Should I close my credit one card?

[buildafico]

Alright so been working on rebuilding, obviously. Got a secured MasterCard for Cap One. Then a month later got my hands on an unsecured credit one Visa. Maybe 3 months later, Barclays approved me for the Rewards MasterCard- was surprised on that one, until i realized my fico scores are a lot better than i presumed lol Anyway credit one one is obviously awful since there's no grace period, should i close it while AAoA is already low? I mean I already forked over the AF for that card but I'm thinking that it's not very likely that i keep it after the year is up, the limits only 300 dollars and thats not worth 100 dollars a year, right?

[ezdriver]

$100 annual fee on a $300 limit is outrageous ... unless you are trying to accomplaish a bigger goal that might make the $100 seem like peanuts. If you have not specific goal in mind [eg: buying a house in six months] then I would drop that card once you are billed for the next annual fee.

[DaveSignal]

Or just close it right now.  You aren't going to use it.  Its not helping your utilization. Its already on your credit report.   Closing it will not affect your AAoA.

[buildafico]

Yeah but considering I already paid AF on credit one and closing it in positive standing isn't going to hurt AAoA, maybe i just hang on to it til a month before AF, just sock drawer it. After all, my best card is barclays rewards, and i haven't had it long. Might be in my best interest to see what happens with Barclays after the 5 month mark, if they auto CLI then credit one will go bye bye.

[RobertEG]

Ultimate effect on AAoA after closing a card depends upon what the creditor chooses to do.

Once closed, it will continue to be scored in age of accounts as long as it appears in your credit report, and has not reached an age after closing of approx ten years, at which time the CRA might delete it under their housecleaing policy.

However, the creditor could choose to do its own housecleaning, and simply report deletion of the entire account at any time.

You never know.  Other than the financial issue of annul fees, it is usually best to leave it open, thus avoiding the discretionary deletions that could be made by either the creditor, or later, by the CRAs.

[buildafico]

Oh, well this is credit one, so the chances of them continually reporting are likely slim. Lol i mean c'mon these are the guys that charge 20 bucks for a hundred dollar CLI, cheap. But they serve a purpose, and $100 a year billed monthly is worth preserving my score and report.

[DaveSignal]

Billed monthly?  You should close that right now.  It is not preserving your score.

[buildafico]

That's just how they bill their annual fee. What's helping is having another account reporting to all three cra's in positive standing, if i close the account i might lose that, correct?

[money_talks]

I have CreditOne and I'm closing them soon. I called them and said I was considering closing the account because of the fees. I asked if they would be able to waive the fee for a couple of months. They gave me a "retention offer" where they are waiving the monthly fee for 6 months. Once the 6 months are over, I will definitely close the account. I recommend you ask for this fee waiver and see if they give it to you. You can rack up some more months of good payment history on the card if you are not carrying a balance and then close it.

[DaveSignal]

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buildafico wrote:
That's just how they bill their annual fee. What's helping is having another account reporting to all three cra's in positive standing, if i close the account i might lose that, correct?

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You are misunderstanding how credit reporting works.  It is possible that a creditor could delete their prior reporting at any time, even while an account is still open.  This is very unlikely though.  Usually, people have to send letters and go out of their way to get prior reporting deleted.  It is not something that lenders normally do, especially out of the blue.  When you close that account, the previous reporting will stay there.  It doesn't just disappear unless the lender goes out of their way to request it removed from the CRAs.... Credit One bank is not going to do that.

You are also misunderstanding how AAoA is calculated.   It is the amount of months from the date the account was opened until TODAY.  It doesn't matter when the account was closed, AAoA is still calculated the same way.   I have closed penty of accounts throughout my credit history (at least 30, possibly more).  I have never had prior reporting disappear because an account was closed.   Once in awhile, the prior reporting will fall off a little bit early, like maybe after 9 years since closed.  I also have accounts that were closed longer than 10 years ago that have still not changed since last updated all those years ago.

You should read more of the posts in Understanding FICO scoring and General Credit Topics, but, basically, you don't get extra points for paying your bills on time.  You get points as baddies age and AAoA increases.  You unused account that is charging you monthly fees is not benefitting you in any way.