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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: benwood who wrote (15080)	6/9/2004 2:10:03 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Ben, that's a new one on me. I've got credit cards gathering dust in a big old box. Grab the freebie and run.

To: benwood who wrote (15080)	6/9/2004 11:03:50 PM
From: starhawke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

"have several cards I acquired years ago for the freebies but haven't used since, so now I realize I should be closing them out." - It's a common myth that closing unused credit lines will improve your credit score. Not true. Especially as those credit lines generally tend to be among the oldest, and closing them would lower the average age of your credit lines, thus lowering your credit score. If they're not costing you money by way of annual fees, etc., might want to research and rethink. Essentially, once the line is opened, the "damage" is done. However, if they are truly unused, eventually the issuer may close the accounts or simply fail to send new cards upon expiration. In that case, it may be preferable for you to close the accounts (in writing, to create a record), rather than having the line reported as closed by the issuer. S