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For those of you who have used a secured card to help rebuild your credit how long did you keep the card open for? I have been in the process of rebuilding my score and have been approved for an unsecured card. Since i have this one now what i'm wondering is how long I should keep the secured card open for and when I do close it how much will this lower my score?
Thank you
Closing it will NOT necessarily lower your score unless it affect your utilization rate. So if you can keep it down below 9%, and manage to only carry a balance on one of your remaining cards, I don't see why you wouldn't close it. (I'm assuming there is a hefty AF on your card.)
Your good payment record on the card will stay around for 10 more years on your credit report.
Actually, depending on what scoring bucket you are in, having only 1 card may lower your score, regardless of utilization. If the AF is a significant burden, that is a different issue. Otherwise, I would leave it until you have 2 or 3 unsecured cards, then close it. Also, if it has been open less than a year, I'd at least get one full year of reported payments before I closed it.
Yep I keep my public savings secured CC open because of not it reduces my AAoA and overall limit - at my score range closing it would literally drop me 30+ points