Should I keep two best buy cards?

I went to best buy this weekend to get a TV that was on sale, a great price since it is memorial day, and I had to jump at the offer. I applied for $1,000 in credit and was only approved for $500 on their best buy card, (which is the no interest card) and they told me I could apply for a rewards card. Well I did, and got the other 500. So in essence I have two credit cards from Best Buy. Well, I then returned the TV the next day because I didnt like it. They gave me a full refund and so now I dont owe anything on these cards, but still have them. One has a $59 dollar annual fee, the other has no annual fee. My question is, should I cancel both cards now? Or keep one maybe, or keep both? How will these two cards affect my credit? What should I do?

Should I keep two best buy cards?

1. No, don%26#039;t cancel both cards. Explanations, below.

2. The small damage already done to your Fair Isaac (FICO) credit score can%26#039;t be taken back by canceling your cards, but the damage to your score goes away in 1 year.

3. These cards, now that they%26#039;re open and have a zero balance, are doing your credit score some good.

4. The $59 annual fee is not worth it just to keep your account open. Call the credit card company, record the name of the person who answers, and with a pleasant attitude and with politeness, say %26quot;I%26#039;m thinking of closing my account because of the $59 annual fee. What can you do for me today to waive the all fees on the account, permanently?%26quot; Then listen and engage the person in conversation. You have a learning opportunity here. Ask what other fees the account gets charged, if any. If you get the fee(s) waived, confirm that it is waived permanently, not just for the year. Politely thank the person and end the conversation. If you get a %26quot;No,%26quot; request to speak to the person%26#039;s direct supervisor. Take the name and ask the same question. If you get another %26quot;No,%26quot; ask to speak to the Customer Retention Department, a department that has been hired solely to keep the accounts they already have, and keep those customers happy. You%26#039;ll get another lowest level rep, take the name and ask the same question. If you get a %26quot;No,%26quot; request to speak to the person%26#039;s direct supervisor. Take the name and ask the same question. If you get another %26quot;No,%26quot; you%26#039;ve now received %26quot;No%26quot; 4 times, and it%26#039;s time to close the account to avoid the annual fee.

10% of your FICO score is about new lines of credit. Every time you apply for credit (here, each of the 2 store cards), the lender makes a hard inquiry into your credit history, and this type of inquiry hurts your FICO score a few points. You get all these hard inquiry points back over the course of a year after the hard inquiry, and the inquiry falls off your reports at the 2-year mark.

10% of your score is on credit mix. The good types of credit are mortgage, secured car installment loan, prime (unsecured) major credit card (MC, V, AmEx, Disc) and store cards (Best Buy, Home Depot, etc.). The bad types of credit are payday loans, personal-finance loan accounts for purposes of cash advances, still-secured credit cards and overdraft loans. Ideally, you want to have at least one account for each of the good types of credit. Close the last account in one of the good types of credit, and down goes your score.

30% of your score is credit utilization: how much of your credit limit is used up by your balance? On each revolving account, you need to keep your balance below 30% of your credit limit, or you will hurt your FICO score. For example, if you have a $500 credit limit, you must not have a balance higher than $150, which is 30% of $500. So a paid off account will have a zero balance on it, and you can%26#039;t get any better than 0% utilization. They also look at total utilization: they total up all your balances, and all your credit limits. That total percentage utilization must be kept below 30% of total credit limits, or you%26#039;ll hurt your FICO score. Close a paid off account, and you%26#039;ll take away $0 in total balance, but you%26#039;ll take away all those dollars in credit limit, and up goes your total utilization, and maybe down goes your score.

You can use the cards to score even more points by establishing good payment history on them. 35% of your FICO score is on payment history. Make small NECESSARY purchases on them, and pay the bill in full, on time, the following month.

So long as you make purchases with the cards about every 6 months, the company will keep the accounts open rather than close them for inactivity. 15% of your FICO score is for length of credit history, the longer the better. The average credit user has an oldest open account that has been open for 14 years. Where do you fit on this scale? These are the toughest FICO points to earn. They also score you on the average length of time all your open accounts have been open. So if you close your oldest accounts, you%26#039;ll hurt your score because (1) you lose your oldest account and (2) the average age of your accounts goes down.

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