This caused me to chuckle a bit - after reading all the threads of Sych involunterarily closing accounts, I was surprised to find myself in a situation in which Synchrony will not close my account after I've requested it to be closed. Have a $10k CL, 11 year old card that I requested closed on May 20th. $0 balance and haven't used the card in 3 years. Still allows me to log in to their online system, phone system (tells me I have $10k in available credit) and still reporting as open on credit reports. CSRs have told me it might take up to 6 months to close the account. I was really hoping to have it out of my utilization calculation ASAP.
Advice?
To clarify, what I mean is I want it out of my ultilization calculation.
Have you specifically requested to close the account, or just inquired as to when it would be closed due to non-activity? (The "it may take up to 6 months" comment makes me think the latter.) Just as your cardholder agreement allows them to close the account, it also allows you to close the account. If you have specifically been told they cannot close the account, I would ask to speak with a supervisor as there is no reason they cannot and there are numerous data points of people successfully closing their accounts.
As stated by @Anonymous, even after closed the account will remain on your credit reports for up to 10 years. I even have an old Synchrony (GEMB at the time) account that was closed about 15 or 16 years ago still lingering on Experian! As long as there are no late payments attached to it and it is in good standing, that will only continue to positively affect your credit reports and scoring.
The obvious question would be is there a pressing need to close it? It's certainly not hurting you being open. Simplifying and closing out unneeded credit cards is a fine reason, of course, but there really is no harm in keeping it open.
@audioman00 wrote:To clarify, what I mean is I want it out of my ultilization calculation.
Why would you want this? Credit scores aren't like golf; you want higher scores not lower. There is no foreseeable way that having the card open would negatively impact your utilization metrics. It can either have no impact or a positive impact, but with a $0 balance there is no possibility of it negatively affecting utilization.
Hi K - thanks for the reply. Yes, I explicitly requested that the account be closed. When I called them back today to check in, they said that my request was received and that it can take them up to 6 months to process account closure requests.
The reason I want it out of my utilization is that I've been preparing to app with a new lender who agreed to extend credit to me if I can get my borrowing capacity below a threshold that we agreed upon. Closing this account was the last step of that process.
(((edit)))) NEVERMIND....I was slow typing. gl
6 months or 6 weeks? If you want/need them to report accurately (the LAW) and they report it inaccurately for a couple of cycles then dispute it with the 3b's. Right? Isn't that what disputing is for? Accuracy
@audioman00 wrote:Hi K - thanks for the reply. Yes, I explicitly requested that the account be closed. When I called them back today to check in, they said that my request was received and that it can take them up to 6 months to process account closure requests.
The reason I want it out of my utilization is that I've been preparing to app with a new lender who agreed to extend credit to me if I can get my borrowing capacity below a threshold that we agreed upon. Closing this account was the last step of that process.
That makes more sense. "Utilization" threw me off; you want to "reduce the amount of available revolving credit." That reason sometimes comes up around here with some credit unions and smaller lenders, but usually for much larger amounts than $10k. Thanks for the clarification. I would try calling back again. Account closures should be able to be processed immediately while you are on the phone.