03 white zx3 wrote: So I finaly broke down and cut up my credit cards this morning. I am so proud of myself! I had originaly just put them away, but I caught myself already pulling one out to use.
I am on my way finaly! (Goddess did that feel like a really big step too!)
I figured out I can be debt free from everything but my first and second mortgage in 3 years!! Just cuttign them up dosen't do a lot of good. You need to call and cancel them. You will still get the bill but by canceling them there is no way you can add to the debt. And who knows maybe they will drop the interest rate for you. I called to cancel one and they dropped the rate so I didn't cancel.
kinda hard to cancel them when I still owe thousands of dollars.
Besides, without the cards (which were literaly shredded), the #s were taken off of my paypal account, I have absolutely no way of using the accounts.
I would prefer to keep them open and just pay them off and forget about it.
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
You can cancel them no matter what you owe on them. By shredding the cards it makes it more difficult to add to the debt, but the credit reporting agencies will still have you down for the maximum debt.
Let's say that I have a credit card with a $10,000 limit. Let's also say I owe $6,000 on it. As far as the credit reporting agency and the bank that issued the card are concerned, I have an outstanding debt of $10,000. This is because at any given moment in time, I could max out the card & get or use the remaining $4,000. Even if I owed $0 on the card, they'd have me down for a $10,000 debt just because I could use that money/credit anytime I felt like it.
By cancelling the card, they'd have you on record as owing exactly whatever you actually owe. By cancelling unused/unwanted cards, it potentially reduces your debt and makes your credit record look better to future creditors.
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
That's why I cut and cancelled my VISA a few months back. I have 2 MCs that I use regularly (and pay off) so I thought having a third card made my credit look better, since it had a Zero balance (I didn't use it for like 18 months). Then my stepdad pointed out that it's limit counted towrds Potential Debt, which made sense, so I cancelled it.
OMG, the Capital One lady was a huge PITA about it too, I wa son the phone for like 15 minutes! The APR was ridiculous (like 24%) but that wasn't why I cancelled it, I never carried a balance so that meant nothing. So she asked me if that was why, could they give me a better rate? No, I'd just like to cancel it, I have other cards. Would you stay if we upped your limit (it was only $500)? No! I'm cancelling it because I don't want the additional card debt, and there's NO WAY they could match either of my MCs to make me cancel one of those! So after several rounds of questioning the lady finally let me go. I never thought it would be a mini-ordeal, I was calling between classes, thought it would take like 3 minutes!
Mr. Versatile wrote: You can cancel them no matter what you owe on them. By shredding the cards it makes it more difficult to add to the debt, but the credit reporting agencies will still have you down for the maximum debt.
Let's say that I have a credit card with a $10,000 limit. Let's also say I owe $6,000 on it. As far as the credit reporting agency and the bank that issued the card are concerned, I have an outstanding debt of $10,000. This is because at any given moment in time, I could max out the card & get or use the remaining $4,000. Even if I owed $0 on the card, they'd have me down for a $10,000 debt just because I could use that money/credit anytime I felt like it.
By cancelling the card, they'd have you on record as owing exactly whatever you actually owe. By cancelling unused/unwanted cards, it potentially reduces your debt and makes your credit record look better to future creditors.
"
I was ALWAYS told otherwise. That it is better to leave accounts open then it is to close it.
Anyways, it doesn't matter. I have 10,000 credit limit and like 9999 used (okay so that's a little exagerated, but not much).
How does it look when you have a card that you cancel and still owe thousands on? How does that even work with the interest rate too?
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
no kidding, you can get them to stop the interest?
only two of my cards are not in their promo periods (both the others were 12 months 0%) and they are the smaller balances, but damn I'm going to have to keep that in mind!!
(and read my fine print too I think).
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
