Should i cancel my Boa card to combine limits?

[pokerdave]

I opened the Boa black cc (premium rewards card) with a 40k credit limit in oct  17 and opened the white card  Dec 18 to take advantage of a 0 pct offer. They took 14k from my black card to open that account leaving me with a 26k limit.  Periodically they sent e 0 pct checks but have not since late 2019.  There are also no rewards on the card so when I got my year end summary a few days ago it said I had only used it to charge under $5 in 2020. According to the Experian ap my AA of credit is 4 years 9 months.  According to Credit Karma (just using this for a datapoint) my average age is 3 years 2  months.  When talking to a customer service rep about why I had not gotten any 0 pct checks in the past year with my credit scores ranging from 760 to 800 in 2020 depending on usage he could not tell me.  I asked if I would be able to cancel that card and add the limit back to my black card.  The question is being that the white card is below my avg age would there be any disadvantage to closing this account? Since my rebuild I have kept everything open except my turd cards (credit one and Merrick) .  The 40k line would be my highest after my Nfcu at 34k.

[cv91915]

Are these personal cards or business (I don't recognize "black card" or "white card")?

 

Moving limits around with Bank of America on personal cards is easy.  Just call them.

 

Before you combine, though, you might attempt a CLI on both of your existing cards first. 

 

If you do the CLI requests over the phone, you can make it clear that you'd prefer to have them decline the CLI request rather than move the limit from a different existing card. 

2 hours ago, pokerdave said:

According to Credit Karma (just using this for a datapoint) my average age is 3 years 2  months. 

Unless something's changed recently, Kredit Carmahaha calculates AAoOA, not AAoA, if that factors into your thinking at all.  The AAoOA metric is pretty useless.

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by cv91915

[pokerdave]

Cv i am not sure what that means.  Part of the disparity is that my father had put me on his GM cap one card opened in 1994 so I could use his accrued rewards in 2002.  He never took me off the card and when I started cleaning my reports i disputed his address , not knowing of the benefit of being an AU.  TU and EQ removed it .  I never  told him about the benefit i was getting and as he is 80 , when he bought his last Caddy in April he canceled the card figuring it would be the last car he would buy. That's the only reason i quoted CK.

[pokerdave]

Those are personal cards. Black is a reward card , white is a lower interest card. I guess my question is will closing this card have any negative effects long term.

[hdporter]

A couple of things first:

 

FICO Average Age of Accounts factors in open and closed accounts.  While it's unfortunate that the address dispute dropped your AU account from TU/EQ, you'll continue to benefit from the age of that account on EX until is ages off your report (typically 10 years from closure).

 

Closing one of your two BA accounts in order to combine CL's similarly won't impact your FICO Average Age until 10 years from the closure.  So that's not a huge factor in your decision.

 

I have yet to ascertain BA's criteria for sending out promo rate bt offers.  (I and wife have similar scores to yours, average ages of 9-11 years).

 

-- I have 4 BA cards ... 1 used actively, 1 used lightly each month, 1 used sporadically, and one just opened (jumped the gun for spending category cb, and then determined I was better using an existing card for that ... so on the fence about this card's "disposition".

The only bt offer I have is the one that is tied to the newly opened card (part of the sign on offer.

 

-- DW (Bev) has 2 cards:  One actively used and one used for only 1 or 2 charges annually.  She always has a 0% (3% fee) bt offer on each.

 

So I suggest it's impossible to read anything into BA's extension (or lack thereof).  The saving grace with BA is that if you really want a 0% bt (or 0% cash check offer), you can always open a new card with a desired offer and reallocate some of your existing CL's as needed.

 

-----------

 

I would recommend combining your credit limits only if you find that you've reached a cap on CLI approval with BA.  BA has been very generous and consistent with CLI requests up to at least $100k in total lines each in our case.  Maintaining two accounts doubles your opportunity for favorable short-term offers.

 

btw, if you do significant online shopping purchases, I strongly advise giving BA Cash Rewards a look.  It pays 3% cb on your first $2500 quarterly purchases in a select category of your choosing (for which I suggest "online shopping" is a unique "sweet spot" for this card.  Card pays a $200 cash bonus on $1000 in purchases in your first 90 days.

 

[swimmingwithsharks]

Could you product change the no-rewards card to something else at BofA? Get some rewards and keep the age? 

[pokerdave]

I am hesitant to apply for CLI with existing lenders because  my 2020 income dropped 40k and I have been avoiding letting existing creditors know, I expect it to go back to normal in 2021. As far as product changes goes I think I would rather just apply for a new card and get the SUB and/or a new 0 pct offer.  

[hdporter]

Just be advised that if you call to combine limits (or possibly reallocate a portion to a new card), there's a good chance that you'll be asked to provide your current income (as required under the CARD ACT).  Of course, for that matter, you'll be asked your income when applying for that new card.

[aroberson]

3 hours ago, pokerdave said:

I am hesitant to apply for CLI with existing lenders because  my 2020 income dropped 40k and I have been avoiding letting existing creditors know, I expect it to go back to normal in 2021. As far as product changes goes I think I would rather just apply for a new card and get the SUB and/or a new 0 pct offer.  

I wonder if you haven't filed 2020 taxes, they would just look at the 2019 returns for your income??

[cv91915]

7 hours ago, pokerdave said:

Cv i am not sure what that means.  Part of the disparity is that my father had put me on his GM cap one card opened in 1994 so I could use his accrued rewards in 2002.  He never took me off the card and when I started cleaning my reports i disputed his address , not knowing of the benefit of being an AU.  TU and EQ removed it .  I never  told him about the benefit i was getting and as he is 80 , when he bought his last Caddy in April he canceled the card figuring it would be the last car he would buy. That's the only reason i quoted CK.

 

6 hours ago, hdporter said:

FICO Average Age of Accounts factors in open and closed accounts. 

I was just trying to call out the difference between AAoA and AAoOA.  AAoA (the one that really matters to FICO) isn't impacted by closing a card.