FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Will closing a credit card after the sign-up bonus damage my credit?
Old Aug 5, 2015 | 2:45 pm
  #3  
sdsearch
FlyerTalk Evangelist
10 Countries Visited
20 Countries Visited
30 Countries Visited
All eyes on you!
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 26,115
If you a have decent credit history, then no, not significantly. (Every open or close might nudge your credit score by a few points temporarily, but it fades away quickly. Most people into points/miles don't consider it significant enough to worry about.)

If this was your first credit card ever, it might be more significant, however.

However, it's no more significant than closing a card without a sign-up bonus after the same amount of time! Ie, the credit report doesn't know whether the card had a signup bonus or not.

However: Closing a card that has its own points program will generally cause you to lose all the points in that program. Also, closing a card too soon after getting signup bonus may give you a "black mark" with that bank. So, in general, it's probably better to wait until the annual fee for year 2 is coming due to close, rather than close right after you get the signup bonus, if it doesn't cost you anything to keep it open the rest of the year.
sdsearch is offline