Submitted by richTING13 t3_10qdgvl in personalfinance
have a credit card that my family uses and in an a potential move to becoming independent and possibly somewhat estranged, i’m wondering if i can close the card without hurting MY credit. it’s in my name.
Two factors to consider are:
is it your oldest line of credit? If it’s your oldest account and others are a lot newer, short account age is a listed factor on at least a couple of the main scorers.
will closing it take you over 30% credit utilisation? Ideally maintain a healthy credit limit that means you keep below using 30% of it at any one time. If you close the card and lose that limit, what do you have left?
Of course you will also get a hit from any credit application you make for your own new card.
However if you don’t need to make significant other applications anytime soon, get a new card first if your credit is good, then close the old one. Numbers will drop for a bit but climb back up soon enough.
There could be other factors too but those are the ones that come to mind
Do you need to go into debt anytime soon? If not, don't worry about it. Are you in debt now?
Keep the oldest fee-free card or two. If you don't come anywhere close to maxxing out those cards on monthly spend and you pay it in full on time, no problem. If your monthly max spend on CCs would be close to the max of your favorite card, maybe call them to see if you can get your limit bumped up a bit. The, close anything you don't use.
i opened it myself and i do believe it may be my oldest credit card. i have had a debit card though.
no debt, i have 1 other credit card but it’s much newer. only 3 or 4 months old. the one i want to close is a few years old. no debt and i don’t anticipate any particularly soon.
Yeah, so there will be a bit of a short-term hit to the FICO for closing the older card. It's how th FICO math works. If neither card have fees, and to answer your first question -- yep, you'll see an effect. If you don't need to close the account (no fees, right?), can you just park the card you thought about closing in a firesafe, and only use it for a tank of gas every four months or so? This keeps the card 'active' so the bank doesn't unilaterally close the acct for non-use. Yes, that's a thing.
Sorry -- I'd usually tell you to kill every account you don't need. But in this case, you'll have a hit that will last a few months to a year or more on the FICO.
Oh, and while we are on the topic, at least once a year pull your credit report and review it:
Use www.annualcreditreport.com to review all credit accounts, freeze all credit reports with Equifax, Experian, Transunion (use their free services)
Search for how FICOs are calculated -- there are 5 components to it, with account longevity being a fraction. On-time payments are the way to really build a great score as the years go by. Never carry a balance on non-mortgage accounts -- debt interest slavery is bad for your wealth.
are you able to lock the card instead of closing it? you might be able to salvage the account and save your credit score from tanking since it's your oldest line. cc company could just deactivate the card they use and reissue a new one to you.
i also realized this after posting… maybe i can just report it as lost and get the new card sent to me so i can stop my family from using it (it’s our main Amazon account card).
Remove them as authorized user- or Pretend card was stolen so they issue you a new one. And don’t share. Boom
This!
Claim lost and don’t dispute charges to date
Suitable-Butterfly t1_j6pcc3e wrote
Are you an authorized user or did you open the card yourself? If you opened it yourself, is it your oldest card?