I got my letter from Merrick Bank today. They did not raise my APR. Of course, my APR from Nextcard was jacked up last year to 19.99%, but I really expected Merick to raise it. Of interest, there is no annual fee, nor monthly fee. I thought that the other people who were picked up by Merrick got both an annual fee and a monthly service charge. Also, they claim that payments can be made online. I read here that they do not allow this. I am paying off my cards one by one. This will be the first one to go. Should there be any hit on my FICO score for a new account when it is transferred to Merrick? I can close it after I pay it off in a few weeks, but am afraid it will hurt my ratios. With no annual fee, I am inclined to keep it open for a while.
Congratulations on the card having no annual fee. If it is actually a new account it may hurt your score slightly because one of the things the Credit scoring software looks at is the number of accounts opened in the last three years. I wouldn't worry about it. If you can get the new card paid off I would keep it open. An open paid off Visa is worth more than a closed one. You want to keep three open triad lines it a minimum at all times for a good score.
