What to do with recent approval

[giants1986]

Hi so I received an offer for Credit One Bank card. I know the reputation of this card but I applied anyway and was approved for a $300 limit. I currently have a Capital One secured with a $601 limit (Opened in November), a Open Sky/Public Savings Secured (Opened in February or March) with a $200 limit and a Orchard Bank Visa (Opened in April) with a $300 limit.

It didn't occur to me at the time that while this will raise my availible credit, opening a fourth account could hurt my credit more at this time than help since the other account s are still relatively new. When the card comes in the mail should I just shred it and keep increasing my Cap one limit with deposits when I can? I'll soon have at least 6 months of history on all these cards.

[jsucool76]

No sense in shredding it. You've already applied and opened the card. Might as well use it if you need it. your score will recover, it dropped because of the inq and a drop in aaoa but the inq will stpp affecting after one year and fall off in 2. You'll be fine. Everyone experiences a drop when they open a new account.

[apandabear]

What are the fees on the Credit One card? Can you justify keeping a $300 limit card that has a $100 annual fee? What about the interest rate?

I think the other cards you have are fine for rebuilding. Increasing your available credit by $300 really shouldn't make that much of a difference. If you are rebuilding, you shouldn't be maxing out your cards anyway.

I don't recommend carrying balances especially while rebuilding... But if this credit one card has a high interest rate, you'd be costing yourself a lot of cash by carrying a balance.

I'd personally stick with the 3 cards you already have. That's plenty to rebuild, and Credit One really isn't that great of a card. Weigh the positive and the negative, not just your FICO, but the amount of $$ you're spending to have credit.

If a higher credit line is what you're after, I'd definitely add to your Cap1 secured. A higher credit limit on one card will make it easier to get a higher CL when the time comes to app prime.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide!

[pizzadude]

It will very likely appear on your credit reports either way so unless the AF is excessive then you might as well keep it open.

[trumpet-205]

Credit One is like First Premier; definitely not worth keeping. You should close the card on the spot for two reasons,

* Very high AF

* No grace period on purchases. You pay interest at day 1 with APR of 23.90% and minimum interest charge of $1.

[giants1986]

Just to clarify. The inquiry shows on my report and I did not have any drop In score according to score watch. If I never activate the card when it arrives will the account appear as a trade line on my report? If that's the case I may just eat the fee and keep the card for a year to build history and cancel before the annual fee next year.

[trumpet-205]

---

@giants1986 wrote:

Just to clarify. The inquiry shows on my report and I did not have any drop In score according to score watch. If I never activate the card when it arrives will the account appear as a trade line on my report? If that's the case I may just eat the fee and keep the card for a year to build history and cancel before the annual fee next year.

---

Saving money > keep credit report pretty. Just cancel the card on the spot. There is absolutely no point in spending money just to keep credit report looking good.

[pizzadude]

Yes I believe that it will show on your reports regardless of whether you activate it or not.

[giants1986]

Thanks everyone. I'll cancel it as soon as the card comes. Thankfully I haven't taken a hit on the inquiry. I'll let myself get some more age on these cards and then apply in a few months at the credit union I will be joining later this week for another card. 

[injustifiiable]

---

@giants1986 wrote:

Just to clarify. The inquiry shows on my report and I did not have any drop In score according to score watch. If I never activate the card when it arrives will the account appear as a trade line on my report? If that's the case I may just eat the fee and keep the card for a year to build history and cancel before the annual fee next year.

---

It's probably not going to show on ScoreWatch since CreditOne only pulls EX. If you don't activate it in 2 weeks, they will close it.