Closed two secured cards very bad results!

[bobnathan0295]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have been rebuilding credit for 1 yr and 2 months. I have done pretty good, but still felt that I could do better. I have read that people that have secure cards, low limit cards, and bucket cards have issues with getting higher limits. I also read that if you have an annual fee on a credit card that can not not graduate from secure to unsecure is a waste of annual fee cards. I just received annual fees on both cards in July, so I was told if I close the cards within 30 days they will refund my annual fees. I had the cards for a year with great payment history. So I closed the cards because I felt the served their purpose and I did not want to pay any annual fees on my own money and for cards that have no reward benefits.

I had a assent card and a 1st progress card and both of them are serviced by 1st progress.  I had a the following Fico 8 credit scores before closing these cards TU: 696 EX: 676 EF: 663. Once the cards finally reported as closed my scores went through the tank. I have always allow those cards to report with zero balance so they did not factor in a negative utilization. One card limit was 500 while the other was 400.

I did not think the losing 900 of credit lines would have such a bad effect on my credit scores. My total credit limit was $31,300 at the time of close now its at #30,400. My total utilization remained under 10%. my utilization went from 6 percent to 8 percent.

Now here are my  fico 8 scores after the those two cards reported closed; TU 640 EX: 674 EF: 642. I am scratching my head right now. I went from having six revolving trade lines to 4 active trade lines.  Someone please chime in and let me know what in the world went wrong!

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A friend of mine who had a few lates and 1 chargeoff closed his Southwest Chase card 3 months ago. It was his only major credit card. His Experian score fell from 670 to 609. Nothing else changed. He is still working his way out. He was at 622 last week.

[Anonymous]

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@bobnathan0295 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have been rebuilding credit for 1 yr and 2 months. I have done pretty good, but still felt that I could do better. I have read that people that have secure cards, low limit cards, and bucket cards have issues with getting higher limits. I also read that if you have an annual fee on a credit card that can not not graduate from secure to unsecure is a waste of annual fee cards. I just received annual fees on both cards in July, so I was told if I close the cards within 30 days they will refund my annual fees. I had the cards for a year with great payment history. So I closed the cards because I felt the served their purpose and I did not want to pay any annual fees on my own money and for cards that have no reward benefits.

I had a assent card and a 1st progress card and both of them are serviced by 1st progress.  I had a the following Fico 8 credit scores before closing these cards TU: 696 EX: 676 EF: 663. Once the cards finally reported as closed my scores went through the tank. I have always allow those cards to report with zero balance so they did not factor in a negative utilization. One card limit was 500 while the other was 400.

I did not think the losing 900 of credit lines would have such a bad effect on my credit scores. My total credit limit was $31,300 at the time of close now its at #30,400. My total utilization remained under 10%. my utilization went from 6 percent to 8 percent.

Now here are my  fico 8 scores after the those two cards reported closed; TU 640 EX: 674 EF: 642. I am scratching my head right now. I went from having six revolving trade lines to 4 active trade lines.  Someone please chime in and let me know what in the world went wrong!

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A friend of mine who had a few lates and 1 chargeoff closed his Southwest Chase card 3 months ago. It was his only major credit card. His Experian score fell from 670 to 609. Nothing else changed. He is still working his way out. He was at 622 last week.

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Wow, your friend had the same thing that happened to me. It good they have seen some improvement. I hope I can get my points back soon. Thanks for sharing.

[RSX]

could this have been part of the reason?

"while my Amex and 2nd NFCU card I only have for 1 month and my first NFCU card I have had for 6 months"

seems like this may have been the first time they reported and it was coincidental timing with the closure of the 2 cards

wait until they hit 6 months and that points loss might diminish

[Anonymous]

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@RSX wrote:

could this have been part of the reason?

"while my Amex and 2nd NFCU card I only have for 1 month and my first NFCU card I have had for 6 months"

seems like this may have been the first time they reported and it was coincidental timing with the closure of the 2 cards

wait until they hit 6 months and that points loss might diminish

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Very true, even though my two news cards reported almost a month ahead of the two cards that I closed it could be a combination of two new accounts and two closed accounts. Maybe I should have staggered them differently, but my scores were the highest they had ever been, and I needed to act fast before closing those other cards. 

It took me a  year grow over 200 credit points. I know the climb is a lot slower once I keep adding new accounts my scores will fluctuate a lot more. In a  year I will be more stabilized and not as active applying for new accounts.

I am very close to my goal and will reach that by the end of the year with Amex. I will apply for a product change with Amex and request a CLI which will will take me over 40k in total credit limit on four cards and I will have no secure cards.

My Line up will look like this:

NFCU Go Rewards: 25k

NFCU Cash Rewards: 9k

Amex BCE 6k will convert to BCP

I have an OpenSky Visa $500 that will go in the drawer. Will close once I open 4th unsecure card.

I am now searching for that 4th card I dont know if I should Apply for a different credit union card, another Amex Card or a Capital One card.

I would really like a third card from NFCU but I will wait for another 1.5 years. I will wait until I get my cash reward up to 25k I might just keep it at two with them as I hear the third card is really hard to get.

None the less, my file is a lot cleaner then it was a year ago. 1 year ago I have 15 baddies all unpaid. Today I have all paid 13 deleted only two left. Both will age off in about 2 years. One was a collection account, the other was a charge off. I do not know how much weight they hold on my report. The charge off is over 5 years old, and the collection account is also 5 years old. I will keep my fingers crossed for higher scores in the near future.

[RSX]

you are on a good path - keep it up - glad the baddies are being dealt with

it is tough to see your score bounce around for sure, but it happens - don't stress about it too much, as long as you are making the right moves

and closing the 2 secure cards was the right move - time is your friend going forward

[Anonymous]

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@RSX wrote:

you are on a good path - keep it up - glad the baddies are being dealt with

it is tough to see your score bounce around for sure, but it happens - don't stress about it too much, as long as you are making the right moves

and closing the 2 secure cards was the right move - time is your friend going forward

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Thank you, I am just hoping that I can have some success with getting them removed now that all collections and chargeoffs have been paid.

[Anonymous]

Credit score is a long game. Keep paying your bills, getting rid of debt, and letting your account age grow. Hard to imagine but if you do that long enough your score is eventually going to hit 800. Don't sweat the little bumps along the way. 

The only time you want to fret about your month to month score changes are if you are planning for a mortgage. In that case you want to set yourself up for it as best you can and planning for it a few months ahead can juice the number a little, especially AZEO.