New to this site - closing a card or two?

[rgd51]

I am a 29 year old male who lives near Salt Lake City and this is my first post.

My credit history dates back to right after I graduated college at 22 I got my first credit card which was the quicksilver one from capital one.

I just bought my 1st house in August of last year and my credit score was like 762 when I got it which gave me the best interest rates with chase (I had also put 20% down so that probably helped). I held off from opening new credit cards until getting the mortgage since I needed my credit score to be as high as possible which turned out to be the right decision. 

However, after I got the mortgage I went crazy and opened like a half dozen credit cards over the next 5 months to take advantage of rewards and save money. In my over 6 years of credit history I have never had a late payment or paid a penny of interest. I always pay my balances in full. I feel like I may have opened one or two cards too many and was wondering if I should close any of them. I currently have the following credit cards:

Capital one venture one which was originally a quicksilver one and my first card which I got in September 2014. I had asked to upgrade it to the regular quicksilver but they wouldn't let me and only gave me the venture one as an option. Rewards rate isn't very good but at least this card doesn't have a fee. I only keep it open since it is my oldest card. If I could have it my way I would ask to convert it to the capital one walmart card. $3,500 credit limit.

Target Mastercard which is my 2nd card. I got it in December 2015. I use this card a lot since I get most my groceries and video games at target. Very simple card that gives me 5% discount right at the register rather than dealing with redeeming rewards. Target upgraded it from a store only card to a Mastercard a couple years back. I am definitely keeping this card! $7,500 credit limit.

Chase freedom flex which i use to pay my cell phone bill since it gives cell phone insurance. I also use it anytime I go to a restaurant since I get 3% cash back on dining. Also use it for medications since it gives 3% back for drug store purchases. The 5% rotating bonus categories each quarter i also take advantage of. This is my best all around card. I got it maybe 3 months ago. $7,500 credit limit.

Amazon visa rewards card from chase. I am an occasional Amazon shopper so i use it to get 3% back on Amazon purchases. I originally made an impulsive application to get a $50 gift card from amazon but it gives solid cash back whenever I shop there so I will keep this card. $6,500 credit limit. Got it about 3 months ago.

Sinclair green card. This one doesn't report to the credit bureaus but I had to have a hard inquiry to get it. Gives me 15 cents per gallon off at a lot of the sinclair gas stations around here. It doesn't charge interest but the entire balance is due on the due date. $600 credit limit and I will keep this card for its great savings on gas. I get costco level gas prices when using this card! Got it about a year ago.

Chevron Texaco techron advantage visa from synchrony bank. Gives a constant 3 cents off per gallon but many chevron stations near me give an extra 10 cents a gallon off at the pump when I buy gas with the card. Sometimes there can be promotional offers where for this month I am getting an extra 30 cents a gallon off than normal which totals to 43 cents a gallon at some chevron stations. Got it about a year ago and it has a $1,000 credit limit.

Capital one quicksilver which i applied for since they wouldn't let me upgrade my quicksilver one/venture one to the regular quicksilver. I get 1.5% cash back on all purchases so I use this card for any purchases that don't give higher rewards on my other cards. Got it a couple weeks ago and it has a $1,000 limit. I applied for this one after getting denied for the citi double cash a couple months ago due to too many recent inquiries. Capital one cards give rewards so frequently and their app and customer service have always been top notch so I decided to get another card from them. I then applied to their Walmart card yesterday but got denied without them running a hard inquiry. They said they didn't run a hard pull and denied me because I had just recently opened the quicksilver. They suggested waiting 6 months and then reapplying since that is the only reason I was denied. What they said is true since a hard pull never showed up on my report. I was also denied for the Alliant 2% cash back visa due to too many recent inquiries.

Best buy platinum visa from citi. This is my least favorite card along with the venture one (I keep the venture one open since it is my oldest account and for no other reason). Got it a couple months ago and I somewhat regret it. I got it to save 10% on the star wars 4k box set of the whole Skywalker saga and wasn't worried much about my credit score since I had already gotten my mortgage and am a few years from paying off my truck so I won't be looking for a loan anytime soon. The 5% back in rewards is solid for a store card but the redemption process is not ideal. You can only redeem in $5 increments and they are gift cards that have expiration dates. Sometimes I get an email saying I will get a $10 gift card if I spend $100 on dining by a certain date. I have done that since that is basically 10% cash back. However, I can buy nearly everything that best buy sells at target as well and get an immediate 5% off the purchase rather than dealing with the best buy cards atrocious redemption process. I have a $10,000 credit limit on this card. If I were to close a card it would be either this one or the chevron but at least the chevron one takes 10 cents per gallon off at the pump at the chevron station a couple miles from my house.

If I were to cancel a card or 2 what would you recommend? My fico score according to experian was 740 as of 12/21/2020 which is lower than the 805 i had a couple years ago. Probably went down due to getting an auto loan, mortgage, and all these credit cards. 

[cem13]

Welcome to the MFer family.  Why do you want to cancel any credit cards (CC)?  It seems like none of these has an annual fee (AF).  So there is really no benefit to cancelling a CC at this point.  Keep them open and let them age (we call it "sock drawer them").  As these cards age, your Average Age of Accounts (AAoA) will get higher.  These will still report for the next 10 years and you will get the benefit of increasing AAoA; however, when a closed CC does drop off your report, your AAoA will take a hit.  

