Risky Behavior

[recoveringfrombk7]

@Anonymous I don't carry balances other than occasionally trying to entice my red card to CLI.  I had gotten approved for my 2nd discover which had a 14.5k limit.  The cards I closed totalled around 8k.  So your point does apply to me.

[ChargedUp]

I closed Ebates and not much longer afterwards I had a "You're approved already" pop up from Chase for an $18K Southwest Visa...

I agree utilization can come into play, but otherwise if a credit card no longer meets your needs, I don't see how closing a card or two could be viewed as a negative. (Especially sub-prime cards.)

Side note: If you're opening and closing cards constantly, you might run into issues with lenders thinking you're SUB chasing if they're sensitive to such things. I have a feeling this might come into play with some users being declined by Cap One while having prime scores and credit files.

[SweetCreditObsession]

Agreed. Pay off FP as soon as possible.

[NRB525]

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@CivalV wrote:

I had no clue balance shuffling was a thing 😦 I have never done it before and definitely wouldn't want to raise any flags. I'll just pay the FP and be done with it. It's completely useless to me and just takes $$ away for nothing 

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Congrats on getting better cards so you can close the predators. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@recoveringfrombk7 wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

As much as I've heard it repeated that closing accounts could "spook" other lenders I've found no evidence that it ever actually happens. If anything you're reducing your exposure and may use their card more like Relevate said, so not sure how it could be considered a bad thing.

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I closed Credit One, Ollo, Merrick, Capital One Secured, Capital One QS, and a gas card within 6 weeks of each other.  Nothing happened to the accounts I left open.  Sure this was before COVID-19, but I didn't realize closing so many cards at once was possibly bad until I had already done it haha.

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I think the only way closing can spook lenders is if losing those CLs causes a dramatic increase in % utilization, causing a large score drop.  (And if you aren't carrying a balance, you can reduce util as low as you wish).   So some of the stories might be because of this effect rather than closing per se.

I guess it COULD have an impact on getting new cards if an issuer thought "Wow, X closed a lot of cards.   If I give him/her mine, it might get closed soon too"  but never heard of that!

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I agree, it's not so much about closing  a CC or even a few here and there. But what closing them does to your score from UT perspective.

The only issue I see from a Lender's perspective on closing, is if it's too many in a short term likely accosicated with SUB chasing. They'll see you as possibly unprofitable.