@Anonymouswrote:
Hey All,
I have this Bank of America credit card which is 5 months old. I am still under the promotional offer and already used it for paying off something else. As I don't have any credit card debt right now and I feel like this card doesn't offer much benefits like cash back or anything else, I am wondering if it's a good idea to close it? When I applied for it 5 months back, Bank of America took X amount of credit from my other credit card and added it to this new card. Before closing, I am thinking of having them transfer the credit from this card to my other Bank of America credit card and ask them to close. I know it could take 10 years before it gets off of my credit report but at least it will be gone after 10 years and after that my credit age would be little stronger with one card less I believe.
2) Does Bank of America do hard pull if I ask them to transfer credit from one credit card to another?
Thanks
Having cards exist is the only thing to increase age on the account. Number of cards doesn't matter, just each age which plays into the average age of accounts. It may only be 5 months now, and hurting your AAoA, but in a year, it will be a year and 5 mo old. Closing it wont change the age, it will continue to report for the ten years, then fall off, but at that point, it will be a ten year old account falling off of your report, instead of a 5 month old account. So if you get any new loans or cards within that time, having that extra older card would benefit you, because those new young accounts will drag you down.
I have a couple of old cards that I don't use. There's no benefits on them, and they have relatively low credit limits. I only keep them to keep the long age on there (which would happen for the next ten years even if they're closed) but mostly for utilization purposes. I keep those empty balances open as a little cushion, credit limits that I know I won't utilize. If you won't use it, that's the only benefit IMO.
