• Date Started: Dec 1, 2008
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I need major advice!! Please help me!!!

11 Responses to “I need major advice!! Please help me!!!”

1. mom-sense Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 06:35 pm 1229020549
   1229020549
   
   I am a person who closes the card/accout when I pay it off. It is a liberating feeling. I have closed a HELOC and a credit card in the past three months. I am not that concerned about it damaging my FICO score because I already own a home and pay cash for my cars. Do you see yourself needing credit in the near future (mortgage or student loan)? I would close them and start over. I'm sure you'll get conflicting advice in another answer to this post, but I'm like you - once I get rid of the debt, I want it gone. I have kept one card in my name, one in DHs and these are our oldest ones. Good luck!

2. Broken Arrow Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 06:38 pm 1229020710
   1229020710
   Why don't you just pay it off, cut up the cards, and then.. more or less pretend they don't exist anymore?
   
   (Of course, if the history is bad and/or you have to pay fees just to keep them open,then by all means, close them.)

3. snoopycool Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 06:54 pm 1229021649
   1229021649
   I'd keep them open. Just don't use them.

4. gamecock43 Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 06:54 pm 1229021666
   1229021666
   ok, I AM NOT AN EXPERT-but when do you need your credit? I am asking this because I had excellent credit, I canceled one card because I like you, could not stand to have the card hanging around, I didn't want to cut it up for identity theft risk, so I canceled it. My credit went down about 20 points for about 2 months. Then it went right back where it was before. If you NEED your credit to take out a loan, buy a house within a year- pay it off and leave it open. If you have no plans to do that- pay it off and close it. Your score wont go up as quickly, but really, it does feel good to call the card company and say you want to close it.

5. kdmoffett25 Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 07:04 pm 1229022294
   1229022294
   I agree with the other posts. If you don't need the credit score soon, close all but your oldest (makes it look better on the credit report to keep the older one around). Or if there is one is no annual fee or the lowest fee, which is a bummer to pay if you are not using the card. Or leave the one with the highest limit open, not use, but to have that much open in credit for the dummies to see you have but don't use...

6. noxqsez Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 07:08 pm 1229022532
   1229022532
   I made the mistake in closing my credit cards, and it lowered my score pretty bad. My finance goals for next year is to work on raising my score.
   
   My suggestion would be to keep your credit cards open instead of canceling because 15% of your credit score is based on your credit history. To keep you from using it, you can shred the card up or put it in a ziplock bag fill it with water, and straight to the freezer.
   
   Here's the breakdown:
   35% goes to your payment history.
   30% is based on available credit.
   15% is credit history.
   10% is new credit
   10% is types of credit used.
   
   I hope I helped

7. Analise Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 07:36 pm 1229024164
   1229024164
   Ditto what BA is advising.

8. whitestripe Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 07:46 pm 1229024776
   1229024776
   i would cancel the ones that have an annual fee. if you aren't planning on using them then there's no real point in having them. if you don't have any with an annual fee, then just don't use them.

9. skydivingchic Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 08:32 pm 1229027561
   1229027561
   Another idea would be to not cancel a card until your debt to credit ratio would be below 30% or so without the cancelled card. So for instance, lets say you have total credit line of $5000 spread over 4 careds. The total remaining balance on all cards is $1100. Lets say one of the cards, which has a $0 balance on it, has a credit line of $1000. If you cancel that paid off card, you will now have a debt to credit ratio of 27.5% ($1100 used/$4000 available). But if you had cancelled that card when you had an outstanding balance of $3000 (total on all cards), your debt to credit ratio would be 75% ($3000 used/$4000 available).
   
   Closing cards hurts your score in 2 ways. First it brings down the amount of credit available, thus increasing your debt to credit ratio. Second, it lowers the average age or your accounts. So the goal would be to close cards after your debt to credit ratio goes down. Also keep your oldest accounts open as opposed to your newer account (assuming they don't have an annual fee).

10. FrugalFish Says:
    December 12th, 2008 at 02:48 pm 1229093317
    1229093317
    It's best to cut up the cards and pretend you've closed them, as one other poster suggested. In this economic climate, the company may eventually close an unused account anyway.
    
    I didn't see anybody mention it, but even if you aren't going to need a loan to buy a house, car or anything else, a lowered FICO score can still hurt you. Many insurance companies use your FICO score in determining the rates you pay on your policies. If your FICO goes down, your insurance rates may go up.
    
    I would agree with canceling anything that has an annual fee attached to it though, that's just a big waste of money.

11. Koppur Says:
    December 12th, 2008 at 04:42 pm 1229100162
    1229100162
    I like to close the cards because I know myself and I get SO tempted to use the cards if they are still open. Even if I don't have the card, I can use it online with just the account number.

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