Alans Credit Card Saga

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by ALAN, Jun 6, 2001.

  1. ALAN

    ALAN Well-Known Member

    People all over the world,
    Please help me, once again I have another problem that has arisen a few days ago.

    A couple of months ago, I applied for a Discover Platinum card. I had a Citi Platinum Select and and Amex Blue before applying for the Discover. Now I have all three. I have been using the Discover the most so I can get the 1% cash back if I spend over 3k per year. Last Thursday I called Citi to get a credit line increase. That was granted, then I wanted to see if I could upgrade to the Dividend Platinum Card. This was granted as well. It pays you 1% for any purchase, not just if you spend 3k per year, this is 1% all of the time then you get checks in $100 increments when you reach that much in cash back earnings. Granted, it will take longer to get, but I really don't mind. Now, I will used this card, not only is it a Citibank card, but it is a Mastercard and its accepted in more places than Discover and Amex. Then, I get all the Platinum benefits and cashback, what more could I ask for? No annual fee, reasonable apr, this card is all I need.

    So, this is where I need help. Should I cancel one of my other cards, if so which one. Being that my Discover is 3 months old and my Amex is around 10 months old, these are relatively new accounts. My Citi is around 8 months old. I don't want my credit report to look bad. If I use Citi for everything, then my other accounts will not be used too much, this may not reflect well on the credit reports so it may behoove me to close at least one of my cards so I would just stay with 2 cards max. Thats really all I need, and really, I could get by with just 1 MC, because if they don't accept MC, they don't accept credit cards pretty much. I don't want to rotate cards week by week or month by month, I want to keep things simplified and not have to worry about paying 3 different companies and 3 different times. I know this is long, but it finally felt good to get this off of my mind, now I need some help from you all, can you assist me?
     
  2. breeze

    breeze Well-Known Member

    Alan,

    What a lovely problem. I'm sure many of us wish that we had your problems and not our own. <VBG>

    breeze
     
  3. steve

    steve Well-Known Member

    Alan, I know exactly how you feel. I have the same cards you do and I'm really disappointed with the Discover cash back benefit because I don't spend that much to get the 1%. On the other hand, If I were you I would not cancel any of these cards because they do look good on your report. You can use the Citibank Dividend card on most of your purchases and then charge one or two purchases per month on Blue or Discover. If you really want to cancel a card I would get rid of Discover because Amex does reward its cardmembers with credit increases and better cards. With Amex you have many more cards to choose from than with Discover and your next Amex card is much easier to get since you have Blue. Also, Discover uses the dreaded two cycle billing to calculate interest, Amex does not.
     
  4. Doug

    Doug Well-Known Member

    Remember one thing that closing an account doesn't disappear from your credit reports, a close account will remain for seven years.
     
  5. R.

    R. Well-Known Member

    I thought it would remain indefinitely as long as there was no negative aspect to it. I know my gf has accounts that were closed by her in good standing over ten years ago still showing. Closing an account so young would be a negative thing however.

    Anyway, my advice to you, Alan, is to keep them all. There's no pressing reason to close any of them. I don't know what other cards you have but three bank cards is better than two. You have the choice of using the others once every month or two and paying it off within the grace period, or revolving a small balance on them for a few months at a time. One way costs you nothing but the reward missed whereas the other costs you money but may lead to more credit line increases. Either way lets them grow into solid positive tradelines. You could also just never use them but that runs the risk of them being closed by their grantors.

    If you do only have the two others it's easy. Between my gf and I we have 13 cards other than the preferred Chase Shell Platinum (1% back on all purchases) that need to be fed monthly or thereabouts. I wish the game didn't work that way, but it does. After you've had the others for 7 years it may be safe to close them although average tradeline length will always be a scoring consideration.

    Until and unless you apply for a mortgage or whatever and your lender tells you that your total available credit is a concern, keep them all.
     
  6. Doug

    Doug Well-Known Member


    Experian is 7 years
    Equifax longer 10 years
     

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