Should I Cancel A Bad Credit Card if Its The One I ve Had The Longes ?!!!
I got my first credit card, from Capital One, about 3 and a half years ago. It has a $39 annual fee, a $500 limit, and the APR just went up a whole lot for no reason. Since then, I've only gotten one other credit card, and it's been open for 9 months. I don't use my capital one card at all, and my other one has a balance of less than $50.
I'm trying to keep my credit score up. Should I keep the capital one card, and pay the $39 fee, or would it be okay if I went ahead and closed it? I guess I'm wondering how much of a difference there will be in my credit score.
The Answer : Here is some things that you should know about your credit:
1. Payment history- 35%
2. Total debt owed vs. available credit- 30%
3. Length of time establishing credit- 15%
4. Types of credit established- 10%
5. Inquiries and new accounts- 10%Now, having said that, closing that account would do more harm than good at this point.
Since that Capital One credit card is your oldest card, canceling it would not only shorten payment history on your open accounts, but shorten the combined available credit on all your cards kaing it look like you using more credit than you really are. And to top it off, closing that card since it's the oldest one, would shorten the average age of accounts making it look like it you've established credit more recently (like that 9 month credit card) instead of 3½ years.
I agree with the one poster that you should compain and threaten to cancel. If you have a favorable score, that can give you leverage to bargain. Be firm and appear serious about closing to them. They may be able to get you into another card with a lower interest rate and no annual fee. If worse come to worse, what I would do is keep the card and make minimum payments on the annual fee and then use no more than $20 on that card to report activity. Good Luck!
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