I have four Bank cards, as follows: AMEX Green CASHBACK: Opened 8/01 $14,500 CITIBANK Dividend Select: Opened 3/01 $13,300 BANK ONE free cash Rewards: Opened 9/02 $14,500 CHASE Perfectcard: Opened 5/03 $10,000 I use the AMEX and Chase all the time and pay my bills in full each month. I don't need a fourth card, really. I am thinking of canceling either the Bank One Card or the Citibank, rather than sock-drawering it.. The Citibank has a $100 tier, and I have satisfied that. Once they send me my $100 check, the only card I can convert this to (with instant rewards) would be the Shell Mastercard. (I use all sorts of gas). Which is a better card and company, Citibank or Bank One? If I keep the fourth card (if it's Citibank, I don't want to start down the $100 road again), it would not get used. Any opinions? Transunion 765 Experian 741 Equifax 752
Not sure, but from my reading here if you close the account and don't replace it with a different card, it could negatively affect your score due to a higher utilization.
Re: Which of Four BankCards To Canc mila- You don't know me (which is a shame actually - cuz to know me is to love me) - BUT - trust me on this - I'm an OLD MONKEY - keep all your cards - you can never know when you might actually NEED it.
Re: Which of Four BankCards To Canc Be careful here. Those of use that are at the seam between sub-prime and prime, cancelling a older card could be a good thing. Here's why, if you got a subprime card and held on to it too long, there is a good possibility that your account will get sold to an even worse company, or if a bigger prime issuer buys another company out, your likely to get your account closed by creditor. I think that once you get cards on better terms aka prime cards, start cancelling the older ones "slowly" so as not to impact your FICO too much.
Re: Which of Four BankCards milavant, It's great that you have too many good cards, and Mark LA is right that you should keep them. If, for some reason, one of the cards was repriced or closed, or an annual fee was instituted, you would need the other three accounts to give you leverage and confidence as you battled over the fourth. Then there's the matter of rewards. You seem to have all rewards cards, and you can't get significant rewards on some cards if you use all four of them. So you might want to consider making one or two of them your "balance" cards, negotiating for lower interest rates. Citibank or Chase might be best for that.
Re: Which of Four BankCards milavant, By the way, Citibank is vastly superior to Bank One as a company. I assume the card is superior as well.
