Canceling credit cards

iuno.. all i know.. when i went to get att.. i had no credit, like didnt exist. lol. never used credit ever before. D:

 

Unless you subscribe to the Dave Ramsey no FICO score theory......

Take it from someone who screwed up his credit in 1999, then closed EVERY credit card and didn't use them for over 10 years. I cleaned it up , and went to a "Cash only" system and I couldn't get my credit score above 610. Even after buying a house and paying off 2 vehicle loans, and 2 motorcycle loans and wasn't late on anything for 7 years.

IN fact, my wife filed BK and 6 months later had a higher FICO score then me.

You have to have credit cards open to have a GREAT credit score. I finally realized you have to have them. 3 Open Trading lines is what 7 Steps to a 720 Credit Score teaches. Keep them all below 30% of your maximum limit for optimum results on your score. You can cancel it, I would just suggest you open a better one to replace it before you do.

 

It can hurt your score in that your credit length would take a hit as it is your oldest reported credit account.

Plus you would have less available credit. So if you charge $1,000 on your remaining card, you would be using ~ 66% of your available credit. That looks bad, makes it seem like you are in trouble so you have to use up your available credit.

This is even if you pay your card off every month, cause they take a snapshot of your credit, and if it happens to be when you haven't paid it off for the month yet, that's the credit usage percentage reported.

IMO, leave it in a drawer. Correction, leave it hidden somewhere secure.

 

I too wanted to get rid of ALL of our credit cards. Evil asked a friend of hers if that was a good idea. The reply was a unequivical, "NO! Your credit score with be trashed! You have to have credit cards to show that you are credit worthy!" Give me a break! I ABSOLUTELY HATE CREDIT CARDS! ESPECICALLY SEARS! Those penis vacuumizers charge up the ying yang! The base interest charge is somewhere around 28%, then theres the "service charge", and fees, and GOD help you if you are late paying, a $39 late fee! WE NEVER charge anything at Sears unless we have the money to pay for it THAT month!

Bottom line, you have to have credit cards to have a good credit score.

BUT, I too HATE, H A T E, Bank of America. They suck no matter how you look at them. I think Master Card, Visa, and Discover are much better than them although all of them suck in some form or another.

 

Keep the 2nd card. Banks are shutting off some peoples cards that they consider risky, if they yank one of your cards, you still have a backup. Use one card for your primary, and make at least one purchase a month on your secondary card, banks will yank a card if it is inactive for extended periods of time. Try to make more than the minimum payment on the card each month. If possible pay them off at the end of each month, interest sucks.

 

Like the others have said - keep the cards. Closing them shows that you have less credit and hurts your credit score. One component of the credit score models is the difference between your credit card balance and the credit limit. The wider the gap, the more credit you have available, which looks good on your credit scroe if you have a card(s) paid off but still open. It's when you have a high credit limit AND a high balance when your credit score suffers.

Pay them off. Put them away but use them maybe once every 6 months or year and pay it off right away that way there is some activity on them.

 

Closing limits your credit availability and will negatively effect your score.
Simply don't use the card much and pay it off fully when you do...

 

plus its always good to have a backup card if you get in a jam...if you still hate B/A that much open another card(credit union) then cancel B/A

 

keep the card. if you worry about self control just cut it up. i alwasy keep one around for an emergency. now where did i put that card. lol.