How bad is it to just cancel cards?

With out knowing how many cards you have and if you control utilization or not this is hard to answer.  It is best for one to have a minimum of 3 cards and it seems like most in this forum believe 4-6 is even better.  A closed card will usually (>95% of the time), stay on record for ~10 years, so oldest and average age are not hurt.  Utilization can be hurt, however it looks like those cards have small CL's, so no real loss.  I close cards that I no longer need.

2) Cap 1

Last I heard they are not combining CL's or allowing product changes from card owners requesting.  Some have had offers for product change from CAP 1's side.  You can have 3 cards from Cap-1.  As with all things these limits and numbers change and some fall outside what i just posted.   I am sure some one here has more than 3 cards but it seems like that is the current limit.

3) Citi

Last I heard will do product changes, have no idea about transferring credit limits.  Have seen mixed results with DC to/from Costco. but think DC to Diamond would be a go.  You can have at least 3 cards from Citi.

* Sure those that know for sure will answer soon *

[Aim_High]

Also, I'll add that with your other cards and credit options, it might be best to just close those Capital One and Credit One cards.  I'd close the Credit One in particular since they are purely a subprime lender, while Capital One lends both subprime and prime cards.   Also, I listed your cards for comparison purposes below.  All those Credit One and Capital One cards are well below your other card limits and I wouldn't be surprised if they also had annual fees, low rewards, or high fees and APRs.  I think you can do better now. 

• US Bank BMW Mastercard:  $15,000
• Amex Delta Airlines:  $10,000
• Citi Costco:  $8,900
• Citi Double Cash:   $3,200
• Kohl's:  ???

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

• Credit ONE: $1,500
• Capital One: $1,100
• Capital One: $750
• Credit ONE:  $500

[Kforce]

^^^  I agree

Close both Credit One cards and in 3-4 months close the Cap-1's

You are at a point where you don't need them any longer

[Im2snaz4u]

Hello Again-

Thank you so much for your thought out responses! It was all such valuable information. I think I tend to agree with you. I’ve been thinking about cancelling, I was just so worried that it would negatively affect my scores. But the Amex & bmw cards were JUST approved and haven’t even hit my credit yet. I received the Amex but don’t even have the Bmw card yet. So that’s an additional $25k I credit that I didn’t have before and that my scores don’t reflect. My total credit was about or just over $25k, and adding those 2 cards doubles it taking it to just above $50k I believe. So I guess losing $1850 when I’m gaining $25,000 won’t make a diff.

You listing my cards was so helpful! Here’s the list

Citi Costco : $8900

Citi DoubleCash: $3200

Nordstrom: $3000

Discover : $2500

Apple MC : $2000

PayPal Credit : $1800

Kohls :$1500

Amazon Credit : $1200

Target : $300

Those total $24,400 and that’s without adding the $25,000 from Amex & BMW…. And then there’s the Cap1 & Credit1

Cap1 : $1100

Cap1 : $750

Credit1 : $1500

Credit1 : $500

You are also correct about fees!! 1 of those credit1 cards has a $39 annual fee, and neither cards has ANY rewards! Jeez I never thought about that. Wow. Yes, those are getting cancelled.

Again, thanks you so much for all of your help and advice. Lol 1 step taken care of, now I just need to figure out the Citi thing 😊

Thanks

Debbie

[Im2snaz4u]

You are right!!! Thank you!! 😊

[Im2snaz4u]

Thank you so much!!  I think I answered most of your questions in my response to the other person. As far as my utilization goes. Right now it's at 7%. And I try to keep it at or below 20%. I did however charge a plastic surgery and trip on the cards so my utilization went way up for a couple

of months but then I paid all of that in full last month ($18k) so now it is back down where it shld be at 7%. Don't kno if that affects any of your responses. Again, thank you!

Debbie

[Im2snaz4u]

Btw, as far as credit goes, YOU are who I want to be when I grow up!!! Lol!!! 850's!!! I'm SUPER impressed!!!

[MrDisco99]

Regarding Citi... I have 4 Citi cards, so I know you can have at least that many.  Citi will let you change a card to a different product.  Not sure why you'd want to change your DoubleCash to a Diamond Preferred, but I'm pretty sure they'll let you do that.  Combining or moving credit limits between accounts is possible, but they will do a hard credit pull for that.