Is it ok to go ahead and close my credit cards that charge monthly maintenance fees? MORE DETAILS INSIDE?

Question

Hello...About a year ago I was finally able to open up a few credit cards after having BAD credit! I paid off my bad debts then began searching for a card to open to start building my credit again. The only options were the cards that charge monthly fees. STUPID me opened 4 of them...nuts I know! But I am finally at a point where I can open a "free" card so I want to ditch these monthly and annual fee cards..If I transfer all 4 balances to this new one (the credit limit allows me to do so) and close out the old cards will it hurt my credit score significantly? I hate to hang onto the cards even at a zero balance as they will STILL acess a monthly and annual charge :( Thanks to all for your help

Answer 1

Here is my suggestion:

Call the four credit card companies and tell them you have been a good customer for the past year (you were, weren't ;you?).  Tell them that you want them to drop the annual fees, and if they won't you will pay off and cancel the cards.

If they won't do it, the cancel them.  Yes it will hurt your credit for several months but it will eventually recover.  The score drop is not big enough to justify keeping the cards ad paying the fee.

You may get 1 or 2 to agree....that will save you the hassle of getting a new card (which can also have a short time dip in your scores).

Answer 2

No it will not hurt credit, probably help because YOU are closing the lines.  You should have one gas card, one department store crard, and one MC, one Visa, and no others as general rule, and then one car loan (if necessary) and other open trade lines, like electric, cable, phone........Close those high maintenance fee cards now and do yourself a favour.

Answer 3

listen, i want you to close the 4 cards with the fee's and transfer the balances, it may affect your credit score temporarily but that can be healed after good history with a new card.

Answer 4

Close them NOW

Answer 5

it might hurt your credit a bit...because you will no longer have that available credit but if you open two or more or

you may be okay...

however, never use more than 30% of the available limit

and always pay more than the minimum....good luck