Can I put a hold on a credit card instead of cancelling it?

Question

I have had one of my credit cards for the past 10 years, and now I do not use it because my husband has another card with no annual fee. The card I have charges $60 a year!

Can I put a hold on this card, or should I just close it? I do not want my credit to be effected when I have had this card for so long.

Answer 1

I suppose it is better to get rid of a costly credit card than hold it in order to save a few points of your credit report. You have other credit cards, so there will be available credit mentioned in your credit report. The thing is that you should use part of available credit to add to your credit score,  a number of unused credit lines are just a waste of time and money.

Answer 2

There is no such thing as a "hold".  Either you have the account, for which you will be charged a fee, or you don't.  

You probably should have a second card as a backup for convenience if the first one gets lost, or you have a true financial emergency.  However, if you don't have a problem history, they  should be paying you.  I have three cards, all with no fee, and all give me back rebates, two greater than 1%.  I get sever hundred dollars back some months. There are plenty of no-fee cards out there.  Get one of those.  The sooner you start building a history with the new card, the better.  Don't get overly worked up about your score.  If you have ben paying your bills, it's probably fine.  This anxiety about scores is something promoted by credit card companies so they can charge people fees for checking it.  Most scoreing is weighted toward the most recent two years, so get yourself a new card now and two years from now you will have a card with a clean two year history and have an additional $120 in your pocket.

Many issuers have multiple card programs, some with fees and some without.  You might be able to switch card programs within the same issuer.  I did that with Citibank Mastercard.  I didn't like the rewards so they changed me to a different card.

Answer 3

No you can't "put a hold" on it.  You would have to cancel it.  Why keep a card with a $60 fee anyway?

Answer 4

60 a year isn't awful...it's alot better than running up credit...however you could cancel it if it's too much money for you.

Personally what I would do (since i have bad credit) is i'd keep the card, maybe use it for gas only and pay that off every month or so...but it would keep my credit in check :)