I closed my First Premier cards today.
They tried hard to keep me, I had two cards with them, my first card I had for 44 months. It came with a $300 CL, after paying on time for 24mo. I requested a CLI. They turned me down, but offered me a 2nd card with a $400 CL, I took it. I paid the stupid “new card fee”. I thought they were doing me a favor, I felt proud to have a second card, LOL.
In hind sight (and after reading up on the myfico forums), I can see this was one of their “tricks” to keep me beaten down. After 24 months of on time payments, I should most certainly have applied somewhere else. But I felt unworthy, I felt if I couldn’t get a $100 CLI from a company whom I have been paying on time for 24 mo., I just felt I wouldn’t get a card anywhere else… So, I didn’t apply.
I had not found the MyFico forums yet.
Then, I did find you all! You are all so much help!! I crawled out of my credit hole. I have found premium credit card companies whom have granted me CL that I would have been embarrassed to ask for two years ago.
And so, the time had come for me to say good bye to my First Prems. It was an incredibly hard call to make, but I kept telling myself all the things I read here… they charge me an outrageous AF for the small CL I have, they spread it out over the year in monthly charges… I never experienced any over my limit or late fees like others have posted about. So, over all I though I had a good experience with them, they did their part, they reported accurately my charges and payments.
As my oldest trade line, when I see my reports I smile fondly at the nearly four years of ontime payments they report. The call was hard to make. I don’t know why. I am a grown man. Somehow I felt guilty. When I called, the first rep I talked to I told I was closing my accounts, she transferred me to a specialist. The specialist followed the script I have read about here. She actually told me about this site and told me this site would recommend I keep the accounts open because these CL contribute to my overall and that effects my utilization…
I quickly did the math in my head… LOL if this rep knew my total CL she would feel foolish for saying such a thing.
She went on to tell me more of what MyFico says about AAoA and how I would be hurting myself. I held firm. She offered me a $35 discount on my AF’s. I thanked her for everything FirstPreimier has done to help me establish credit and asked if she could please mail me confirmation that the accounts are closed.
I did it. I finally did the right thing, got out of an abusive relationship and have moved on.
I don't have a question, I just needed to tell people who would understand.
