Author Topic: Canceling cards without using?  (Read 3381 times)

sheepstache

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Canceling cards without using?
« on: July 21, 2015, 09:18:32 AM »
I'm sure someone here has had a situation where they were going to churn a card for the bonus because they had a big expense coming up that would let them reach the spending minimum. But then what if, after you apply for the card, the expense goes away so now you don't want the card? Is canceling it before you even activate it the same as regular canceling it? I'm assuming once you're approved there's no way to mitigate things but thought I'd ask for people's thoughts.

MidWestLove

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2015, 03:26:06 PM »
when you say 'mitigate' - what are you talking about? mitigating the few points 'worth' of credit score for hard inquiry? who cares?

sheepstache

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2015, 03:40:10 PM »
Ah, I guess I hadn't really sorted out what I was asking.

I guess what I'm thinking is that if I don't end up needing it, I'll probably want to cancel it for the sake of simplicity and also in case I want to take the offer in the future. So having a canceled card that's only a day old would affect the credit score a lot more, I think.

MidWestLove

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2015, 03:46:52 PM »
typically , sign up offers has a built in value/duration (spend $4000 in 3 months) - you either meet them to get the bonus or not. whether you spend nothing or $3999 will result in the same amount of sign up bonus (zero).
otherwise, keeping a card open is a question whether you need the card. is there annual payment ? do you need benefits or special situation?

I do not see the point of having yet another relationship to track or worry about losing something I have to deal with cleaning, if you do not need it I would cancel it.

sheepstache

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2015, 03:58:14 PM »
Right, obviously I'd rather cancel if I don't need it, so I wondered if there was a way to "back out" of it if, like, the card hasn't been activated or used. Rather than a regular cancel which would negatively affect the credit score a lot. Like, people usually suggest downgrading a card with an annual fee to one that doesn't have an annual fee for the sake of not having a canceled card on your report. But maybe I'm overestimating the effect. It just seemed like it would be less of a hassle if I could just annul it if that was an option.

klystomane

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2015, 04:12:41 PM »
Right, obviously I'd rather cancel if I don't need it, so I wondered if there was a way to "back out" of it if, like, the card hasn't been activated or used. Rather than a regular cancel which would negatively affect the credit score a lot. Like, people usually suggest downgrading a card with an annual fee to one that doesn't have an annual fee for the sake of not having a canceled card on your report. But maybe I'm overestimating the effect. It just seemed like it would be less of a hassle if I could just annul it if that was an option.

Call them and ask.

forummm

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2015, 04:23:29 PM »
Right, obviously I'd rather cancel if I don't need it, so I wondered if there was a way to "back out" of it if, like, the card hasn't been activated or used. Rather than a regular cancel which would negatively affect the credit score a lot. Like, people usually suggest downgrading a card with an annual fee to one that doesn't have an annual fee for the sake of not having a canceled card on your report. But maybe I'm overestimating the effect. It just seemed like it would be less of a hassle if I could just annul it if that was an option.

Cancelling a card doesn't really hurt your credit score. Especially a new one. You can't do manufactured spending to get you to the rewards?

sheepstache

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2015, 04:44:49 PM »
Right, obviously I'd rather cancel if I don't need it, so I wondered if there was a way to "back out" of it if, like, the card hasn't been activated or used. Rather than a regular cancel which would negatively affect the credit score a lot. Like, people usually suggest downgrading a card with an annual fee to one that doesn't have an annual fee for the sake of not having a canceled card on your report. But maybe I'm overestimating the effect. It just seemed like it would be less of a hassle if I could just annul it if that was an option.

Cancelling a card doesn't really hurt your credit score. Especially a new one. You can't do manufactured spending to get you to the rewards?

Aww, but then I have to think. I'd rather spend 15 minutes bugging random people about cancellation policies than simply calculate whether it's feasible to do manufactured spend.

Since Loyal3 changed their policy I haven't bothered keeping up with how to do manufactured spend so I just snag card offers when I know I have a big expense coming up. This time it wasn't clear whether cc would be accepted or when I would have to pay it. So I didn't want to apply for the card too late but I also didn't want to have a card without the big expense to cover most of the spend minimum.

Actually since the first post everything got cleared up and I applied for the card, but I was still curious.

It was an interesting experience actually. The system wouldn't approve me automatically and said it would take 10 business days. So I called them  and they determined that they didn't want to extend me more credit than I currently have on another card with them, but they would let me shift the credit limit around. So I asked them to split it between the two cards and it was all good.

tonysemail

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Re: Canceling cards without using?
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2015, 05:20:58 PM »
I happened to be looking at credit cards last night and found this link which might address one of your questions.
rewards cards have different policies to discourage card churning.
It appears that some cards require 24 month cool off period after you cancel before you can re-apply for the new member bonus.
http://freakinflyers.com/crowd-sourced-chart-churnable-credit-cards/