So almost 2 years ago, while shopping I applied for EXPRESS credit card at the advise of my friend. I didn't know much about credit cards back then and how opening or having many accounts is not a good option for me. But I applied for it and I haven't used it from then. I have received the following email recently:
"We’re Comenity Bank and we handle everything credit-related to your EXPRESS Credit Card account.
We’ve missed you!
You may not realize it, but your EXPRESS Credit Card account hasn’t been used since April 2019. That’s why we’re planning to close your account on 3/4/2021 – but it’s easy to keep it open, if you like.
We’d be delighted to keep you as a valued Express customer.
Simply use your card to make one purchase by 2/29/2021, and we will keep your account active."
My questions are:
Will cancelling this Card impact my credit score?
It is not the oldest credit card I own.
I have 3 credit cards apart from this and I mostly use 2 of them, and as I mentioned, I have not used this card since its opening.
Please advise. Thank you.
I'm already struggling to improve my credit. I pull my reports today and see that it has dropped over 40, 60, and 90 points on the three bureaus!!! I got a Comenity Express Next card maybe 10 years ago and used it off and on, but have kept the account at a zero balance for quite some time.
I bought something for $17.10 for Halloween on 9/30 and thought the auto-pay I'd had set up through their site would cover it. It didn't activate. I didn't notice until 11/1 and set up the payment that day. Done, right? Wrong. It was setup on my bank account and didn't post until 11/4, but they put a $17.10 late fee on my account 11/3.
At this point, I think I'm zeroed out again and go on about my business. Turns out that they also do a $1 minimum charge every month. I'd never seen that before in 10 years. So here's the lineup:
9/30 -$17.10 purchase
11/3 -$17.10 late fee
11/4 +$17.10 payment
11/7 -$1 minimum charge
12/3 -$18.10 late fee
12/8 -$1 minimum charge
I'd checked my account at this point and wrote to them asking for a refund and that they cancel my account. They said they would refund the money and to write to somewhere in Utah to close it. Here's where I'm even more remiss, I see that they refund 18.10 and a .52 finance charge on 1/02 and assume that's the end of that. Nooooope. I completely missed that only covered one late payment.
1/03 -$23.10 late fee
1/08 -$1 minimum balance
2/03 -$23.58 late fee
2/05 -$1 minimum balance
Altogether, today I have a $67.26 balance out of the blue, which is fine, but resulted in an almost 100 point drop on my credit for having a 60-day late payment. I am so devastated.
I can pay this, but should I? I want them to zero out my account like they said they were doing and see if they can reverse the damage to my credit. Is this feasible? Any thoughts? I'm just gutted right now.