[centralnewyorki]

Originally Posted by livingdustmops

Kristy I am no expert on this but you also need to send them a letter telling them you want the account closed. Just because you have paid it in full and no longer are using the card it is still an active account. If you go to buy a home it will still show active if you don't close or if you do close it will state closed by customer. It will still be used as a portion of your debit to income when they are figuring if you can buy a home.

This is where it gets confusing as some financial experts say you do need to run with some credit on the books but your account with Chase will always be with one of the big 3 who collects this data and will still show up 30 years later.

Maybe someone with more experience than me can better define this.

I actually read recently that it's not a good idea to close accounts when you have other debt. (Not that I know whether or not you actually do, Kristy!) The article I read was on MSN Money, and said that if you have 10 open accounts with $10,000 worth of credit and $6,000 worth of debt, that if you close an account and have $5,000 worth of debt and say, $7,000 worth of credit, that your ratio of debt to credit is higher, thus slightly hurting your credit score. I'm not sure I made any sense, but I guess the writter's reasoning does. I actually had this happen to me. I was so disgusted with Chase because of a grace period for 0% interest (They say it was only 3 months, and I KNOW my original paperwork said 8 months. My fault for not keeping my original paperwork. ) When I closed my account, my credit rating was a few points lower. it wasn't significant for me, but I suppose it could make a world of difference to some people.