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If you want to cancel, look for the telephone number on the back of the card and call them. Personnally, I just shred the card. Canceling may or may not hurt your credit score, you already took a hit with the credit inquiry when you applied.

I would drop them in a heart beat and shop for a reasonable rate. They obviously do not care to have your busssiness. Try a credit union and don't carry a balance and never pay for a card.

Pmandy is right. I will add - listen to your parents, they are wise. Money in the bank always beats a full credit card. If you have money you won't need a loan. The borrower is slave to the lender. The best way to double your money is to fold it in two and put it back in your pocket. These are values grandmothers teach and the young never listen to.

Here is a question for the modirator.

I just updated my credit score on CK and I got a warning that the number of accounts had dropped by one since the last time I updated serval months ago. After check a bit I determined that one of my old closed accounts had finally aged enough so that the credit bureau did not include it in the report. The number of open accounts stayed the same. The result was that my credit score did not change one point. On the other hand CK is making a big deal about the total number of accounts and not the number of OPEN accounts. What gives?

To be quite honest the national variation of averages of between 620 to 670 is not much (50 points) and the differnces between the states and is not significat enough to draw any meaningful conclusions. The only conclusion I am drawing is that the credit score of the US has little variation on average and is on the low side. Thank you CK for your effort.

To put this in perspective I could come close to dropping my score 50 points with a few late pays.

Remember the commercial where the list of confusing real estate loans was boiled down to the line "It's a lot easier if you just pay cash."

I like my credit card utilization at ZERO. Why? Because I have been burned by these criminals. Yes, Criminals because miss a payment and they can jack the interest up so high that in Texas they call it usury, a crime. They will lay in wait for you mess up - your fault - their fault - the Post Office's fault - doesn't matter because they win with late fee and increased interest rate.

Congress recognized this problem and enatcted legislation to reign in these crooks and it is slowly taking effect.

I resent the fact that the Credit Card Industry has gone in with the credit scoring industry to compel people to use their credit cards. I am not sure if it is legal or not, but it sure does smell bad.

I would like to have Congress investigate this practice and stop it.

For me, I will use my debit card and use my Credit Union. My Credit Union respects my business so much they don't even pull a credit report when I need a new car. As for the rest "it's a lot easier just paying cash" even if it cost be a few points on my score.

Thanks for the response on my question on closing unused credit card accounts. It provided great insight. I have a followup question now that I am beginning to understand.

My score is sub 800 with 19 accounts, 10 open and 9 closed. My oldest trade line is over 20 years and an average age of over 8 years and zero utilization (90k+).

I opened two credit cards this year and I did not like the terms and I do not intend to use them. Would closing them increase the average age and my credit score?

Thanks again for your help.

Let me rephrase Chuckman's question about the number of accounts. With a sub 800 score and 19 accounts, 10 open and 9 closed, and a zero utilization on all except a car loan, would closing unused and not needed credit cards increase the credit score? Also would it increase the grade, currently "C" for number of accounts?