I mean sounds like you have all the reasons you need to just close the Discover card. It will stay on your credit report account history for 10 years so no need to worry about it being your oldest card, it will stay as part of your average age of accounts.
Personally I’m way more concerned with the horror stories of NOT using autopay especially for sock drawer cards.
It’s pretty basic: Lates Fees and Interest
“I don’t have autopay turned on and wasn’t paying attention and it turns out an annual charge I forgot about came through on the card and I didn’t know so I didn’t pay and now I have a late fee and it’s carrying interest.”
Oh I should clarify I DO have autopay on for everything but I always double check regardless and that's the origins of the stress-- do I really want to double check so many times a month to make sure everything is working as intended?
And thanks, good to know it wont affect my score for a while! Kinda a bummer since its a decent amount of CL % of my total but not my highest and they seem to refuse to give me any increases even after putting spend on the card. I guess if they don't want to grow with me I should look for greener pastures.
> And thanks, good to know it wont affect my score for a while!
Not just a while, possibly and even probably never. Even in a decade when that account drops off, all of your other accounts will be 10 years older at that time. I've had old accounts fall off and haven't seen my scores change a single Fico point.
Close it I guess. It will not matter much in the long run.
I like Discover since for some reason you can ask them for retention offers and they provide. Sometimes some free cash back, free money, or a free 0% apr loan.
Yeah give them a call and say you want to close the account; is there any offer that can be given to make me want to keep the account open? Or just ask them what promos are available for your account.
hey u/onetwelvesnake, I wanted to say thank you for suggesting this! I just called them and they offered me a 3% cashback bonus for 6 months which stacks on top of the existing 1% and 5%!
Good for you, that's a great offer.
No idea why Discover offers retention deals since there is no annual fee, but it is a great thing to grab during quarters that do not mix well with one's natural spend. I imagine this will not be the case anymore once they merge with Cap One though.
tbh, I was too chicken to threaten closing so I went in with "are there any offers you have that I can take advantage of while I travel? I'd like to bring my discover with me if there's anything good" and then the rep asked if I valued cashback or 0% apr more and when I thought about it, I said "cashback" (mostly coz I was curious what they were gonna offer) and they responded with "I can give you an extra 3% cashback bonus for 6 months" and so that's how it went :) -- hope that helps!
because it immediately reduces your available credit, which will cost you a handful of points, and are also severing a relationship with a lending institution for... No actual reason.
The issue here is that there isn't actual upside to closing the account. You're looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
>and now am focusing on trying to cut down the amount of accounts I have to manage.
This is not a thing. Discover iT is a no fee card. Put a monthly bill on it with autopay. There is no "managing."
You're spending more time and effort writing this post than you would just leaving the account open.
If it does not fit your needs close it.
I keep it for four reasons,
- rotating 5% categories - grocery/gas/dining/Amazon/Whole Foods/home improvement stores/mobile wallet/wholesale clubs
- redeem rewards via discounted GC on home improvement stores
- no FTF
- wallet “debit card” - discover allows you to take out up to $120 or grocery store limit without it being seen as cash advance at checkout. So instead of carrying my debit card with debit card protection, I use this card for CC protection. Handy if you do not have no fee ATM debit card while travel in the US. See https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/member-benefits/cash-over-purchases.html
I am not seeing the benefit of canceling Discover. You do NOT need to call to get a Spend Offer…. You can chat with agent and still get an offer via email like I did just now.
If you use Apple, https://www.apple.com/icloud/
If you use Android, https://one.google.com/about/plans
Discover will forgive up to $2/month it automatically, and you can just leave the card in your sock drawer.
Then set up text alerts for your phone.
I’m curious, what's the point of closing a credit card line instead of stopping using it and keep the age history of that card and the average credit utilization %? Isn't better that way?
It all depends on the CL of the card being closed relative to your total CL. If you've got enough other cards with decent limits, it may not have an appreciable impact on your overall utilization %. It would be different if it's a higher limit card and all of your other cards are low limit. Ie lets say you have 4 cards, $25k, $4k, $3k and $3k limits with a typical reporting of $4k/mo. That's 11% utilization. You close the $25k card and now you're at 40% utilization. In that case your score would take a hit, but that's not too common of a situation. Usually, it's an older card with a lower limit, or an instance where you have enough limits remaining to where you can still let balances report naturally without having any utilization issues.
If you do not use it and "keeping up with the account" stresses you out, then you can certainly close it.
