whoknew89

Hello Fellow Flyers!

I wanted to ask about a few best practices and get an idea of what others are doing when it comes to grabbing credit cards, and earning bonuses for cards that you have no interest in keeping.

My first year of credit card signups and accruing a large bank of points is coming to and end and many of the credit cards that I signed up for last year will soon be posting their annual fees. I'm pretty sure of the ones I'd like to keep and the ones I'll ditch but I'm unsure how the banks view opening and closing accounts so close together. I'm not really all that concerned about my credit since that can be easily monitored and maintained, I'm more concerned about developing a poor relationship with the issuing Banks like Chase, and American Express.

Should I not worry about this? Is it okay to close a card after the first year or should I work harder to get them to give me some sort of relief on the annual fee?

Here is my lineup and thoughts about closing the accounts.

Chase Sapphire (Keep - Love the metal card)
Chase Ink Plus (Close, but apply for the Ink Cash or Ink Bold)
Chase Freedom (Keep, why not!)
Chase Southwest Personal Plus (Close, got the companion pass - no longer needed)
Chase Southwest Business Plus (See above)

I have other accounts with Amex, Discover and BoA, but none of those I need to close. So really my question revolves around how Chase feels about me closing 3 accounts all within the same month.

Your thoughts, opinions and advice are appreciated!

sdsearch

That's why you should have looked over the lists sooner, and closed one of them maybe after 6 months, another after 8 or 9 months, and then only one of them right before the annual fee posts.

It's because you postponed thinking / asking about this until your annual fee is soon to post that you have no choice besides closing several around the same time.

It's a good thing that you're keeping two out of the five, at least. That's much better than closing every card you have with a particular bank.

Don't the Southwest cards post bonus RR points worth about the same as the annual fee upon renewal? If so, maybe keep at least one of those long enough for that to happen (whichever one has the better bonus RR points to annual fee ratio, in case there's a difference).

If you are going to close cards only after 11 months, don't open them all with the same bank at the same time. If you are going to open a bunch of cards with the same bank at the same time, plan ahead so that you can "stagger" the closing of the ones you're going to close.

Btw, do you mean the Chase Sapphire or Chase Sapphire Preferred? (It's only the Preferred that will let you transfer UR points out in between you getting rid of one Ink card and getting another.)

MrMoonlight

I've been at this game for about two years now. Maybe I missed the point somewhere on these boards, but is it such a bad thing to cancel your cards in bunches? So far, knock wood, my wife and I are 49 for 49.

whoknew89

MrMoonlight, I am just unsure if it really is a bad thing, personally I want to apply for different Chase cards to keep earning signup bonuses, so closing three of the accounts to make room for others seems like a good idea to me.

skibum7732

If Chase decides it a bad thing, which is quite possible, especially if you only have a 1 year history with them. If that happens, there will be 0 Chase cards in your wallet for many years.