Comments on: Remember to Cancel Finished 0% Financing Lines of Credit

By: thomas

thomas — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:32:44 +0000

Actually, try and find out who the parent lender is (like HSBC lender in comment above). If you already have a line of credit with them, have them move it to one card.

This is actually good to do b/c I was able to move my limits from a card that was going to offer 4.9% life of loan to my other card from the same company for 0%.

Also, don’t close immediately as that will hurt the score more. You should have the credit open for at least a year from what I’ve read to avoid any credit score dings.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:42:00 +0000

The only “ding” I ever had on my credit was from an open credit card account that I never used, but that started to charge an annual fee several years after I got the card. They mailed me the standard notifications, but I was living overseas for a few months at the time and had only made arrangements for bills I knew about, not new ones from out of the blue.

So, naturally, they didn’t get paid since I didn’t know about them.

By the time I got back, my credit had been messed up in various ways, and it took a couple of years to unwind the mess.

Lesson learned: if you aren’t actively using the credit, cancel it.

By: Posco

Posco — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:09:47 +0000

Awhile ago I was reminded of a similar credit line I used for buying furniture. It’s not always apparent which bank is extending your line of credit for the furniture store, so I was surprised one year to see a line of credit from HSBC. Huh? When I called them, they told me how it was opened… Oh yeahhhhhhh. Please close it, thank you.

Now I know why I was getting these change-of-term notices from HSBC in the mail.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:38:00 +0000

Thanks for the tip! I forgot about a no interest account that I used when I bought my new furniture…I’ll be sure to close that now!