Credit Card Question

[poky]

And please, PLEASE, don't close your oldest account. Michele and MDPhDWife are right. Your score will drop if you close it, and you'll be considered more of a credit risk because you'll have less credit history.

Huh? She's not going to have any less history if she closes an account that she never uses. It's not like closing an account wipes it from your history. It DOES change your usage percentage, but if you hardly use your cards now anyway, that's not going to change significantly, and if it's the first card you ever got, it's not a huge amount of credit anyway, and I thought the idea was to get another card, which will likely bounce your useage percentage back down anyway. Your score is fine, don't worry about that, your main problem is a lack of history of paying things off on credit.

You're not going to ruin your credit by closing an old account. Use the cards you have more, and get your husband's name on at least one so he starts building up a history, and you'll be fine.

[poky]

And please, PLEASE, don't close your oldest account. Michele and MDPhDWife are right. Your score will drop if you close it, and you'll be considered more of a credit risk because you'll have less credit history.

Huh? She's not going to have any less history if she closes an account that she never uses. It's not like closing an account wipes it from your history. It DOES change your usage percentage, but if you hardly use your cards now anyway, that's not going to change significantly, and if it's the first card you ever got, it's not a huge amount of credit anyway, and I thought the idea was to get another card, which will likely bounce your useage percentage back down anyway. Your score is fine, don't worry about that, your main problem is a lack of history of paying things off on credit.

You're not going to ruin your credit by closing an old account. Use the cards you have more, and get your husband's name on at least one so he starts building up a history, and you'll be fine.

[MissCrabette]

Sandy, I should've expressed myself better. An inactive account will fall off a credit report after about 10 years, although it's at the discretion of the credit bureaus when this happens to a closed account so it could be much sooner. It won't impact her right away, but it could hurt her later, especially if there's a large gap between the opening of her first credit card and the subsequent ones because credit scores take into account the age of the oldest account and the average age of all accounts.

As for the low credit limit on a first card, mine went up to a ridiculously high amount over the years, probably in an attempt to entice me to use it more.

The way I see it, why close the oldest account unless there's a fee associated with it? Even then, call the company first and see if they will waive it.

[MDPhDWife]

That's what I meant as well. It's not that closing an inactive account will erase the history, it is that it stops that history from aging. In other words it only helps your score if you have X many years with X bank. If I don't intend to ever use a card again, I'll destroy the card but not close the account.

[SoonerTexan]

I ended up closing my most recent card, which we have only used once and don't plan on using again. I think my oldest card in under my maiden name, though.

[MDPhDWife]

It doesn't make a difference on your credit score if a card is in your maiden name because it is tied to the same SS#.

[scrub-jay]

I ended up closing my most recent card, which we have only used once and don't plan on using again. I think my oldest card in under my maiden name, though.

So was mine, I just called the company and had them change my name. They confirmed my identity and sent me a new card with the new name. It was the easiest name change in the process.

[HouseofWool]

So was mine, I just called the company and had them change my name. They confirmed my identity and sent me a new card with the new name. It was the easiest name change in the process.

That's a bit scary actually.

[scrub-jay]

That's a bit scary actually.

Tell me about it! That is why I check my credit card activity all.the.time.