Closed Credit Cards, but Still Paying

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-27-2006
Closed Credit Cards, but Still Paying
Thu, 09-17-2009 - 5:16pm

OKay, i'm hoping that I can find the answer here. There is so much information to read online and it's all jumbled together. I have a little under 8,000 dollars in credit card debt which i've been paying on for about 2 years. I was unemployed for quite a while after college and the interest on my cards skyrocketted and well not having a job and not paying just increased my balances. I have cut a lot of the balances down on my own; however, I feel it's too late to do any good. All the cards, except two, are closed by credit grantor even though i'm still paying. I've paid one off. I have one that is under $200 and will be paid off next month. I have another under $400 that will be paid off next month also. The others are still a little too high to pay off, but i'm making payments. Two of them I actually called the company as soon as I got a job and had them put me on a payment plan so that is why they were closed.


I just feel though that even though i'm paying them off my credit is still going to be bad. In a year my scor only went up a few points. In April I was around 550. I don't know where it is now that i've paid off a card and have lowered my balances some more. The problem is, I do have two cards with extremely high balances. One is open, but in good standing just high. The other is not in good standing and what makes me upset about this card is when I was way below my limit, but needing help because i was unemployed they could not help. They said my balance wasn't high enough to qualify for help. Everytime I called it was the same thing and i wasn't even using my card. It went from about $600 to over $1000 all on it's own and now it's over $2000 because I just can't pay it.


They harrassed me every day and when I said i'd pay $100 they wanted $200. When I said I can pay $200 they wanted $300. So the balance just kept accumulating. I think that is what is really hurting me on my credit report. What is funny is it's not a closed account yet the card is actually still open. The other credit cards closed the second I couldn't make a payment.


Well anyway, my question really is, if I pay off my balances on the cards that have been closed by the credit grantor, how does this affect my credit? Won't lenders still see this and run? Won't they question the closed by credit grantor? How do I know that all this money that i've been sending to make payments on all these cards is worth it? Will it really benefit me in the end other just showing I paid them off?