Have any of you had experience re-opening accounts previously closed by credit grantors? I have two I would like to re-open that were both closed around '99. One I still haven't finished paying on and the other I finally paid off last fall. I asked Chase - the one I haven't finished paying on - if they would consider re-opening the account, but they said since I had a credit counseling service on it, they would not. The service was Genus, used for two months in 2000 before I decided to keep paying on my own. The other is Citibank. As they are accounts opened in the late 1980s, I would really love to have this length of history back. Thanks for any info.
I would like to know this information as well, but I assume that the OC's would scoff at any attempt to reopen an account that they had so much trouble with.
Well, I think partially it depends on the account. My Citi account was paid perfectly for the two years after they closed it - I was unemployed for 9 months, but after I found work again I paid it well. Credit card companies have trouble finding and holding on to lucrative accounts, so maybe they would jump to have one back?
I was able to reopen Cap One after debt counseling. It had been closed over a year. ATT Univ said they couldn't because it had been closed over one year. Citibank kept saying "try again after 6 more months of on-time payments." I finally gave up on them. Instead, I got a couple of very old, inactive accounts (pre-dating my credit counseling) reactivated. You might try that if you have any very old ones listed as inactive on your reports. They may already be factored into your length of history if they weren't actually closed but just inactive, I don't know.
Re: Re: Re-Opening Accounts Even if they incorrectly closed on account that was in good standing. I made an electronic payment through their on-line services. Due to a bank glitch, the payment bounced. They closed the account because of the bounced payment. The bank even sent them a letter stating that it was their fault and not mine, but First USA would not re-open the account. I was really upset. The account was about 6months old. I still had the hit of the inquiry to open the account, and the hit of a new account, and a 6 month old closed account on my report too. It had a big impact on my ratios too since the limit was 42k.
