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I'm buying a new $3,000 fridge from Best Buy and during the check-out, I was offered the opportunity to apply for a store card in exchange for a 10% discount "on first day of purchases". I took the bait thinking hey, $300 might be worth the hassle.

Well, well. It turns out I definitely can't use the card "on first day of purchases" and pocket the $300 because... the card limit is only $1,000! Less than the amount of the purchase I'm about to make.

My question now is, what's the most efficient, seamless way to cancel this card, that'll have the least impact on my credit history? The card is issued by Citi and probably hasn't been fully issued yet. Is there a way to stop the issuance process in its tracks? Should I just keep it even though I'll never use it?

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    Related: Is it ever a good idea to close credit cards?
    – Ben Miller
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 10:56
  • Sounds like a good reason to buy the fridge elsewhere.
    – Hart CO
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 16:15
  • Can't you use the card to pay $1k and other funds to pay $2k?
    – AakashM
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 8:41
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    This is not a bait and switch. Your credit/income determines the credit line. Also you were buying the thing anyway, I don't see how this has in any way impacted you (beyond the slight impact to credit score)
    – xyious
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 20:16
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    @AakashM not every website supports splitting payments like that. At a glance, Best Buy's does not. You could work around it by buying a gift card, but I'd bet the offer's terms exclude gift cards.
    – stannius
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 22:01

1 Answer 1

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If you don’t want it, just cancel the card.

The damage to your credit score has already been done when you applied, because of the credit inquiry. This probably didn’t affect your score much. When you cancel this card, every other factor (credit history, credit utilization, etc.) will be exactly the same as it was before you got the card.

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  • And OP can't dispute the hard inquiry because they did, in fact, apply for the card. It's no different than if they had applied and got denied (effectively a $0 credit limit).
    – stannius
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 22:06

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