@tonyaether wrote:Oh hauling don't do that to me! I have already had one mini-panic attack today! LOL! Seriously though the one good thing I can say is this will be the very first year in almost 10 years that I haven't paid $6/mth just to carry a card or with the applied card $15/mth before I closed it (I had that 7 years). That doesn't even count the AFs! So regardless of whether my score drops I am saving a ton on money in the long run. I have gotta look at the bright side.
I didn't mean to.
It was meant to be a gentle teasing --there's no reason to think that your now-closed account won't stay on your reports and keep reporting for a good long while. Everyone else's closed accounts stay --why should yours?
OK, if you soft your EQ report to death, the account might come off early, but it should still be there for years.
A note for those with closed accounts with derogs: think long and hard before GW'ing lates on closed accounts. The lender is just as apt (if not more) to simply stop reporting the account. It has happened to a lot of people before, and it's bound to happen to a lot more.
There is no requirement that closed accounts must report for 10 years, or any other figure. It's just the custom. So don't mess with closed accounts. 
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@tonyaether wrote:Oh hauling don't do that to me! I have already had one mini-panic attack today! LOL! Seriously though the one good thing I can say is this will be the very first year in almost 10 years that I haven't paid $6/mth just to carry a card or with the applied card $15/mth before I closed it (I had that 7 years). That doesn't even count the AFs! So regardless of whether my score drops I am saving a ton on money in the long run. I have gotta look at the bright side.
It was meant to be a gentle teasing --there's no reason to think that your now-closed account won't stay on your reports and keep reporting for a good long while. Everyone else's closed accounts stay --why should yours?
OK, if you soft your EQ report to death, the account might come off early, but it should still be there for years.
A note for those with closed accounts with derogs: think long and hard before GW'ing lates on closed accounts. The lender is just as apt (if not more) to simply stop reporting the account. It has happened to a lot of people before, and it's bound to happen to a lot more.
There is no requirement that closed accounts must report for 10 years, or any other figure. It's just the custom. So don't mess with closed accounts.
Good to know, I'm going to leave my PIF auto loan with the 30 day lates alone. (they're 1 1/2 yr old lates)
Thank you hauling!!!! I never knew that!!!! I have a 4 year old 30 day late on a paid off car loan (was wachovia before WF) and that is the only derogatory thing on my file. I have been GW'ing forever to get that thing removed. They won't remove it. But knowing what you just said I need to stop messing around with it if it is adding to age!
Well hauling it's official. Both my FP and the HSBC card I closed have reported as such on my credit report. I have yet to see any negative impact. I am really happy about that! If I had known and really felt it wouldn't hurt me, I would have closed both of them years ago! It's nice to be free of the monthly charges from Applied Bank and FP though!
@tonyaether wrote:Well hauling it's official. Both my FP and the HSBC card I closed have reported as such on my credit report. I have yet to see any negative impact. I am really happy about that! If I had known and really felt it wouldn't hurt me, I would have closed both of them years ago! It's nice to be free of the monthly charges from Applied Bank and FP though!
Congrats! I just closed my $750 Cap One w/AF, too. It's good to know that it won't be hurting my FICO when it reports as closed. That is what people say, but still you never know for sure. So, it's good to hear from someone who did it.
You are so right bichonmom!!! I asked this question months ago hoping to her some actual recent experiences! I didn't trust what I read up here. But I closed both and they didn't hurt my score at all. And the FP was my oldest account at apart 10 years old. It's true that as long as you have no balance and your utililization won't be increased, it wont hurt you. At least it won't until the accounts drop off your report entirely.
I think the trick is to be sure you have enough other accts established so that when the closed accts finally do fall off, it won't hurt our aging at that point. That's one reason why I've gotten a few other CCs this year -- because I knew from reading here that my Cap Ones wouldn't go anywhere and wanted to be able to close them without my aging suffering 10 yrs from now.
Also, I think it can hurt if there aren't enough open TLs after closing whatever accts you want to close, because CCs like to see open, active TLs that are continuing to build history. I learned that lesson the hard way when I closed my two secured accts, thinking that would help me to get an unsecured card. Boy, was I wrong!
It must be such a relief not to have those fees any longer!
Yes you are so right. I think that closing accounts requires a real evaluation of your accounts. You have to evaluate your open credit lines with/without balances and you have to evaluate utilization and account aging to prepare when the closed accounts drop off. I don't think it is something to be done on whim. But yes I am very glad to be rid of
those monthly and yearly fees! It's liberating to let them go!
those monthly and yearly fees! It's liberating to let them go!
Wow! I just saw your sig. You have great scores and great CLs! I'm hoping my cards will be there someday. I seem to be stuck in the 2k range, and no one wants to be the first one to give me a high CL. I just got Chase today, and they told me the only reason they only gave me $3k was because of the limits on my existing cards. 
Have you axed the $400 HSBC Visa in your sig yet? It kind of sticks out among all those great cards like a sore thumb. 
