I managed to close two credit card accounts today.

[hedgehog]

Bank of America just closed the account, no questions asked. I would guess they've given up on trying to convince people to keep sending them money every month.

Discover offered me a 3.89% interest rate if I kept the card.

:rofl:



Be polite to the people at the credit card companies, most of them are just working drones like the rest of us.

[sharp_stick]

1. The only reason I don't close accounts

is that I don't want to take the hit on my credit score. I think everyone is getting wise to the fact that FICO is pretty much in bed with the credit industry and the credit industry uses them to keep people from cancelling cards.

Right now I'm not paying fees on any of the cards that don't hold balances but the second the scumbags change that I'll say to hell with the credit score for awhile. The only card I'm going to cancel out of spite the second I can do it is Chase because I hate those pricks and they jacked my rate, along with damned near every other card holder they have, for no reason whatsoever.

I can't wait to get that one done.

[librechik]

3. yeah, it's better for your credit score to pay em off and leave em empty

but nobody ever mentions that

[sharp_stick]

8. Exactly but the card companies have

nice little tricks to screw with you. One card that I have lowered my credit limit by almost $4,000 about 6 months after it was paid off. Nice little hit to the credit score because your available credit just dropped by $4,000.

The next trick the scumbags are going to try is start charging yearly or monthly "maintenance fees" to empty accounts, because it just takes so much effort to have the computer email blank statements every month. Once this starts I think they should completely rethink the way FICO scores are calculated but they wont because FICO and the Credit Industry are the same.

[librechik]

10. yes indeed--makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?

[SoCalDem]

12. Once you reach a "certain age", FICO becomes less important

If you do not plan to :
buy another house on credit
rent a house from a rental agency
finance a car
it's FICO-SCHMICO

This is a dirty little secret that rarely gets mentioned. There IS a part of society that uses debit cards & pays cash, and rarely, if ever, uses credit. To those people, the almighty FICO is pretty meaningless.

We got rid of all but one credit card back in '04, and I not only don't know, but don't care what our FICO is.

At our ages, we are DONE "accumulating"..we have our final "luxury" car..no payments, our "final" house...until my husband retires, and then we will downsize to a cheaper area.

FICO has got the younger folks by the neck, but as we age, it becomes less important

[demigoddess]

20. you might avoid those fees, use the card like a debit and pay off everything

at the end of the month. Using the card but not using it for actual credit actually costs the card company money to process but they can't charge you interest or fees. We have done this for years and we have a good credit rating but they don't make money off of us. They lowered our credit limit recently, but I think it is an across the board automatic thing to limit their liability overall.

[CoffeeCat]

9. Here's another thought...

...just something to think about.

I am certainly not an expert on credit cards or FICO scores, because I really don't play in that universe. We have
no credit cards and I don't even know what my husband's or my FICO score is. I don't care. I think it's a big
con, developed by the banks--to get us all wigged out and concerned about our FICO number.

Anyway---when we applied for a mortgage, our mortgage lender told us that they do look at your number of on-time payments.
They're looking for a solid payment history. However, if you have many credit cards outstanding--this can be held against
you because they ALSO look at the amount of credit available that you have. If you have four credit cards that collectively
give you a $30,000 line of credit--the bank doesn't like that. They look at the potential debt you could carry, and higher
debt possibilities translates into a bigger risk for the bank.

So, holding onto those cards may not be such a bright idea. And if you do have a mortgage that you are paying on time--it
doesn't matter if you have credit cards or not.

The credit card companies will lead you to believe that if you don't use their cards--you won't have a credit history or
a pretty FICO score. I think it's time we started calling their bluff. It's a load of bull. Especially if you do have
a mortgage and you've paid on time. You can get a loan or credit for anything you want--if you've got that mortgage. And
getting a mortgage doesn't require a credit-card history.

[Scout]

16. i don't care if my score takes a hit ... i'm closing cards and going

cash and debit-card only.

it doesn't seem to matter what i do, my rates get jacked, or my credit limit gets lowered, or they add an annual fee, or a no-usage fee....

[librechik]

19. Sometimes you have to--like the ones that charge an annual fee

dumped those suckers as soon as I could.

Banksters are endlessly imaginative and crooked aren't they?

[ecstatic]

21. Still, it's important that people who are searching for jobs or

who are trying to get financing know what the consequences of closing a long time card are. Even employers check credit nowadays.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Don't bet on it.

I told discover card 3 years ago to close my account and I still keep getting new cards and balance transfer offers in the mail. Same thing with my chevron card. You think you've closed it, they tell you they'll close it but it just doesn't happen, at least not over the phone. I think you have to do it in writing by registered mail for it to stick.

[NNN0LHI]

4. If you don't ask them for a letter confirming you closed the account it will not be closed

If you don't get the letter the account stays open.

Thats the way it works.

Don

[ThomWV]

5. First off ... Congratulations!!!

I want to chime in with the others. We have found that accounts we thought had been closed years earlier were still open as far as the card company was concerned.

You know something that strikes me as sort of funny? I know there are people who want to dump their debt and getting rid of plastic is the sensible way to start of course but they are afraid it will lower their credit score. Well, if the goal is to get away from relying on credit why on earth would you care that you access to it might somehow be lowered? If a drunk is trying to go dry and you take away his drink are you not doing him a favor?

[ET Awful]

7. Why? Because if you end up needing credit for a home, car or an emergency

It's better to have it already. It's far easier to get credit when you don't need it than it is to get it when you do.

Until there's single payer health care, I'd rather have some credit available in case of a medical emergency.

[NNN0LHI]

13. Its because circumstances can change

Might swear off using that credit card right now but if some critical situation ever arises its nice to know that the purchasing power is there.

I use pretty much all cash but every once in a while I go to pay for something and open my wallet and moths fly out. My wife likes to take my money out of my wallet without saying anything. Funny, eh? The card saved me having to wash dishes to pay for my meal more than once.

Don

[ET Awful]

6. Little hint: It hurts them more if you keep it open and don't use it than it does if you close it.

As long as there's no annual fee, it actually helps you to have it open (more available credit and less usage is good for your FICO score, utilization of available credit makes up around 30% of your FICO score, the lower your utilization, the higher your score).

It helps you, but it hurts them (they still have to maintain the account and everything that entails). Even better is to charge some minor amount like $5 a month and pay it off. This means they have to mail you a monthly statement. You don't incur interest because of the grace period on purchases.

It makes more sense for you to keep them open and make the issuer eat the maintenance costs while you reap the higher FICO score from having more unused credit.

[cbdo2007]

11. Congrats! Good moving closing them.

Don't worry about the people telling you it's bad to close them. If the credit cards are there and the accounts are open you're more likely to use them.

[hedgehog]

14. With regards to the credit score, I do have some protection in that

my mortgage is almost paid and I don't want to move. We've never paid more than $500 for a car in thirty years. As long as my husband keeps his job, we have health insurance. If he loses his job, all bets are off anyways.

I'm not really interested in hurting the credit card companies, and don't want the temptation of an open balance.


I think the rules about worrying over credit scores are about to go out the window. The freeze on wages has to go away or else the system will crash and burn. Once wages get back to where they should be, most of us won't be using credit as much.

[Bertha Venation]

15. "Be polite . . ." + 1

[hedgehog]

17. My daughter's boy friend had a job at a phone bank. He walked out

because he wouldn't pressure people into taking on loans they couldn't afford. Not only that, but the place stiffed him on his pay! This wasn't a hole in the wall operation but a major bank.

[slackmaster]

18. Unfortunately that action will lower your FICO score

But it's still probably the right thing to do.