HSBC - Combining?

[Anonymous]

I have two "Platinum Elite" HSBC cards; one for $1,200 and one is $1,500. One has an interest rate that's a quarter point lower than the other. I don't know why.

Anyway, can I combine these two cards and make it $2,700? Do they do a hard pull for that?

I'm also wondering if it's possible to combine and upgrade to a Platinum Reserve, which gives 2% cashback.

Does anyone have any experience or insight in this area?

Several weeks ago, as a side note, I closed my $1,100 HSBC card because it had a ludicrous interest rate that, try as I might, I could NOT get them to bring down to be in line with the other two cards. That one also had a $59 annual fee, though they reduced that to $19.00. Still, I was pretty ticked about them being so stubborn on the interest rate, so I closed it. Don't know if that might be a factor in the combining/upgrading equation, but thought I'd mention it just in case.

[Anonymous]

I would keep both cards...two revolving accounts in good standing with low balances are better than one. Bug them for CLIs every six months or so. As long as your balances are low (and they should be), interest rates really aren't an issue anyway.

[Anonymous]

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TheNewWorldMan wrote:
I would keep both cards...two revolving accounts in good standing with low balances are better than one. Bug them for CLIs every six months or so. As long as your balances are low (and they should be), interest rates really aren't an issue anyway.

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I already have 15 revolving accounts, plus a HELOC which appears as a revolving, so I'm not sure if "losing" one would have any effect?

These two have had high usage over the past year, and I make high payments and are recently PIF, so they ought to be pretty happy with me. I'm not concerned about the interest rate on these two---the rates are plenty low, and I normally do PIF on cards that don't have a promotional rate. There is only a quarter point spread between these two anyway.

I've just noticed a couple of threads where people are combining cards with the same issuer and am wondering what the benefit of that might be.

[Anonymous]

In your case Cheech, you might want to combine...there really are no "benefits" to doing so except ending up with one less account to worry about. If you only have three or four existing accounts, you don't want to lose one, but if you have 15...

[Anonymous]

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TheNewWorldMan wrote:
In your case Cheech, you might want to combine...there really are no "benefits" to doing so except ending up with one less account to worry about. If you only have three or four existing accounts, you don't want to lose one, but if you have 15...

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Do you know if they would require a hard pull for that?