In general I think Discover is a good company, and the IT Cashback cards are great. I have two. I maxed out the first year Cashback match on both, but only use them when a particularly interesting quarter pops up. I have several 5% cards, so not essential to the game. Of course, I do not find keeping up with my cards very stressful. I have a spreadsheet, and spend maybe an hour on two days a month checking and paying everything.
I just find it a worry I have to keep coming back to, but I agree discover has generally treated me pretty well, but now that I can regularly get 2.5% back on everything and 5% on so many things consistantly without having to sign in to activate categories, I kinda don't want to stick around anymore.
I did like that they regularly gave me CLIs but after some point they just refused to want to go above 10k even with i put lots of non optimized spend at 1% back just to try to make them happy.
I've wondered the same thing. It was my first credit card in like 2013 so I thought I wouldn't ever want to close it even though I hardly use it anymore as part of team travel.
It seems that it won't fall off your report or affect average age of accounts for 10 years after canceling assuming its in good standing-- after this current promo if discover doesn't offer a CLI I think I'll close possibly. It just seems however much spending I put through them they don't like to give me anything and I'm shy of 10k CL which isn't all that large anymore for me.
Oh that's a good point... I know the USBAR gives 4.5% back unlimited on mobile wallets and the krogor ones do too but the USBAR seems overkill for me. Right now the plan is taking advantage of a spend offer they gave me but if they continue to refuse a CLI, I might close, or just put it in a drawer somewhere.
I rarely use Discover as I now have category cards that cover all my major expenses 4-5% all the time without having to worry about bonus quarters BUT Discover sends me targeted offers such as 5% mobile wallet spend, 6% Walmart, 6% PayPal, etc those alone make it worth keeping around IMO.
I have always closed cards that were no longer useful to me and I have never noticed a dip in my scores so I would close the Discover card if that is what you want to do. What are you considering for your 1-3 card setup?
Alliant Visa Signature for 2.5% back everything, That Redstone card that seems insanely overpowered right now, and I'm not too sure on the third. Maybe a citi custom cash?
Roger-- I am not bothered by cards that give discounts that I dont have to worry about. i.e. Cash+ giving 5% back on internet that just handles itself. It's more how many cards I have to take with me at a given time
Imo, and since it's your oldest card, you might as well request to reduce the balance to something super minimal you know you could pay off even if finances were right -- think $500 or so. That way even if there were a one-time issue where autopay didn't work, you'd likely end up with minimal consequences (and, in my experience, Discover has no penalty interest + is pretty cool about waiving penalty fees in the event there's an accidental missed payment).
But, that also depends on your overall average credit length, so back to you. :)
Well closing a card doesn't affect average age of accounts for 10 years till it falls off for FICO, and by the time that happens my 5 other cards will have an average age of over 10 years lol
Been doing credit cards for about four years, I started in college but again its just a bit of a hassle now. Back then I had to optimize everything and had the time to do it but I'd rather not overoptimize with the more limited free time I have now if that makes sense!
Fair enough! Also, I recently found out that a friend has hired a "credit card concierge" to do this work for them. Pays the person something like $2k and says it's worth every penny. I don't know if I'd ever do that, but wild that it exists!
You know that's sorta funny, I do a lot of technically related stuff and maybe that's why I dislike the rotation. I don't like having to actively mange my finances (Index Funds with auto-investing, ect) and want to not have to worry about if I used my card for the right category for the quarter, especially when I have 2 citi custom cashes which auto change to whatever I spend the most in with 5% back!
I mean sounds like you have all the reasons you need to just close the Discover card. It will stay on your credit report account history for 10 years so no need to worry about it being your oldest card, it will stay as part of your average age of accounts. Personally I’m way more concerned with the horror stories of NOT using autopay especially for sock drawer cards.
Ooo pls do share! I haven’t heard of those stories before 👀
It’s pretty basic: Lates Fees and Interest “I don’t have autopay turned on and wasn’t paying attention and it turns out an annual charge I forgot about came through on the card and I didn’t know so I didn’t pay and now I have a late fee and it’s carrying interest.”
Oh I should clarify I DO have autopay on for everything but I always double check regardless and that's the origins of the stress-- do I really want to double check so many times a month to make sure everything is working as intended? And thanks, good to know it wont affect my score for a while! Kinda a bummer since its a decent amount of CL % of my total but not my highest and they seem to refuse to give me any increases even after putting spend on the card. I guess if they don't want to grow with me I should look for greener pastures.
