revolving accounts open

[Anonymous]

I have several store cards open

pier one

lowes

avenue

macys

and a few more (but I got 10 percent off the purchase ! lol. what a crock )

I haven't used them in years.

all with a balance of zero which I have never used. how do i get the fact that I had those accounts removed or should I close the accounts. They all have relatively small credit limits. If I had known then what I know now, i would have forgone all that stuff. I am in debt management, have paid on time to all my accounts, my car is about to be paid for in a week and I am looking forward to funneling more money to my debt management.

Am I better off leaving the accounts alone, or should I go on and close them. I don't even know where the cards are, I think I cut all of them up when I realized I couldn't live like this anymore.

[Tuscani]

I say leave em unless they are costing you money.

[Anonymous]

jenk, if you don't even know where they are, they pose a huge credit security risk. Have you pulled Credit Reports to verify that they haven't been used at all? If yes you have, then I'd use them, if only to buy a gallon of milk, JUST to be able to have that low, low utilization rate available to you. If you haven't then I'd sure pull all 3, JUST to make sure they lie dormant and unused.

If your current credit and financial situation is secure, and you have other cc's and those shrinks into insignificance, then imo, you should close them. But I still consider myself a newbie here, and others with more experience will probably comment on this issue. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

I pulled my 3 bureau reports and none have been used. I am certain I cut them up when I went into debt management.

Thanks for the advice.. but you can't buy a gallon of milk at pier one or lowes

[haulingthescoreup]

Well, here's my version: As long as they don't have annual fees, and if you won't be tempted to go wild with them (sorry, not implying anything, I'm just speaking generally), you might want to call each issuer and ask if they would send you a new card. If you didn't formally close your accounts, this shouldn't be a problem. And then off to the sock drawer they go. Use each one for some completely inane, low $ purchase every six months to keep it alive.

If it's just too silly to keep all of them (especially since they have low CL's), look on your FICO report for your average credit age. I think that's on EQ and TU, but not EX. If you have any cards "younger" than that, closing those won't hurt your overall age of credit, and might help. If they're all about the same age, with low CL's, and it's just bugging you to think about them, I say close them out. (Maybe not the Lowe's--what if you need a new toilet? lol) Your credit age will recover--I think it's good to reduce random craziness in your life, IMO.

Just be sure that you have a high enough total CL remaining to keep your utilization from taking a sudden hop upwards.

[Anonymous]

remember closing old accounts could hurt your score..if they have age on them and you r not paying any fees for not using them,,,,leave them alone...they might help your utl...just keep your balances low and charge something small every couple of months to show activity.