I called in this morning and closed my Cross Country Bank, First National Bank of Marin, Orchard Bank, and Providian credit card accounts. I was fairly happy with Providian, but the others truly sucked. I closed them all with balances and will pay them off asap. What kind of hit will my scores take? Only two of them were one year old. Thanks!
The way I understand it, it looks bad if you close more than one or two at a time. If they all have balances, why did you close them all instead of keeping them open while paying on them, if you don't mind me asking!
Because I am tired of paying all of the fees, especially with Cross Country and FNBM. I cannot get anywhere with them and am tired of the 1000 credit lines, can't do too much with that. I have a Cap One with a $3000 limit at 9.9 apr, can't get much better than that with credit like mine.
It is recommended that you close no more than 1-2 accts every 6 months. With closing 4 on 1 day, all with balances, your ratios will take a dive and unfortunately, your scores most likely will too. You may want to call back Providian and 1 other and ask them to repopen them for another 6 months.
Won't your scores eventually rebound though? Or am I being naive? What I'm trying to say is that if your unhappy w/ your cards can you close some of them simultaneously, take the hit and then rebound?
Mandy, that is what I think also. The cards will all be zero balance pretty quickly, so I think that should help me gain any points I have lost. FNBM is a bunch of thieves and it is well worth getting rid of them.
you're going to see a hit for 2 reasons... closing accounts with balances makes the limit disappear from the ratio so your revolving ratios will skyrocket... and closing more than 2 accounts in a 6 month period will also pop the score... BUT.....so what The SMART FINANCIAL DECISION WAS TO DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID DO... AND THAT'S GET RID OF THOSE FEES!!! I applaud you for taking the better route and keeping your money... You've used the other cards to have the trade lines on your reports... they've served their purposes... now dump them and move on You're right. with a great Cap1 credit card you need nothing else. You may wish to try to get another Cap1 card (you can balance transfer to it) and if you get denied... use the Exec dept and try for an override. Your score will improve again in 6 months and in the interim.. if you want to try for another Cap1 do so... it'll take a bit for the accounts' changes to hit the reports. In the interim... you can take that extra money that would have been wasted on fees and pay off those balances (and you can bt them to Cap1.. you know) and pay them off there. No bt fee, 9.9 interest rate... not bad. Make large payments to Cap1... bt the other balances over... and the large payments will help you increase your loc on Cap1... win/win That's one of the ways I increased my Cap1 so quickly... they saw 1k payments every month and then I bt'd over my other cards' monthly usage )) anyway... BRAVO~ You're putting credit in its proper perspective. I only use my Cap1 and AMEX cards now... they're the only ones with decent terms
As an aside... I think we need to remember the scores are only useful if you're about to apply for something... so as you're paying off those balances... who cares what your scores are We do need to put those "scores" in their place... they're just a tool, nothing more.
Marie, Mr Cooke at Capital One has combined 3 cards into one, I have plenty of paid cap one close accounts showing on my reports. They have been really, really good to me. I cannot say enough nice things about them. You are right, these accounts served their purpose, I was counting down the days until I hit the one year on my Marin and CCB cards. My Providian was opened in November of last year and my Orchard card will be 6 months old next month. I should qualify my statement, I am waiting until next month on the Orchard so three closed accounts today.
