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I’m looking for some advice on whether and how to cancel two credit cards I no longer want to use.
I completed three credit card applications recently and all three have been accepted. Prior to this I had four credit cards. I now have seven credit cards, but would like to cancel two, as I no longer have use for them (my Chase Amazon Rewards Visa card (get better rewards with Citi Forward) and my Paypal Extras Mastercard (gets 2.5% cash back on gas, but now I have the 5% through Penfed). To try to minimize the impact I also requested and got a $1,500 CLI on my Citi Forward, which is usually my most used card each month.
This is what I currently have: (*** indicates I want to cancel the account)
Citi Dividend Mastercard, since 2007, CLI of $5,500
***Chase Amazon Rewards Visa, since 2009, CLI of $3,600
Citi Forward Visa, since 2011, CLI of $5,500
*** Paypal Extras Mastercard (GE Bank), since 2012, CLI of $5,600
BJs Rewards Visa (Barclays), since 2013, CLI of $5,000
Penfed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa, since 2013, CLI of $8,000
Capital One Cash Rewards Visa, since 2013, CLI of $5,000
--------------------------------------------------
Total: $38,200
*** Total as reduced: $29,000
Prior to my recent addition of the 3 cards (BJs, Penfed, Cap One), and my CLI increase on the Forward, my total credit limit among all cards was $18,700. So even if I cancel the 2 cards, I’m still going up a net of $9,200. And I’d be keeping my oldest card, the Citi Dividend, which I’ve had since 2007.
Because of the new cards and the CLI increase do you think I will be okay if I cancel the Paypal and Amazon rewards cards? The way I see it is I’m losing money every time I use them because I have other cards with better reward %s. If my credit score were no issue I’d do it in a heartbeat but I don’t know if should space it out or take the hit now. I am not expecting to need a loan any time in the near future.
Also aside from whether to cancel, I’m thinking also about how to cancel. If I send a letter for each card, certified receipt using a template similar to the one shown here if not this one - http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/Financial_Literacy/pdf/June07_work_sheet_close_account_a1.pdf – do you think that would suffice? I would like to avoid a phone call where I go back and forth with the person and they end up upset and don’t follow through or whatever. Also do you think sending a message through each of their website’s ‘secure messaging’ to cancel the accounts – using the format in that pdf – would suffice? It would be somewhat preferable to me just because I can save the message as a pdf and document my having sent it with the request to have them note that the card was closed upon my request. But I don’t know whether that’s typically looked upon as an acceptable way of cancelling an account or not.
And just as a thought - would my credit be impacted any more negatively if I just let the two cards gather dust until the banks naturally decide to close the accounts for me? If that happens would they technically be closed 'in good standing'? Would losing the 'closed upon cardholder request' hurt me?
Thanks!
thanks for sharing the link to the form letter - something I will need to use down the road.
For the second time today I'm arguing against my normal approach!
Much of the time here, people are asking about closing nusiance cards, either those with AF or those with toy limits. Your two cards have neither of these. I would be inclined to just let them sit. I agree that you shouldn't attempt to keep them active by buying things from time to time, because, as you say, you lose better rewards doing that.
From my experience, the Chase Amazon card can be left unused for long periods of time, Chase never threatened to close it. Don't know about paypal. But even if the issuer closes it, FICO doesn't distinguish between closed by you or closed by lender, so that isn't really a worry. And if when you are applying for a mortgage or similar, you are asked why an issuer closed it, inactivity is a fine answer.
I am much more pro closing than many on this forum, but the good reasons are:
1) AF exceeds benefits
2) Card has toy limit, and therefore doesn't usefully add to utilization factors
3) need to free up credit limits, either with same issuer or another
4) Issuer has a max on number of cards you can have with them, you want another which takes you over
and the catchall
5) Keeping track of the card is a bother, either because you want to spend to keep it alive, you are worried about theft etc, or you just want things more tidy!
So if 5 applies to you for these cards, of course, go ahead and close.
i agreed with BS6054 about closing it or not....
Maybe call them and get a product change to a better card ???
Thanks for the advice everyone. I will probably just go ahead and cancel. Have any of you ever done so by sending a message through their website rather than by phone/mail?
Thing about letting them sit is I just want to have one less thing to check each month. Also while Chase probably has some cards with rotating categories I could move over to I don't think GE Bank does. The rotating category variety doesn't really do much for me most of the time anyway, at least from experience with the citi dividend. A very large % of my purchases come from Amazon and BJs. If you exclude those 2 vendors the rest of my expenses are basically gas and utilities that never qualify for any sort of category bonus (which I plan to start putting on the Capital One card since it has 1.5% everything).
Re: the person who mentioned leaving Paypal go until it hits a year, I think I might have actually gotten it in late 2011, but if not very early 2012. It's my only card that doesn't show the 'member since' on the front and I can't look it up at the moment.
Disregard
@909901 wrote:Thanks for the advice everyone. I will probably just go ahead and cancel. Have any of you ever done so by sending a message through their website rather than by phone/mail?
Thing about letting them sit is I just want to have one less thing to check each month. Also while Chase probably has some cards with rotating categories I could move over to I don't think GE Bank does. The rotating category variety doesn't really do much for me most of the time anyway, at least from experience with the citi dividend. A very large % of my purchases come from Amazon and BJs. If you exclude those 2 vendors the rest of my expenses are basically gas and utilities that never qualify for any sort of category bonus (which I plan to start putting on the Capital One card since it has 1.5% everything).
Re: the person who mentioned leaving Paypal go until it hits a year, I think I might have actually gotten it in late 2011, but if not very early 2012. It's my only card that doesn't show the 'member since' on the front and I can't look it up at the moment.
Cancelling via the website should be fine, that's what I do. Some recommend the phone just because you might receive a retention offer, although this is more likely on cards with fees.
Thing about letting them sit is I just want to have one less thing to check each month.
Yes, this was covered by my reason 5!
Your #5 is a biggie, don't want to forget about it and then get a call one day about $10,000 in charges from across the country
Glad to hear you've cancelled over the web before. I don't really care to bargain over anything, like you say I doubt there's much they'd do considering there aren't any fees or anything. I suppose I could ask them to change from 3% cash back to 5%? Ha