What to do???

[BKinFL]

I was just approved for a Juniper card. No annual fee, 9.99 fixed. The limit is only $1250 but that is still better than my $59 annual fee Orchard card. I've had the Orchard for about 2 years and my limit is only $900. I owe nothing on the Orchard and I am thinking of cancelling it. Is this a good idea? I've read conflicting reports about how cancelling cards hurts your credit score. That is the last thing I want to do.

Has anyone ever managed to get Orchard to drop their yearly fee after having the card for a while? I'd much rather do that than cancel the account.

[SinkingFast]

There's really 2 major things working with the Orchard Card that may make you want to keep it.

Length of Credit. You have 2 years in that LOC. If you close it, you loose the benefit of the History. The maturity, age, character that 2 years brings to your Credit Profile.

Overall LOC and Debt to LOC ratio. $2150 in available Credit vs $1250 in available Credit.

Let's say you purchase something. A car repair or a computer. And the bill comes to $750. You charge it on the Juniper card.

You're roughly at 35% debt to LOC ratio between the Juniper card AND the Orchard card.

If you close the Orchard card, that same $750 purchase now shifts your debt ratio to 60%.

35% looks better to prospective Lenders than 60%.

[BKinFL]

Good advice, Slinking. I didn't think of it that way. I just hate having that darn yearly fee. I wonder if I can get them to take it off. I'm 2 years out of BK and I have the Orchard/900 LOC/59 fee...Capital One/1500 LOC/60 fee...WAMU/5500 LOC/no fee...Juniper/1250 LOC/no fee.

My current debt is about 800, so I guess that's pretty good.

I have been very reserved with how much I've applied for credit in the last two years. I'm just so paranoid about my score going down. I was just thinking that I'd like to get rid of the yearly fees if I could. But I guess I should keep the account open since I've had it this long.

[SinkingFast]

Give it a try. All they can do is say No.

When you're approaching your annual renewal period, call 'em up. Tell them you have other cards with better rates and no annual fee. Ask for them to drop their fee or you might be forced to strongly consider dropping them as "business partners".

It may work. May not. But it certainly won't hurt to try.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

HSBC usually won't negotiate terms of their cards. They lock you into that card and the only way to get better terms is to cancel and re-apply through their card selector. I'd try to open up another account or two, and cancel the orchard right before the annual fee is billed again. I've already cancelled both household & orchard cards for the $59 annual fee, and no they wouldn't budge on removing or waiving it.

[BKinFL]

Did you notice if your score dropped at all after you cancelled, Filing?

Thanks for the advice, both of you!

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Did you notice if your score dropped at all after you cancelled, Filing?

Thanks for the advice, both of you!

I could have cared less. I was already onto bigger and better things, like getting approved for more decent cards that better credit requires. Remember, your score isn't everything. Right now my fico scores are ranging from 700-760. But simply due to the BK, I am automatically disqualified for many things. And just the opposite, people without bk and less credit history, can get Amex's and other prime cards with 600-ish scores.

Banks base only a portion of their lending criteria on your score. Once you are able to qualify for better cards, theres no reason to keep the ripoff ones. High fee cards are for building, nothing more.