Elaine D C.
Warning - Do not do business with Discover
This is a lengthy post, but if you work hard at maintaining a good credit score, you should read to the end so you can learn from my experience. If you don’t have time, here’s my advice: NEVER apply for a Discover card, and NEVER allow any long-standing credit account to be closed if you can help it. What they did to me cost me over 50 points on my credit score. So I've been a Discover card customer for 29 years. One of my creditors reported a late payment in error in September of this year. Discover reviews credit for all of their card holders on a monthly basis, and when they saw the late payment show up on my report, they revoked my account. They did not notify me. I found out when I tried to use the card to purchase a $10 item and it was refused. Of course, I was confused and embarrassed. Discover initially told me to request my account be reopened when the error was corrected. Later, I was told I had been misinformed- their won’t reopen an account once it's been closed, even if the closure was due to a reporting error. It didn't matter that my account was in good standing, or that I had just paid it down to a zero balance. It didn't matter that I haven't made a late payment to them or any other creditor in at least 7 years. Discover was kind enough to tell me I could apply for a new card. I pointed out they might not approve me, because what they’d just done had lowered my credit score. I pointed out they would have to do a hard pull on my credit, which would lower it further. I also explained I felt it was unwise to give them the chance to ever do this to me again. Why am I sharing this information? Of course, to share my negative experience with Discover. I also want to share the other important information I learned. I keep a pretty close eye on my credit, but I wasn’t aware that: 1 - Most creditors review your accounts on a regular basis and can decide to revoke an account at any time with no warning if they think you’ve become too much of a risk. 2 - Some companies, like Chase and American Express, have a history of reopening accounts when an error like the one I described occurs, or when there are other extenuating circumstances. Others, like Discover, Bank of America, and Citi, apparently do not have a history of doing this. Guess who I’ll call when I look for a replacement for my Discover card? 3 - Stick with me here, this where things get complicated. Just by chance I Googled 'age of accounts' or something and found a website that explains how the negative impact from the closed Discover account will increase over time. Credit bureaus only report closed accounts for 7 years. In 2025, when the Discover account drops off my history, it will shorten my length of history from 36 years to 10 years because my other open accounts will only date back to 2015. I did have other accounts almost as old as Discover, but I made the mistake of closing them about 15 years ago. So I can look forward to my score taking a nice hit at age 57... Length of credit history is about 15% of your score. It is also a factor creditors look at IN ADDITION to your credit score. Some of the new scoring algorithms will not factor closed accounts at all. Bottom line? The age of your oldest account is VERY important to your overall credit picture. Did I mention, I advise you to NEVER get a Discover card?