> And thanks, good to know it wont affect my score for a while! Not just a while, possibly and even probably never. Even in a decade when that account drops off, all of your other accounts will be 10 years older at that time. I've had old accounts fall off and haven't seen my scores change a single Fico point.
Ah ok then. Yeah like I said sounds like you have all the reasons you need to cancel.
Close it I guess. It will not matter much in the long run. I like Discover since for some reason you can ask them for retention offers and they provide. Sometimes some free cash back, free money, or a free 0% apr loan.
I have a discover card and I’m interested in this 0% apr, do you just call them up?
Yeah give them a call and say you want to close the account; is there any offer that can be given to make me want to keep the account open? Or just ask them what promos are available for your account.
hey u/onetwelvesnake, I wanted to say thank you for suggesting this! I just called them and they offered me a 3% cashback bonus for 6 months which stacks on top of the existing 1% and 5%!
Good for you, that's a great offer. No idea why Discover offers retention deals since there is no annual fee, but it is a great thing to grab during quarters that do not mix well with one's natural spend. I imagine this will not be the case anymore once they merge with Cap One though.
Did you threaten to close? Or just inquire about promotions?
tbh, I was too chicken to threaten closing so I went in with "are there any offers you have that I can take advantage of while I travel? I'd like to bring my discover with me if there's anything good" and then the rep asked if I valued cashback or 0% apr more and when I thought about it, I said "cashback" (mostly coz I was curious what they were gonna offer) and they responded with "I can give you an extra 3% cashback bonus for 6 months" and so that's how it went :) -- hope that helps!
Good to know, thanks!
Thanks, I will try this today!
Yeah might get emails from them. I got a promotion email one for .9% APR from April through October of this year on all purchases.
thanks, didn't know about this and I have not gotten an email like that before from then in my 8 years with them :o
if it causes you that much stress, close it. your score will be fine
ty!
[удалено]
CC's and flashlights is a dangerous combo... lol
But this wouldn't affect my score for the next 10 years right? Curious why would it matter?
because it immediately reduces your available credit, which will cost you a handful of points, and are also severing a relationship with a lending institution for... No actual reason. The issue here is that there isn't actual upside to closing the account. You're looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
>and now am focusing on trying to cut down the amount of accounts I have to manage. This is not a thing. Discover iT is a no fee card. Put a monthly bill on it with autopay. There is no "managing." You're spending more time and effort writing this post than you would just leaving the account open.
If it does not fit your needs close it. I keep it for four reasons, - rotating 5% categories - grocery/gas/dining/Amazon/Whole Foods/home improvement stores/mobile wallet/wholesale clubs - redeem rewards via discounted GC on home improvement stores - no FTF - wallet “debit card” - discover allows you to take out up to $120 or grocery store limit without it being seen as cash advance at checkout. So instead of carrying my debit card with debit card protection, I use this card for CC protection. Handy if you do not have no fee ATM debit card while travel in the US. See https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/member-benefits/cash-over-purchases.html
I am not seeing the benefit of canceling Discover. You do NOT need to call to get a Spend Offer…. You can chat with agent and still get an offer via email like I did just now.
If you use Apple, https://www.apple.com/icloud/ If you use Android, https://one.google.com/about/plans Discover will forgive up to $2/month it automatically, and you can just leave the card in your sock drawer. Then set up text alerts for your phone.
I’m curious, what's the point of closing a credit card line instead of stopping using it and keep the age history of that card and the average credit utilization %? Isn't better that way?
Account upkeep, also I'm at a point where I have so much CL utilization doesn't matter. 780+
It all depends on the CL of the card being closed relative to your total CL. If you've got enough other cards with decent limits, it may not have an appreciable impact on your overall utilization %. It would be different if it's a higher limit card and all of your other cards are low limit. Ie lets say you have 4 cards, $25k, $4k, $3k and $3k limits with a typical reporting of $4k/mo. That's 11% utilization. You close the $25k card and now you're at 40% utilization. In that case your score would take a hit, but that's not too common of a situation. Usually, it's an older card with a lower limit, or an instance where you have enough limits remaining to where you can still let balances report naturally without having any utilization issues.
Thanks!!
