closing my Kohl's card

[MrsCHX]

Right because that assumes closing and not opening ANY new accounts. 

If you closed some accounts and opened new ones 2-3 years later even, by the time the closed ones fall off the 'new' ones would still be 7-8 years old. 

[Anonymous]

I believe from my research Kohls stopped backing their own credit card in 2005.

Cap1 actually backs a few other store cards, Maurices, Justice, and until a few months ago they backed Boscovs(now comenity).

I have gotten steady clis from Kohls without a hp; although when requesting one online it always warns me that it may be a hp.

I have had the card for about a year started at $300 and now I'm at $1,500

Some love Kohls others hate it as of late I've read post of them retagging clearance items at regular price I've even bought items where a regular price sticker was stuck over a 90% off sticker.

[Anonymous]

My experience with Kohls CLI is they like 700 credit scores. After I hit the 700's, I went from 750>1500>2500 in less than a year spending about 600 per shopping trip (maybe 4 trips) after hitting the 750 CL mark and not necessarily paying in full everytime but at least half. Just my experience I do understand that it could be totally different for others.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

My wife and I both have Kohl's cards and for the time we've decided to keep both since sometimes she'll get 30% off coupons while I get 15% or 20%, and vice versa. The coupons that are only valid with the Kohl's card make it worthwhile for us to keep. Their prices only make sense when there is a sale AND you have % or $ off coupons, and the Yes2You Rewards and Kohl's Cash also help. Mine also started at the insultingly low $300, but it seems to be somewhat standard for most people here that they have a 300 > 700 > 1500 > 2500 > 3000 incremental CLI policy. If it's a place that you actually do shop, I think it's valuable as long as you PIF each month and don't pay their 20%+ interest.  

In my experience, paying in full after making a purchase or two every few months they will grant CLIs every 6 months until you hit the $3k cap.  I know at least one member here claims to have a Kohl's account with a higher limit, but the rest of us get those "You already have the maximum credit line offered for this account" message from Capital One in the mail after asking for a CLI. What are the reasons they send you in the mail after a denial? Unless you have recent negatives, I can't see it not growing eventually.

Edit: Forgot to add, my CLIs for Kohl's were all when I had 30-85% total utilization so that alone should not be a major barrier.

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That is almost exactly how my CLIs went with them (I might have had an extra step in there).  OP, you are only going to get it to $3k, but even $300 is worthwhile IF it works for you. (Coupons, etc) On the other hand, cancelling isn't going to hurt either your AAoA (as it's still on your report for 10 years) nor should $300 affect your util that much.  (Honestly, if $300 is more than a few % of your total CL, you're probably right where you should be, and if it's that low, it will eventually grow)

Only you can decide what's right for you. Some people love Kohls (I wouldn't say I love them, but I find the card useful), and some hate them, and in this case, no one is wrong.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

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@MrsCHX wrote:

...it seems a lot of people have the idea that closing cards affects AAoA. And I'm just curious where that comes from. 

Opening cards affects AAoA but not closing. At any rate, it's good to assess OP and figure out what you need and what you don't. 

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Most likely that comes from the Vantage 3.0 model, which does not count closed accounts (probably one of many reasons that my FAKO scores are usually 100 points lower than my FICO 08 scores). Closing cards can affect AAoA on actual FICO scores years down the road when they fall off of the CRs.  For a hefty chunk of the MyFICO population, it's not going to matter much.

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Tehnically, it does affect AAoA in ten years' time, but your entire port is 10 years older then.

Look at it this way:  (simplified to make the maths easier) If you have one 20 year old card, and open 9 new accts, your AAoA drops from 20 years to 2 years.

The 20 year old card drops off in 10 years,  Assuming you open no accts, in 2027, your AAoA drops from12 years to 10 years.  That drop isn't going to do much to hurt you.

[Legal_Girl]

Not sure where the $3k limit came from but know that's what most of the threads show. My CL with them is $5k.

[Anonymous]

Legal, how long have you had your card? Was it at 5k pre 2005 when Kohls backed their own cards? If so I'm guessing that perhaps originally they gave customers more than 3k

[Legal_Girl]

I got the card in either late 2012 or early 2013. I went from $700 to $1500 to $3000 to $5000. I know someone else with $5k.

[Anonymous]

Personally I love Kohls and will shop there with or without a Kohls Charge. I'm currently stuck at the $300 CL but they always send me coupons and a lot of them you can only use when paying with a Kohls Charge.

I super coupon though and that's what I love about Kohls you can use like 5/6 coupons at once!

% off
% off (department specific like 20% of winter apparel)
$ off (department specific like shoes, home etc.)
$ off (amount specific example: $10 off $50)
Kohl's Cash
Yes2You Rewards

And the best part is you can combine them all whereas most place like JCP only allow one coupon per transaction and/or coupons aren't valid on clearance but at Kohls everything is up for grabs!

There's no downside to the Kohls Charge you could literally let it sit in a drawer but still get the coupons in the mail for having it Just my two cents