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There are a number of questions so I will have to separate them out and rephrase them: 1. Will cancelling the Capital One credit Card hurt your credit score? One aspect of your credit score is based on how long you have had active credit. If the Capital One credit card is you longest running credit card, cancelling it will impact your credit score as it will reduce the length of time for your active cards. 2. Will opening a new credit card hurt your credit score? It will hurt it temporarily if they do a hard pull on your credit report. This will come back though so not too many concerns. 3. Would it be better to just keep the credit card at Capital One and never use it while my other bank accounts are at Chase? I recommend this unless there are other reasons driving the change. 4. Is it possible to just have a credit card account at a bank? Yes this is possible. In fact, most people with credit cards do not do any other banking at that bank. 5. If I pay a balance during the grace period, does this hurt my score? No, it does not impact your credit score. 6. Is it true that if I pay a balance before the due date, I won't have to pay any interest on the card? This is true and can help your credit score. The same is true if you pay during the grace period (but don't miss the grace period because then interest starts kicking in, especially if you have two cycle billing. 7. Does this hurt my credit score? This will actually help your credit score. One aspect of your credit score is how much of your credit you use in a month, with less than 20% being best. Paying before the due date reduces this since the credit utilized is typically reported to the credit bureaus only when your monthly statement is created. If you pay in advance, your utilized credit is a lower percentage.

by Tony B

5 months ago

Asker's Rating: 

As long as you don't have a late payments, high debt vs income etc. your credit score ought to be fine. Paying you bill in full, on time (or early) is what you should do. This will avoid interest, and keep your credit score up. NOTE: If you use your credit card to get a cash advance, then you will get fee/interest charges immediately. Using it to pay for purchases, then paying off the card in full before the due date avoids fees/interests (on most cards - check the fine print). Paying late, not in full, etc. will get fees & interest added to your bill, money in the credit card company's pocket, and lower your credit score. If you are not going to use the card, go ahead and close it. For a while the data will still show up in your credit report history, but with a note "account closed by customer"

by rmm- 5 months ago