Card Consolidation

[Anonymous]

Good evening everyone..

Need your advice. I'm trying to get rid of my sub prime accounts. I just got approved for a CITI card and to my disbelief they gave me a 4k credit line!

I currently have 8 Credit cards with relatively low limits.
1. Discover $1900 limit, $668 balance 1yr old
2. Amex $500 Limit $200 balance 1 month old
3.Credit One Visa $850 Limit $0 balance 18 months old
4. Credit One Mc $500 Limit $0 balance 6 months old
5. First Premier $950 limit $0 balance 2 years old
6.TD Bank/Target $2k Limit $0 Balance 1 year old
7.Best Buy/Citi $1k limit $82 balance 8 months old
8.Paypal Mc $300 Limit $0 Balance 8 months old

My question is. To avoid paying the annual fees, would it be wise to close cards 3,4 and 5? Do you think it would impact my score alot since overall my credit limit is still increasing?

[Jnbmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Good evening everyone..

Need your advice. I'm trying to get rid of my sub prime accounts. I just got approved for a CITI card and to my disbelief they gave me a 4k credit line!

I currently have 8 Credit cards with relatively low limits.
1. Discover $1900 limit, $668 balance 1yr old
2. Amex $500 Limit $200 balance 1 month old
3.Credit One Visa $850 Limit $0 balance 18 months old  CLOSE
4. Credit One Mc $500 Limit $0 balance 6 months old      CLOSE
5. First Premier $950 limit $0 balance 2 years old              CLOSE
6.TD Bank/Target $2k Limit $0 Balance 1 year old
7.Best Buy/Citi $1k limit $82 balance 8 months old
8.Paypal Mc $300 Limit $0 Balance 8 months old

My question is. To avoid paying the annual fees, would it be wise to close cards 3,4 and 5? Do you think it would impact my score alot since overall my credit limit is still increasing?

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Yes I would suggest 3, 4 and 5.

[Anonymous]

Agreed, put a bullet in 3/4/5. I would keep the others though. They’re solid cards.

[coreysw12]

Another vote here for ditching the Credit One and First Premier cards, and keeping the rest.

I would call them first and see if they're willing to waive the annual fee. If they say no, then close it. Couldn't hurt to try, though.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t even do that. OP is in with some good banks. There is no need to have stains in the wallet like FP and Credit One.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for their input. Is there a way to tell approximately how many points im going to loose with the closing of those 3 cards

[simplegirl]

Those accounts should still factor into your age of accounts because closed accounts stay on your profile for 10 years.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks everyone for their input. Is there a way to tell approximately how many points im going to loose with the closing of those 3 cards

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It’s a common misconception that closing accounts hurts your scores, probably born from the fact that VantageScore frontends like Credit Karma and WalletHub take the closed accounts out of your age of accounts calculations, but when it comes to scoring both FICO and Vantage will continue to count closed accounts for up to 10 years when they fall off. 

The only score loss happens if you close an account and it puts your utilization up a threshold. 28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9%, and 88.9% are the known thresholds for individual utilization and aggregate has all of those plus 8.9%. As long as closing out those credit limits doesn’t bring your utilization up above those, you won’t have any score loss. 

[BallBounces]

Close 3, 4 and 5. 

Pay the other cards off except the one you choose to report a small balance. 

Profit.