Totalling maybe. hmm. $4000 in creditlines are gone. 6 accounts. I hope my score goes up. I said goodbye to providian today. I just dont like their attitude and lack of grace period. Kiss my arse Providian if you are out there reading this.. (got $11K in new credit last month thanks citi!). Less accounts, more available credit, paying off mah CC at $1300/month, should be ready to buy a house by the time i have my last derogs drop off in a year in a half and have a nice nest-egg for the down payment. Does anyone know if a lot of closed accounts (most pretty new) will hurt your score?? Im thinking the opposite.
Let me begin by saying I believe you did the right thing. As for score effects: It goes both ways. Assuming closing the accounts won't have a long-term effect on your ratios, it should increase your creditworthiness score, because you'd no longer have an "excessive number of open revolving tradelines". (Short-term effect may differ.) However, many lenders also use proprietary "profitability" scores, designed to spot unprofitable applicants, such as ones that regularly transfer balances, rate shoppers, or those who close their accounts prematurely. For example, most lenders would not want one's business, if they knew one would eventually close his account within 6-12 months. Such customers normally do not generate any profit. Once an account is reported "closed" on your CR, having only been open for less than 6-12 months, removing it from your report is in your long-term interest. So if you have any valid reason to dispute it, by all means do so. Saar
My next goal is to work with our credit union. Their credit products require "B" credit, and their used car loan rates for "B" credit are 8.5% APR (up to 7 years old, up to 72 months). I am getting rid of all the "subprime" loans, since a personal banker will be reviewing my credit, the name on the accounts, do count... things like orchard,providian,crap 1, don't sit as well. Those folks know who they are and why you have them im afraid to say, and when their guidelines are more flexible than score alone, any bit helps..
Sam, I think the key is your statement, "less accounts, more available credit." As long as closing accounts doesn't increase your utilization ratio, then it can't do much harm. However, due to the reason Saar mentioned, it's always good to close accounts gradually.