AAoA is a factor in credit decision making by lenders.  If you AAoA is very high (say over 10 years) then you will get a nice kick to your FICO score.  A higher AAoA show you have a mature credit file and you have demonstrated responsible credit behaviors (assuming no baddies elsewhere).  As you know, higher FICO score equals better rates and higher starting limits (SL) on CCs.

To answer your question directly, you need to determine what your "mission" is, so it varies from person to person.   Which cards are less apealing to you?  Some people carry a balance from month to month so low APR is desired.  Some people manage the point categories from quarter to quarter and will rotate their cards (I do not spend the time for points).  

I  have a Delta Amex that has 25% APR and AF but I like the benefits it give me.  I also have a low APR card to carry a small balance.  I also have the Citi Double Cash card that give me 2% on all purchases.  I have a Lowes/Menards card to take advantage of special financing and other deals in the home improvement category.  Most of my cards are all high limit cards ranging from $10k to 25K with a few $5K cards in my sock drawer to keep my AAoA up.

The only disadvantage for me is I have 15 CC that I have to rotate (use yearly for minor purchases to show use).  Some lenders will close CC if it is not being used.  Barclays is one such lender.  I rotate my cards at Christmas time and put small charges every year.  This year with COVID19, I shopped mostly on-line and not in stores.  So I did not rotate my cards.  Yesterday I received an email from Barclays telling me that they will close my card if I do not use it within 30 days.  No problem, I will buy gas so a pack of gum.

[AverageJoesCredit]

I wouldnt close a thing, just let them age your profile. Its not hurting you to have them open so why hurt their feelings by closing them . Cards need homes too

[Slabenstein]

If the Best Buy and Chevron cards are the ones you think you would close if you were to close a card or two, then those are the two I would recommend.  The others you've stated you get age or good use from, or both.  In and of itself, I don't think there's anything wrong with closing a no-AF card that isn't anchoring your account ages.  Even in the sock drawer, a card does require some minimal upkeep--basically, remembering to put a maintenance swipe on it now and then and monitoring it for fraud--so if you have a card that you don't think is worth that attention investment, that's a reason to close it, imo.  As stated above, a closed card should stay on your reports for up to 10 years, and, when it does fall off, your other open cards will be that much older, so I wouldn't worry much about future AAoA impact w/ these two.  One thing I would caution you on is that closing a card at < 1 year can look a little weird on your report and, if you do it too much, give the appearance of churning, so if it were me I would SD any card you're looking at closing until it's had at least a year open, re-evaluate at that time, and then close if it still seems like the right decision for that card.

[fatcomic]

I agree with the advice to not close any accounts at this point.  You don't have to regularly use them.  I am in the same boat as you with Capital One, they are my oldest accounts but they suck, the cards are useless to me at this point.  Granted at the time, I was glad to get them and they served their purpose.   I just put a recurring streaming service on it that hits it each month to keep activity on it and I just pay it off each month.    

It sounds like you are taking advantage of the rewards and cash back like a pro.

I had several gas company cards, well still do, but I realized it was easier to get a card with a decent gas cash back percentage vs keeping up with different gas company cards for an additional 3-5 cents off a gallon.  The sinclair account with $0.15 off a gallon is great, I'd keep that! II just use a card with 4% cash back for all my gas now, and there are other cards with higher cash back % but I'm happy with 4% at the moment with a $0AF card. 

Good luck, it seems you're doing good things.     

[rgd51]

A big reason I was thinking of closing a card or two is because I have seen many people post on here that certain lenders (synchrony is a good example) have closed all their accounts due to having too much available credit and credit cards open. This way I could control which ones close rather than have one of my issuers take drastic action and close all my accounts.

[Slabenstein]

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@rgd51 wrote:

A big reason I was thinking of closing a card or two is because I have seen many people post on here that certain lenders (synchrony is a good example) have closed all their accounts due to having too much available credit and credit cards open. This way I could control which ones close rather than have one of my issuers take drastic action and close all my accounts.

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You don't need to worry about that.  Your lineup is diversified across several lenders, you don't have more than a couple cards with any one lender, you only have a handful of cards total, and your cards have modest limits.  If you had a lot of sockdrawered $25k+ lines with a single lender and that lender was named Synch or Commenity, then account pruning might be something to consider.  But, from what you've said here, I would be 0% concerned about that kind of AA on your accounts.

[rgd51]

Its just from what I have seen i could potentially be denied for more credit cards in the future by certain issuers if I have what they consider to be too many open credit cards and too much available credit. 

[coldfusion]

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@rgd51 wrote:

Its just from what I have seen i could potentially be denied for more credit cards in the future by certain issuers if I have what they consider to be too many open credit cards and too much available credit. 

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You could and there are a few issuers that do that fairly openly but for the most part issuers tend to be reasonably comfortable with an aggregate of at least 2-3x your yearly gross income if your history is clean and your debt load is well managed and not what they consider excessive.