Comments on: Think Twice Before Canceling Credit Cards

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:15:15 +0000

James, if they didn’t require you to lower your balance, then it’s not necessary. Just be sure you never charge more than you can pay each month. You can also try upgrading one of your secured cards from Wells Fargo or Chase. Best of luck.

By: JAMES

JAMES — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:37:44 +0000

I HAVE A 10,00 SECURED CREDIT CARD WITH BOA I HAVE HAD FOR 4YRS. I ALSO NOW HAVE A NOTHER SECURED CARD THREW WELS FAGO FOR 6,500 I HAE HAD FOR 6 MONTHS AND A UNSECURED CARD FOR 2 GRAND TREW CHASE BACK FOR 1 YEAR. ( I ALWAYS PAY OFF THE BALANCES ON ALL CARDS EARLY! AND MY DEPT TO CREDIT RATIO IS LOW, I DONT SPEND MORE THEN 1,000 A MONTH ON CREDIT CARDS….AVERAGE IS 300!!!)
I ASKED BOA IF THEY COULD GRADUWATE MY SECURED CARD TO A NONSECURED CARD BUT SINCE HOW MY INCOME IS ONLY 800 A MONTH, THEY SAID NO, ALSO SAID ILL NEVER WILL GET A 10 GRAND UNSECRED CARD WITH PAY THAT LOW AND RECOMENED ON LOWERIG MY CREDIT LINE….BUT WILL NOT THAT HURT MY CREDIT SOCORE????ANY ADVICE? THANK YOU.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:14:22 +0000

Jen, it depends on several factors, the most important of which are your average age of credit and your credit utilization. You will be closing a card that has been open for over 10 years, which will reduce your average age of credit, and you will also close a line of credit, which could affect your credit utilization (amount of credit used vs. amount of available credit). For example, if you have $5,000 debt and have credit lines equal to $50,000, your credit utilization is 10%. If you close an account with a $10,000 line of credit, you now have $5,000 debt on $40,000 available credit, increasing your utilization to 12.5%. The lower your utilization rate the better. Overall, it would be impossible for me to give you a number regarding how your score will be affected, but if you have other lines of credit and don’t have a lot of debt, the change most likely will not be substantial. If you are curious, you can check your score now, then again in a few months. Best of luck in finding new work!

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:48:36 +0000

Recently I had to close or cancel my AT&T credit card. I received a letter from AT&T stating that I will be charge $60 per year for their credit card and if I spend over $2,000 the $60.00 will be waived. Do you believe the nerves of these people. I have been a customer since 1999, however, I have not been using the card as frequently as they would like. I knew this would affect my credit, but I had no choice considering I am unemployed. I have excellent credit. How badly will this affect my credit?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:04:36 +0000

Brian, Assuming this is the first transgression in 4 years it probably shouldn’t affect your score much at all. You may even be able to call your credit card company and ask them to remove the penalty and over the limit occurrence from your credit record. The key is to make sure it doesn’t happen again, so be sure to monitor your balances.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:08:10 +0000

About 4 years ago (in my not so smart days), I went over the limit a few times on my first credit card. Recently, i accidently used that same card for the wrong large purchase and went over the limit again by about 30 dollars. How negatively does this affect my score?

By: Peachy

Peachy — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:42:48 +0000

Eunice, depending how long you’ve had your 10 cc’s, I would suggest that if the inactive ones are less than 3-4 years old, it would be ok to cancel them, and just keep the 6 with some seniority. Like some of the older posts have suggested, you can always set up a monthly re-occurring payment of bills or what not on each of the cards you decide to keep. Downsizing from 10 to 1 card is a bit drastic. Good Luck!

By: Eunice

Eunice — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:52:57 +0000

I have a problem that I hope someone can help me with. I have in total, 10 credit cards, but I’m pretty sure that I have a good credit score because I make my payments in full and on time every time. 10 credit cards… yea I know. But in my defense, 8 of these credit cards are department store cards (Nordstrom, Macys, etc) and I only opened them to get the sign-up discounts. I probably only use the Nordstrom and Macys credit cards now and then, but only because I feel like I shouldn’t leave them inactive. But as for the rest of the cards… I don’t really use them because it’s not like I shop at those specific stores all the time and even when I do, I forget and use my debit card instead. The two major credit cards that I use is my Wells Fargo one and my Chase South West card, which I use the most because of the points. So now I am in a pickle. I really just want to stick with one credit card, but I have the other 9 looming over me. I don’t want the credit card companies to close my accounts because my cards go inactive because I know that will hurt my FICO score. But I don’t want to cancel my cards because I know THAT will hurt my score as well. It’s like… there’s no win-win situation. What the heck should I do?!?!?