Best Way to Cancel a Credit Card

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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:05 pm
Post subject: Best Way to Cancel a Credit Card

Enrique
Date: 1/17/2001 1:11 pm CDT

What is the proper way to cancell a credit card
without affecting your credit rating?
I have 5 platinum credit cards, they all started
with a low rate, but now some have gone as high as
17 %. I am planning on keeping 2 of them that have
a fixed 9.9 and 10.9 rates.

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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:05 pm
Post subject: Best Way to Cancel a Credit Card

Mom
Date: 1/17/2001 1:27 pm CDT

First it is BEST if you have a ZERO balance, and when cancelling make sure you tell them to report this to be closed at COSUMERS'S REQUEST. I also have them mail me a letter stating the account was closed at my request. And stick to your guns, they may try to send you to retention and offer you more credit, lower rates but if you want them closed stay strong!!

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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:05 pm
Post subject: Best Way to Cancel a Credit Card

Enrique
Date: 1/18/2001 3:42 pm CDT

Thank You Guys. Very good inputs. To summarize:
Pay off balances, request a hard closure, stick to
your guns. That leaves the question about my FICO
score. I have a FICO of 700, my wife with 3 or 4
less credit cards (some are on my name only) has
a better FICO score (720), for sure I don't know
how this obscure FICO scoring works, does anybody?

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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:06 pm
Post subject: Best Way to Cancel a Credit Card

Mr. Clams
Date: 1/18/2001 4:18 pm CDT

The FICO scoring model is made by a company called Fair, Isaac and Company. They consider their formula to be a trade secret so they won't tell you exactly how to raise your score but they do give a good list of score factors that should give you a better idea of how the score is calculated. This link is:

http://www.fairisaac.com/servlet/SiteDriver/Content/912

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CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. Please visit CardRatings.com to view the best rated credit cards!

---

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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:06 pm
Post subject: Best Way to Cancel a Credit Card

Mr. Clams
Date: 1/17/2001 4:29 pm CDT

I agree with Mom's advice.

You have a good question to which I doubt anyone here can really give an answer. Closing your three highest interest credit cards will likely have some effect on your credit score. But will it be positive or negative? If I were you I would check your credit reports. If the two cards that you plan to keep are reporting to all the CRAs then I would cancel your other cards. If not, I might consider keeping one of the higher interest ones that is reporting.