OP with that much travel, and your kids are flying too, I have to strongly suggest you look back at how much the cards saved you in bag fees alone. I think you will be disappointed when you close the cards and find out how much you begin paying in those fees.
So my opinion is, no, closing or even downgrading the cards is not a good idea, for your plans.
So my opinion is, no, closing or even downgrading the cards is not a good idea, for your plans.
dollylama said: "it will take a year for the inquiries to age off and become unscoreable on FICO 8 perspective" so I thought that if I can cancel at month 13, it's more than a year, and the inquiries will age age off and become unscoreable. Am I right or no?
The kids are traveling unaccompanied minors, so they can only use direct flights with Southwest or American Airlines.
For my travel to France, Delta is partner with Air France, but I never buy Air France because it's more expensive than American Airlines. For United airlines, they don't have direct flights to France, there is 1 stop, so I didn't buy United to France for many years. But of course, with bonuses, I would use both airlines to France.
Thank you for your explanation, I understand now. I mixed inquiry expiration with account age.
About my inquiries, according to creditscore.com, I have 8 inquiries. My beginner's mistake is that I wanted to have an Allegiant credit card and I got denied 4 times. I didn't understand the bad effect of these inquiries at this time. DollyLama said "it will take a year for the inquiries to age off and become unscoreable on FICO 8 perspective". But when I go to creditscore.com , the removal date of these inquiries is 2 years later, not 1 year. Why is it different?
What is a good number of inquiries?
When can I reapply for a new credit card? If I have to wait 2 years for the inquiries to be removed, I would have to wait Apr 8, 2019 for the first one. If I have to wait only 1 year, I have 7 inquiries right now, and I have to wait Dec 26, 2018 for the next one to be removed.
For sure, I'm keeping my Costco Citi visa for a very long time. About the Amex Delta and the United Chase, I'm not sure. I am almost sure that I won't use the benefits of these cards the second year, so I'd rather cancel them on the 11th month, then apply for a new credit card 1 month later (if my inquiries age off after 1 year instead of 2). But if you really think that cancelling them will be really bad for my credit score and that I should keep them for more than a year, I could do the following: For Delta Amex, I call the retention line if they offer me 7000 miles for $1k spent in 3 months, I keep it, and if not, I downgrade to blue delta skymiles.
For United Chase, I can downgrade to united travelbank card.
In regards to closing an account at 11 months or 13 months with regards to Amex.
It’s always better to leave any account with Amex open for the full entire year. There has been lots of data points on this forum and FT that those who close before the account anniversary are much more likely to wind up talking or being reviewed by Amex’s Rewards Abuse Team.
I would personally leave the Amex Delta open but product change it to the Delta Blue which has no AF, set alerts for it, set a recurring monthly fee (Netflix etc.) and sockdrawer it until the 2nd anniversary or close to. You might find some use for it later on and it avoids some suspicion.
It’s always better to leave any account with Amex open for the full entire year. There has been lots of data points on this forum and FT that those who close before the account anniversary are much more likely to wind up talking or being reviewed by Amex’s Rewards Abuse Team.
I would personally leave the Amex Delta open but product change it to the Delta Blue which has no AF, set alerts for it, set a recurring monthly fee (Netflix etc.) and sockdrawer it until the 2nd anniversary or close to. You might find some use for it later on and it avoids some suspicion.
@villemiami wrote:For sure, I'm keeping my Costco Citi visa for a very long time. About the Amex Delta and the United Chase, I'm not sure. I am almost sure that I won't use the benefits of these cards the second year, so I'd rather cancel them on the 11th month, then apply for a new credit card 1 month later (if my inquiries age off after 1 year instead of 2). But if you really think that cancelling them will be really bad for my credit score and that I should keep them for more than a year, I could do the following: For Delta Amex, I call the retention line if they offer me 7000 miles for $1k spent in 3 months, I keep it, and if not, I downgrade to blue delta skymiles.
For United Chase, I can downgrade to united travelbank card.
From your earlier comments, it is clear you aren't using just one airline, thus not getting as many opportunities to use the benefits.
your plan to downgrade to Delta Blue and a United No AF card is good. Best to keep the same account active with no AF, for your credit file stability.
As to your question on " is 8 inquiries good ", most of the effect of those inquiries has faded by 6 months later, no effect at 12 months. There is not a specific magic number for inquiries. Depending on the accounts a cardholder is going for, there have been other posters on here who showed dozens of Credit Card inquiries on one bureau. Some banks will be more INQ-sensitive than others, so it is always better to have fewer inquiries.
The way FICO scoring works, as a general rule, any one type of negative mark, whether INQ, or a 30-day late payment, those initial occurrences have an effect on your score, but as you pile on more of the exact same mark, the effect becomes less. So there is quite likely little score difference between 10 INQ in the last two months, vs 30 INQ in the last two months, from a scoring perspective. Now, the banks would start to wonder with that many INQ, though the FICO score would not.
As a check of how your file looks, you can go to the Citi website, and then click the link to "see if you prequalify today". This is a SP, and the feedback will give you a good indication how Citi sees your file. if you get the message "you're prequalified" and there is a single interest rate (not a range of interest rates), that's a good sign. Citi also issues the American Airlines card.
I tried on the Citi web site. I said that I was more interested in rewards. It said "we couldn't match your records to a Pre-Qualified credit card offer. See below for 3 other cards you may like."
Maybe that's because I closed my Citi AAdvantage in December 2017, and I need to wait 2 years to reapply?