I was tricked into opening a Care Credit Card. What happens if I pay it off and close it immediately

[AverageJoesCredit]

Trick or treat, actually having a credit card is a good thing

[Anonymous]

A few things. I highly doubt you were "tricked" into opening care credit. You had to submit your SSN and other personal information and then submit/accept/sign off on your credit being pulled. Unless someone stole your personal information, you were not tricked, you just didn't understand what you were doing.

With that said, you managed to get a revolving line of credit without any revolving credit history. That is a good thing! I'm not sure why you are so eager to close the account. I might be way off base here, but I suspect you are scared of credit cards and do not want one because you've heard they are "bad" or something along those lines (only reason I can think of for you allegedly having high FICO scores but having no lines of revolving credit).

First, about your FICO scores. Are they real FICO scores? Or did you get them from a FAKO website like Credit Karma? While not impossible, I find it highly unlikely you truly have a very high credit score with zero revolving lines of credit. I guess "very high" is a subjective term, so who knows (I'd consider "very high" to be like 800+, others might have a higher/lower value on "very high").

Second, I'm assuming you are relatively young (assumption based on student loans and lack of revolving credit), pardon me if I'm wrong! Many young people these days have a strong aversion to credit cards. I've read some recent studies on this subject, and apparently most millennials do not have a credit card and are not interested in one. This is because most of them experienced the major 2008 Financial Crisis in their young adulthood and have been turned off to lending, borrowing, and credit. I can also attest to the fact that our high school education on credit, banking, and lending are very poor. I still remember my high school finance teacher telling us that we should not get credit cards because they can only lead to debt! This is not true! Unfortunately, due to the recent financial crisis and what I believe to be very poor education on credit, young people today are afraid of credit cards.

With all of that said, there is nothing to be afraid of with credit cards. Having revolving lines of credit is very beneficial to your financial health, so long as you have self restraint and do not go out and max out all of your cards. Revolving lines of credit improve your credit score with good use, establish a relationship with major banks (which may help you with student, vehicle, home, personal, etc loans in the future), provide emergency funds (both for when you do not have cash/ATM available and need to pay for something and if you happen to fall on financial hardship), and earn fantastic rewards/perks for your spending. Personally, I never use cash/debit for any purchases. I exclusively use credit cards. Paying in cash feels like I am just throwing potential rewards out the window. 

In conclusion, take advantage of credit cards. They are not evil or bad, they will help you so long as you are responsible with them. Keep the care credit, it's a great card to have in case of unexpected medical expenses. Let the care credit grow and eventually apply for a few major credit credit cards from major banks and reap the rewards!

(If I am completely off base with my analysis and OP does not feel what I describe above, sorry! It's just the impression I got.)

[Anonymous]

I was tricked because i was told no credit was involved and that it was just a payment plan

I went back today and changed my form of payment to debit

Now im trying to get the credit card company to void my application

if this does not work though i will recieve the care credit card with a $0 balance and willt han have to close it.

how negatively will this affect my score?

[Anonymous]

im not keeping it because i know i will NEVER use it and it will eventually be closed down due to inactivity

I was tricked because i was told no credit was involved and that it was just a payment plan

I went back today and changed my form of payment to debit

Now im trying to get the credit card company to void my application

if this does not work though i will recieve the care credit card with a $0 balance and willt han have to close it.

how negatively will this affect my score?

[Aduke1122]

Having the credit card will help you with your credit mix , it will raise your fico score , I highly doubt they will take the inquiry off bc you had to have signed or filled out some kind of application to do it in the first place . If all you have ever had are student Loans this will help you . You don't even have to use it . It also. Am be used at lots of different places too just for some info about it . I would not close it but that is just me , your score will have already too the hit for the new account and Hard inquiry so just pay it off in a month or two and leave it alone is my best advice , you can read how important having a good credit mix is , google it

[AverageJoesCredit]

You can close it if you wish, but you will have a record of applying for it. One hp isnt going to be your undoing. If revolving credit isnt important to you, and you dont want any is soley up to you. But i believe you will find out its importance when you need to get certain things.

Why i may ask is the affect to your score so important ? A few have inquired about sharing your score whether its Fico or Fako so thst we can best undrstand your situation or help. Most of here on the forum just want to help each other grow and learn and your situation might help the next guy or girl down the road with regards to applying, or being tricked, for Care Credit. This is why sometimes your basic data points can help.

There are alot of true experts here in regards to how high a score can go with no revolving credit lines but in my inexperienced time through the credit world, ive seen that reason pop up quite alot for reasons to deny credit. Just my average thoughts for today

[Aduke1122]

Great advice AJC

[Anonymous]

I hear you OP, I felt tricked when I opened up my Care Credit card at the dentist 5 years ago.

I ended up keeping it open and it is now my second oldest account.

I ruptured my achilles a few weeks ago and owe over 5k in medical bills so you never know when it might come in handy down the road.

Best of luck to you.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was tricked because i was told no credit was involved and that it was just a payment plan

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Again, you might have interpreted the salesperson's payment plan offering as something other than a credit card, but they still didn't "trick" you. At some point you had to have signed off on the application for credit. While many times these forms are long and contain a lot of fine print, I promise that whatever you filled out and signed told you what you were applying for. If I had to guess, what happened was that the salesperson/cashier told you that you can put your purchase on a payment plan. You agreed and signed/submitted some sort of form or application for the plan. You did not read the application (or at least the fine print) and just assumed you needed to sign it and give your personal information for a simple payment plan. Afterwards you get approved for the Care Credit card. If this is the scenario, you were NOT tricked. You were simply negligent and did not read what you were signing.

As a general rule, if something/someone is requesting your SSN, you should probably read everything on that form. Your SSN is your entire life, just willy-nilly throwing it out there can be very dangerous (even at seemingly legitimate places like doctor's office/eyeglass retailer). While you probably do not think you just "willy-nilly" provided your SSN, it is clear you did, because you gave someone your SSN without fully understanding its use (never just take a cashier/salesperson's word for granted, read the fine print always!).

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Now im trying to get the credit card company to void my application

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 I promise you that you cannot get that hard pull removed from your credit report. It is there to stay. 

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@Anonymous wrote:

if this does not work though i will recieve the care credit card with a $0 balance and willt han have to close it.

how negatively will this affect my score?

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Why do you "have to close it"? I understand that you mistakenly applied for a credit card that you did not want and now feel like you were "tricked", but reacting to that by just closing the account makes no sense. You have the hard pull and new account on your credit report, nothing will change that. From this point forward you only recieve positive benefits from the card. Closing the account is only another negative. I honestly don't see the rationale here, even if you don't plan on using the card. Keep it open, get an improved score via credit mix and revolving credit, have care credit just in case you need to pay for a medicial emergency in the future, and nothing bad happens. Or, you close the account for seemingly no reason and the only thing that happens is that other creditors see you opened and immediately closed your FIRST line of revolving credit. Some banks will look at that very unfavorably when you inevitably go to apply for revoling credit/a loan later in your lafe.

PS: Not trying to sound rude here, I'm just a straight shooter. Best of luck.

[Aduke1122]

I agree it would help you more to keep it open bc if your ever planning on needing to get a home loan or car or personal loan you could be denied for limited credit experience bc you have only student loans which you have not even started to pay back