should I close this card?

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

Hi there,

I have been re-building my credit since I filed for BK in Sept 2003. My BK didn't catch everything so slowly but surely I have gotten a better score. I am not between 620-648. Better than the 499 I was at when I filed. I have 2 cap one's one is a new one (a balance transfer from Ochard Bank) and the other Cap one I have had for 3 years with a 500 limit. My Orchard Bank is now paid off and I want to close it (it has an annual fee of $99.00) I tried to close it a month ago and the customer service rep told me that I should just keep it (she made me platnium) until it's annivesary date (july2007) and then call BEFORE the $99.00 actually posts because she said they might be able to waive the annual fee now that my credit is better, but I have been reading the posts and some people have said that by closing the subprime cards they receive better offers. is this true? what should I do? I have recently acquired like 10 new cards, but only used one (they are all only department store cards) I have put the rest of them away and do not plan on using them. It would be nice to get a visa or a mastercard with a $1000.00 limit just to have with no annual fee. Help????

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

From what I understand, if you close the card you also lose the credit history for the trade line on your credit. Most lenders look for a 2 year history. So if you close the card you will lose the history. I have several cards that I don't even use but they give me a good history which helps my score.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

but how come people have said that if you close a subprime card (such as Orchard Bank) you might get better offers on better cards?

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

is anyone reading my post? I really need to decide what to do with this card. thanks!

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

If it helps, I too have an Orchard Bank card and when I called to close it near my anniversary date they indeed waived the annual fee so I will have it for another year at least. I'm going to see if they can convert it to one of their Platinum cards (they've sent me preapprovals but I never sent them in since I have 5 credit cards and feel that is too much...) If they can't I'm going to take the temporary hit and close it since I do have 2 other cards that have been open for at least 2 yrs. I had a Capital One card that I recently closed since they didn't keep their word about raising my credit limit (it was 3x lower than the next card...) I've been told that this isn't the best course of action, that you should keep your cards that you have history with, but in my case I had to decide if I want to keep the only two cards that have annual fees and low credit limits. I think it comes down to looking at your situation and striking a balance between what's best for your wallet and what's best for your credit picture. I honestly couldn't see the benefit of keeping a card with such a low limit and a high annual fee, so I chose to take the hit, if there is indeed a hit.

By the way, I got other offers while I HAD my Capital One and Orchard Bank cards; it's all in how you handle your credit with the cards you have.

Message Edited by jamerican413 on 04-17-2007 12:21 PM

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

patunia00 wrote:
Hi there,

I have been re-building my credit since I filed for BK in Sept 2003. My BK didn't catch everything so slowly but surely I have gotten a better score. I am not between 620-648. Better than the 499 I was at when I filed. I have 2 cap one's one is a new one (a balance transfer from Ochard Bank) and the other Cap one I have had for 3 years with a 500 limit. My Orchard Bank is now paid off and I want to close it (it has an annual fee of $99.00) I tried to close it a month ago and the customer service rep told me that I should just keep it (she made me platnium) until it's annivesary date (july2007) and then call BEFORE the $99.00 actually posts because she said they might be able to waive the annual fee now that my credit is better, but I have been reading the posts and some people have said that by closing the subprime cards they receive better offers. is this true? what should I do? I have recently acquired like 10 new cards, but only used one (they are all only department store cards) I have put the rest of them away and do not plan on using them. It would be nice to get a visa or a mastercard with a $1000.00 limit just to have with no annual fee. Help????

My first rebilding card was from Household. I didn't liek their practices so I closed the card. I would call the month that the annual fee showed on the statement (I reccommend having an otherwise 0 bal before aking te call) and ask if they would consider waiving the fee. If the answer is no, close the card and wsh them well as long as your remaining utili would still be under 30%.

An annual feee is one good reaso to close a card though as a general rule most would reccommend not closing them. You will not lose the account history as it will still stay on your report indefinitely. A card open for over two years generally stops contributing to the score anyway

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

From what I understand, the negative credit that is two years old or older has much less impact on your score. Is it the same with a good reference? Does all credit (positive and negative) become much less a factor on the score? Is the score mainly about what your credit has been for the last two years?

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

KDM wrote:
From what I understand, the negative credit that is two years old or older has much less impact on your score. Is it the same with a good reference? Does all credit (positive and negative) become much less a factor on the score? Is the score mainly about what your credit has been for the last two years?

The vanage score has that two year window built in and most creditors really want to overlook collections over two years old, however the FICO looks at your entire history

Neblett · ‎04-17-2007

I personally would close the card simply because it's an Orchard Bank card.

I tried to get out of a spiral of Orchard's deadly fees (like the ones that legislators are outlawing) by closing my account and was told that even if I closed it, I would still accrue late fees and over-limit fees. On a closed account?! I cried. Yes, they said. Those fees only will stop when you pay the balance down or we charge it off to collections. At that point they had charged me $300 in extra fees on a card with a $300 balance, and I had no way to pay that $600 off. So (not wise) I just left it alone until it went into collections.

But the fact that no one at Orchard would work with me to get this card under control (a card which was supposed to help me rebuild my credit and now has made it TONS worse). It was either pay enormous amounts towards the balance (they "refused to accept" anything less than a $200 payment when all I could offer was $100. I was told that that wouldn't do any good, because my fees on that amount would be $100, so it was like I never paid anything at all) or suffer further consequences.

Nothing good will come out of my mouth about Orchard Bank.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2007

Neblett wrote:
I personally would close the card simply because it's an Orchard Bank card.

I tried to get out of a spiral of Orchard's deadly fees (like the ones that legislators are outlawing) by closing my account and was told that even if I closed it, I would still accrue late fees and over-limit fees. On a closed account?! I cried. Yes, they said. Those fees only will stop when you pay the balance down or we charge it off to collections. At that point they had charged me $300 in extra fees on a card with a $300 balance, and I had no way to pay that $600 off. So (not wise) I just left it alone until it went into collections.

But the fact that no one at Orchard would work with me to get this card under control (a card which was supposed to help me rebuild my credit and now has made it TONS worse). It was either pay enormous amounts towards the balance (they "refused to accept" anything less than a $200 payment when all I could offer was $100. I was told that that wouldn't do any good, because my fees on that amount would be $100, so it was like I never paid anything at all) or suffer further consequences.

Nothing good will come out of my mouth about Orchard Bank.

The penalty of subpriome cards is that yu are treated that way. Trust me I know. I took every opprotunity I had to rail against Household Bank when I had their s/p MC. Luckily, it only had an annual fee because anything that charged monthly went directly to the shredder. The more unlikely it seems that you can escape their grip, the more likely they are to put the screws to you, that's what they're in business for. Ugly but true.