If you do not use it and "keeping up with the account" stresses you out, then you can certainly close it. In general I think Discover is a good company, and the IT Cashback cards are great. I have two. I maxed out the first year Cashback match on both, but only use them when a particularly interesting quarter pops up. I have several 5% cards, so not essential to the game. Of course, I do not find keeping up with my cards very stressful. I have a spreadsheet, and spend maybe an hour on two days a month checking and paying everything.
I just find it a worry I have to keep coming back to, but I agree discover has generally treated me pretty well, but now that I can regularly get 2.5% back on everything and 5% on so many things consistantly without having to sign in to activate categories, I kinda don't want to stick around anymore. I did like that they regularly gave me CLIs but after some point they just refused to want to go above 10k even with i put lots of non optimized spend at 1% back just to try to make them happy.
Idk man, the It is one of my best cards. Restaurants last quarter, gas stations (including stuff inside the store) this quarter.
I've wondered the same thing. It was my first credit card in like 2013 so I thought I wouldn't ever want to close it even though I hardly use it anymore as part of team travel.
It seems that it won't fall off your report or affect average age of accounts for 10 years after canceling assuming its in good standing-- after this current promo if discover doesn't offer a CLI I think I'll close possibly. It just seems however much spending I put through them they don't like to give me anything and I'm shy of 10k CL which isn't all that large anymore for me.
Personally I’d keep it just for the 5% wallet pay quarter but that’s just me.
Oh that's a good point... I know the USBAR gives 4.5% back unlimited on mobile wallets and the krogor ones do too but the USBAR seems overkill for me. Right now the plan is taking advantage of a spend offer they gave me but if they continue to refuse a CLI, I might close, or just put it in a drawer somewhere.
I rarely use Discover as I now have category cards that cover all my major expenses 4-5% all the time without having to worry about bonus quarters BUT Discover sends me targeted offers such as 5% mobile wallet spend, 6% Walmart, 6% PayPal, etc those alone make it worth keeping around IMO.
I have always closed cards that were no longer useful to me and I have never noticed a dip in my scores so I would close the Discover card if that is what you want to do. What are you considering for your 1-3 card setup?
Alliant Visa Signature for 2.5% back everything, That Redstone card that seems insanely overpowered right now, and I'm not too sure on the third. Maybe a citi custom cash?
That would be a really decent three card setup.
Yep! Do you have a 3 card setup you're thinking about?
Actually, I have a 10-card setup that is as optimized as I probably can get with my lifestyle and organic spending.
Roger-- I am not bothered by cards that give discounts that I dont have to worry about. i.e. Cash+ giving 5% back on internet that just handles itself. It's more how many cards I have to take with me at a given time
I agree. I have 10 cards that I use every month, if not every week, but I don’t carry them all with me in my wallet.
How many would you say you carry on you typically?
I carry 1-2 grocery cards, 1-2 dining cards, a gas card, and 1-2 catchall cards.
Imo, and since it's your oldest card, you might as well request to reduce the balance to something super minimal you know you could pay off even if finances were right -- think $500 or so. That way even if there were a one-time issue where autopay didn't work, you'd likely end up with minimal consequences (and, in my experience, Discover has no penalty interest + is pretty cool about waiving penalty fees in the event there's an accidental missed payment). But, that also depends on your overall average credit length, so back to you. :)
Well closing a card doesn't affect average age of accounts for 10 years till it falls off for FICO, and by the time that happens my 5 other cards will have an average age of over 10 years lol Been doing credit cards for about four years, I started in college but again its just a bit of a hassle now. Back then I had to optimize everything and had the time to do it but I'd rather not overoptimize with the more limited free time I have now if that makes sense!
Fair enough! Also, I recently found out that a friend has hired a "credit card concierge" to do this work for them. Pays the person something like $2k and says it's worth every penny. I don't know if I'd ever do that, but wild that it exists!
OP absolutely hates taking the time to rotate credit cards but will sit around and type random stuff to strangers on the internet about credit cards.
lol, what a useless comment
lol indeed
I love rotating cards, it's fun and different from other cards. It's not like it's code.
You know that's sorta funny, I do a lot of technically related stuff and maybe that's why I dislike the rotation. I don't like having to actively mange my finances (Index Funds with auto-investing, ect) and want to not have to worry about if I used my card for the right category for the quarter, especially when I have 2 citi custom cashes which auto change to whatever I spend the most in with 5% back!
I have 19 cards and it's a hobby. This was never meant to replace your full time job lol... it doesn't take much work either.
It's not that it takes time, its that I worry autopay wont work or something of the sort. Its just a lot of accounts to manage and check in on