HELP!! Capital One Secured For First Credit card 6 years ago. Now what?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. This is my frst post. Thanks for your help in advance. Im new to this world of credit and dont understand everything so i figured i would ask here. I was trying to do a product change with capital one, i still have the same secured card with them as when i was 18, with the same $750 CL. At this point, the card is useless, i pay a membership fee for this card and they wont provide CLI for secured cards and they wont do a product change to put me into a unsecured card. I want to cancel this card for the lack of customer service and how unwilling they are to help their customers. The ONLY thing i am worried about is loosing my history for this card. Will my credit scores drop if i cancel? I dont know anything about how cancelling effects the scores i just know that i will loose that history and it is my longest. Not sure what you guys use to monitor credit but if you would let me know i could use some input on that also. I just use Credit Karma- 772 and 749. 

Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

No Help? Screw me right?

[Anonymous]

Nick, do you have other cards? If you do, cancelling this isn't likely to have a major, long term impact. If it is your only card, you need to start hunting for some pre-approvals to get your credit started in earnest. 

You probably should find a way to get some real fico scores. You might also consider using some of the modeling tools on whatever site you pull them from to see just how much you can expect your scores to dip. If your scores are decent but your file is thin, hunt the forum to see what will work for you. Discover, AMEX, and Chase were all good to me when I had no credit. Apply and get approved before you cancel. If your scores are good and you have a reasonable file, just cancel the secured card. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding. I have a few other cards. Wells Fargo, AMEX, and one from a local credit union. Im just worried because this one is the one i have had the longest so what would happen to my AAoA? 

[Anonymous]

Your average age of accounts doesn't change in the FICO models; open accounts stay on your credit report for up to 10 years. Some manual reviews or outside agencies may care about the average age of open accounts. The only real change should be the drop of $750 that can count towards your utilization.

For the record, my aaoa is 1 yr and 6 months. I have no problem getting credit, whether it be a secured mortgage or unsecured credit card. If you focus on growing your prime accounts the CLI requests or even apply for some new cards, you'll never miss this secured account. Have you checked for pre-qualification at Chase, Citi, CapOne or anything else? AMEX would also be a good option as a denial should be a soft pill to your credit.

[Anonymous]

Very helpful advice from ClimbFire.

When did you last pay the annual fee for the card in question?  If you paid it a couple months ago, my bias would be to wait another 8 months and then cancel it.  (But be sure to cancel a solid two months before the fee is charged again.)

Be aware that Karma's front-end "summary" page will tell you that your AAoA has gone down when you close that card.  That's because it bases its calculation on open cards only.  As CF mentions FICO does not do this.  Even Vantage doesn't do this, which is ironic since Karma uses Vantage for its scores.

Can you tell us how much older the CapOne card is than your next oldest card?  Just trying to get a handle on what will happen to your "Age of Oldest Account" when the CapOne falls off your reports, many years from now.

I encourage you to try the $1 trial at Credit Check Total, though I would wait until you you have all your cards reporting $0 except one, with the remaining card reporting a small positive balance.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. They dont charge the fee until March so ill probably wait a bit to cancel. My next card was 5 months after i got the capital one. I just applied for and got approved for the chase saphire so that should cancel the loss in credit

[rmduhon]

In 10ish years the 5 months difference won't matter.