Closing recently opened accounts?

[thrillsoft]

I had several collections back in September showing on my CRs and I've sucessfully gotten them all removed (thanks to this board!). At that time, I noticed that TU score was higher than my EX and EQ which had all the same negative TL's on them, but the TU had about 4 more good accounts that the others didn't. So, I opened up a bunch of new accounts to rebuild my credit and dilute the negatives on my other 2 reports.

Well, now that all the negatives are gone, all these new accounts are the primary reason that my scores are being held back. I was going to keep them open 12 months and then close all but a couple of them that have good rates/terms. But I'm looking for a mortgage now and if it would be better to close these smaller accounts that aren't doing me any good to reduce the number of "recent" account openings, I'll do that. BTW, all of these cards are paid off. They are just slow in updating the balance info to the CRAs.

TOTAL ACCOUNTS: 24 17* 18* OPEN ACCOUNTS: 16 14 14 CLOSED ACCOUNTS: 8 3 4 DELINQUENT: 0 0 0 DEROGATORY: 0 0 0 BALANCES: 5516 4925 5479 PAYMENTS: 180 158 181 PUBLIC RECORDS: 0 0 0 INQUIRIES (2 years): 1 11 2

Essentially, I've got 24 total accounts. 16 Open Accounts. 8 Closed Accounts.

Of the 16 open accounts, 3 are Authorized User, 8 are new in September of '06 and paid on perfectly. The other 5 are very long-standing tradelines of 6 - 10 years.

I'd like to close about 5 of these new accounts as they only have small CLs and high rates, etc. They are:

Applied Card

First Premier

Orchard Premier MC

US Airways

B of A Secured (I didn't want this in the first place, but members of the forum jumped on me for not accepting it. They ended up putting 3 inquiries on EX CR before handing it to me. Just wasn't worth it as now my scores are in the high 600's and I can get so many better cards)

What do you think? Keep paying for 12 months and then close or close now? Would it help or hurt my scores to close them now? Keep in mind that they jerks aren't even reporting my balances correctly. They take 3 months to update that the cards are paid off, generally.

[elyse449]

If you close the longer standing cc's, your scores will tank-big time.

You said; "Well, now that all the negatives are gone, all these new accounts are the primary reason that my scores are being held back."

What makes you think that? Granted, opening up new credit does carry with it a bit of FICO dip risk because of the inquiries and what not, but with time it'll go back up.

My personal POV is if you can qualify for better cards, do so. Apply for the better rated cards once your cc's are showing as -0- balance. How do your inquiries look? Well, once those cc's report that zero balance, try for better cards. When you get them, cancel the ones you don't like one at a time. Start with the worst card--wait a couple months, close the next and so forth. Make sure you have positive reporting cc's though. As far as the B of A inquiries, you could dispute some of those and I would.

I'd wait until I had the accounts a year to show good payment history if it were me, but that's me.

If it were me, I'd ditch Applied card first. Than I'd get rid of First Premier. The B of A has the option of going to unsecured status by the way, if they won't do that for you, cancel that one to. If your scores are where you're saying they are, I don't understand why they wouldn't give you something unsecured, especially if your payments were already on time.

That's my opinion anyhoo.

Elyse

[thrillsoft]

I have better cards now. I'm not considering closing those. I applied for and got Amex, Cap1 No Hassle, WaMu and Hooters, all with much higher credit limits than these $300-$500 cards with lots of fees. The only ones that I was considering closing were very sub-prime cards.

The thing is that I went a little crazy trying to bump my scores up. I opened 8 new credit card accounts in 1 month. Through bumpage, I got my inquiries down to 2 on TU and 3 on EQ. I have 12 inquiries on EX (4 from B of A).

I did call B of A and told them that there was a mistake on my credit report that has been corrected and that I have no collections, charge-offs or public records as stated to me in the decline letter for the prime card and offering me the secured card. I asked if they would reconsider converting the card to unsecured and they said that they wouldn't for at least 6 months.

I also asked them to remove the multiple inquiries or change the status to "account review" instead of "customer authorized". They said they'd pass the request along to their credit department but that they were very busy and that I probably wouldn't get a response for a while. That was a month ago and I've heard nothing.

I will dispute with Experian next but it's been my understanding that EX are jerks when it comes to removing inquiries.

The problem is that these sub-prime cards do have a $0 balance but they are not reporting that. They report on-time payments every month, but do not update the CR to reflect $0 balance.

[VonAngel (aka EarthAngel)]

IMO, if you have better cards (w/ better rates & limits), then I say close the ones you're questioning. If you're not trying to get a mortgage tomorrow or w/in the next 6 months, then you can stand a dent or 2 to your scores. There's no rhyme or reason to FICO. I closed my oldest, revolving CC recently (it was a little over 1-year old) & my scores didn't even flinch; but when an old CC CO was reported as closed & paid, my score tanked. Yes, history is a big chunk of your score; but how much history is the question. If these cards have been opened only for a few months, I really don't think that your scores are going to feel a hit that it won't recover from. Also, since these creditors do report monthly (just too slowly), just dispute the balance, if you want the accurate balance reporting w/in 30 days. It works for me everytime. TU is notorious for updating my report like a snail.