How much will closing a credit card account affect my credit rating?

Despite a flawless payment history over the last 20 years, Citibank is raising my rate by 5%. I would easily give them the heave-ho, but I've heard that a long-standing credit card account has a positive effect on your credit rating. How big a hit would my credit rating take if I closed the Citibank account?|||Your entire credit history with that card would be erased and this is not a good thing.





First, those 20 years should give you some power with Citibank. Call their customer service number on the back of the card and tell them that you feel the increase is unjust in light of the fact that you've been doing business with them for 20 years and your account is in good standing. Mention that you've always paid your bill on time if that's the case and any other Citibank accounts you have, if you have any. Sometimes the credit division of banks doesn't realize that you're also a bank customer and that may carry some weight.





If you can't get anywhere with the customer service rep, ask to speak to a manager.





If this still gets you no where, go to bankrate.com and see what other credit cards' interest rates are to open an account and tell them such and such bank is offering this low rate to new customers, and it hardly seems fair that they're raising the rate for their longstanding customers. (I'll bet Citibank themselves are offering lower rates to their new customers, while they're trying to squeeze their old customers for money).





If all else fails, pay the card off even if you have to transfer the balance to a lower interest card. Then, so they don't close the account entirely as some banks are doing on inactive cards, use the card once or twice a month for smaller purchases or necessities like groceries and pay off that balance at the end of the month.





They're less likely to shut down the account if you have some activity on it and they'll probably drop the interest rate after a few months to get you to spend more on their card.|||You can use this credit monitoring service to pre-estimate future scores for different scenarios of such payments - credit-report-score.10001mb.com|||Hope this helps.





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