jason sadler’s Story
Categories
So, long story short...
jason sadler made the mistake of
not checking all my old credit cards
My Advice to You is
unless you want your credit to get ruined, keep track of old cards or just close them
Here's the whole story
A lot of people say not to close credit cards, but I am a firm believer that if you open a new one up when you close one - you won't have that much of a credit hit.
I had a MBNA card (now Bank of America) and neglected the card once I got a new card through WATCH-OVA-YA. I went about 6 months with the new credit card when I received a letter in the mail from Bank of America saying that my account had been closed due to overages and non-payments. I freaked out. I called them immediately only to find out that when I had paid the remaining balance on the card 3 days of interest accrued while it was processing payment ($11 or something silly). Angrily I protested and pled my case. The charges were paid and I asked the customer service rep to close the account (card cut up and tossed).
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I get a very suspicious letter in the mail from Bank of America. Apparently my account had NOT been closed and a charge was made to the card (subscription to XBOX live). I was furious! Not only did I have 6 months of non-payment, but my credit score dropped 150 points and I failed to qualify for a home equity loan. After about 10 customer service people, 4 different phone numbers and 2 days of calling I have a semi repaired credit score (still 60 points lower than it was) and no accounts with Bank of America.
Needless to say I will not be using Bank of America anytime soon and now I have to wait for a month to try to submit my Home Equity application with a new bank (because WATCH-OVA-YA can't resubmit for 6 months). Ugh.
Keep a close eye on the cards you don't use (or just close them), it's not worth the hassle.
Comments (1)
The biggest reason that your credit score goes down when you close a credit card account is because credit agencies take into account how much of your credit limit is being used. If you use half your credit available, and then you close one of your credit card accounts, it looks like your credit is maxed out. Like Jason said, if you're opening up a credit card account, it won't hurt you that much to close another one.