Hey all - I want to get your advice. I have a household back Visa card. Not gold, 1800 limit, bad 19% rate. It has been paid off. It is my oldest tradeline (4 years). Perfect payment record. I have another (better) card now and I want to close household or negotiate for better terms. Questions for the group: 1. Does household have a retention department like providian or cap1? 2. What should I ask for? 3. If they won't budge, should I close it or just freeze it in ice? 4. Even though it's my oldest, I have another card that is almost as old that I'm gonna keep regardless...what are the FICO implications? Thanks y'all!!!
yes they have a retention dept. their retention dept will likely offer you 3 options. You can only pick one. Line increase APR decrease refund of last annual fee/ waiver of next one Interesting thing is this: once those options are there you can call back 31 days later and ask for another option. I took a drop to 15.9 apr... called back 31 days later (yes, it has to be a month and a DAY) or they can't do anything... then I took a 400 line increase 3 mos later I got a 500 line increase. I play their system a lot just for fun. Call about cancelling. It'll be worth your time. they're actually pretty easy. Oh, I have heard that they're getting a new system in the Fall so they're supposed to have much better offers then. Call back in Dec or so and see if you can get Gold with line increase
NewGuy, Keeping the card would depend on a couple of factors: If your third oldest card isn't very old, then you need to maintain the history of your two oldest cards for a while longer. If you have four or fewer bank cards, then keeping your Household Bank card really won't hurt you. Here's to your credit success!
really depends on the total picture. what your credit is like... what cards you have, terms, limits, usage etc. If you want to detail it we'd be more than happy to give our .02. Normally, you want to keep your oldest cards til you've gotten close to what you want. Age is average age of active cards so it's a good factor. The nice thing with Household, Prov, Cap1 etc is that you can almost always get your annual fee either waived or rebated. with Household, after the first year they'll almost always rebate. Also, Household is getting a new system in a few months and I've been told the upgrades will be more aggressive. For what I know now about your situation I'd call retention and work on the card and keep it. Again, a bit more detail and we can do better on our advice
