Which is lowering my scores more, closed cards or open cards?

[PCR20]

I've been working on paying off my CC's for the past several months and made some good progress (I think).

I started with - is now

CitiBank  13,000  -  0

Amex          2,000  -  0

Chase1     4,600  -  4,100

Chase2     4,900  -  4,400

Chase3     5,500  -  5,050

USBank     3,100 -  2,750

Juniper              0  -  4,600

The Juniper went up due to a 3% Balance Transfer from the 30% CitiBank card.

The reason I ended up with three Chase Cards was from the Washington Mutual takeover.

My question has to do with the Chase Accounts.

One of them is active (#1) and the other two were closed by Chase with balances still on the cards.

I was never late on any of them, but Chase decided a year and a half ago that my FICOs were too high and figured this was the best way to lower them by 150+ points.

(sarcastic, in reality I never did figure out why they did it).

Since those two accounts are closed, I figured I would put them at the bottom of my "Waterfall" list for payoff in October - December.

My reasoning is paying them down does nothing to increase my available credit ratio.

My question is: does that make the most sense, or do those two accounts negatively impact my FICO scores more because they are closed with balances?

I will have all of these accounts paid in full by December, but I am planning on a major purchase in August (a Motorhome), so I need the most FICO "Bank for my Buck" by then.

The FICO I pulled from Experian today is 744 

Thanks for reading this and any suggestions you can provide.  

[LS2982]

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@TCarson wrote:

I've been working on paying off my CC's for the past several months and made some good progress (I think).

I started with - is now

CitiBank  13,000  -  0

Amex          2,000  -  0

Chase1     4,600  -  4,100

Chase2     4,900  -  4,400

Chase3     5,500  -  5,050

USBank     3,100 -  2,750

Juniper              0  -  4,600

The Juniper went up due to a 3% Balance Transfer from the 30% CitiBank card.

The reason I ended up with three Chase Cards was from the Washington Mutual takeover.

My question has to do with the Chase Accounts.

One of them is active (#1) and the other two were closed by Chase with balances still on the cards.

I was never late on any of them, but Chase decided a year and a half ago that my FICOs were too high and figured this was the best way to lower them by 150+ points.

(sarcastic, in reality I never did figure out why they did it).

Since those two accounts are closed, I figured I would put them at the bottom of my "Waterfall" list for payoff in October - December.

My reasoning is paying them down does nothing to increase my available credit ratio.

My question is: does that make the most sense, or do those two accounts negatively impact my FICO scores more because they are closed with balances?

I will have all of these accounts paid in full by December, but I am planning on a major purchase in August (a Motorhome), so I need the most FICO "Bank for my Buck" by then.

The FICO I pulled from Experian today is 744 

Thanks for reading this and any suggestions you can provide.  

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That is incorrect. If they were closed by the creditor with balances they are still factored into your utilization and it would be best to PIF those 1st.

[MarineVietVet]

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@LS2982 wrote:

 

That is incorrect. If they were closed by the creditor with balances they are still factored into your utilization and it would be best to PIF those 1st.

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Closed credit card accounts are only factored into utilization if both the CL and balance are being reported. It doesn't matter if the account was closed by the consumer or creditor.

To TCarson: Do you know if the CL is being reported on those 2 Chase accounts? I couldn't tell by your post unless I just missed it.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[PCR20]

Sorry, re-reading my original question proves I worded it wrong.

"My reasoning is paying them down does nothing to increase my available credit ratio."

Should have read:

"My reasoning is paying them down has less impact on my available credit ratio"

I know they are still a factor, but I was thinking along the lines of Available Credit vs Used Credit Ratios.

Paying those off only lowers the Used Credit side of the equation.

It does nothing for the Available side.

Paying any of the Open Cards both lowers the Used and increases the Available.

Am I off-track here?

[PCR20]

To the question on how they are reporting, I can't tell.

The report still shows the Limits, but the accounts are flagged as "Closed By Credit Grantor"

Do they still factor in the Limit on a closed account?

Maybe I'll try pulling a different report and investigate further..

[MarineVietVet]

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@TCarson wrote:

To the question on how they are reporting, I can't tell.

The report still shows the Limits, but the accounts are flagged as "Closed By Credit Grantor"

Do they still factor in the Limit on a closed account?

Maybe I'll try pulling a different report and investigate further..

---

As long as both the CL and balance are reporting the account is factored into utilization even if the account is closed.

It doesn't matter whether it's closed by the creditor or you.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[PCR20]

This is how they are reporting (less the account numbers)

Account Name: CHASE
Account Number: xxxxxXXXX
Acct Type: Credit Card
Acct Status: Closed
Monthly Payment: $140.00
Date Open: 7/1/2007
Balance: $4,449.00
Terms: Revolving
High Balance: $14,509.00
Limit: $25,000.00
Past Due:
Payment Status: Current
Comments: Credit line closed-grantor request-reported by subscriber



Account Name: CHASE
Account Number: xxxxxXXXX
Acct Type: Credit Card
Acct Status: Closed
Monthly Payment: $144.00
Date Open: 6/1/2003
Balance: $5,081.00
Terms: Revolving
High Balance: $8,387.00
Limit: $11,000.00
Past Due:
Payment Status: Current
Comments: Credit line closed-grantor request-reported by subscriber

[MarineVietVet]

I'm no expert at reading these things but it looks like the CL is still reporting on both.

There is a way you can see if these 2 accounts are being factored into your utilization. Figure your utilization both with and without these 2 and see which one matches the utilization on your report. That is if you pulled a report and score from here.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[vanillabean]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

As long as both the CL and balance are reporting the account is factored into utilization even if the account is closed.

It doesn't matter whether it's closed by the creditor or you.

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My ignorance is hopeless in this area, but while the util could be helpful, doesn't such an account constitute delinquency?

[PCR20]

Thanks for the idea.

I did just that and it exactly matches my utilization percentage when I do not include the two closed accounts.
That being said, I'm still unclear on how to proceed.

Should I be working on the two closed account open balances now, or continue my path of working on the best Available Credit Utilization?

No where have I seen any information on Closed Account-Open Balances vs Open Account-Open Balances.

I well understand that no one can give me a definitive answer.
It's all a "Best Guess", so I'm just looking for opinions at this point.