As mentioned above, average age of credit is one of the factors that determines your credit score - in addition to total available credit and utilization which can also be impacted. If you have regularly opened cards, it may not have a huge impact. A relative who wasn’t a big credit card user had one card for 30 years and decided to switch cards and opened a new account and closed their old one and it had a pretty dramatic impact on their score. Freezing your credit does not impact your score, it just prevents you from opening any new lines.
Yep. MasterCard with Bank of America.
Each of my kids has a card with me and their each have credit scores in the 800s (or sometimes S is high 700s when he’s been getting a lot of new cards & canceling some of his old ones). None of us is denied credit when we apply, except if we forget to thaw & then we just thaw whatever they need and call reconsideration & are instantly approved.
My H too HATES this kind of stuff. As in, he WON’T touch it. I’ve tried to pretend like I’m him, and they haven’t believed me! And it’s worse when it’s a place I have to contact between the hours of 8-5, M-F. Do you know how rare it is that we are together during that time for him to authorize me?
Long ago I got him removed from all utility bills at least, but his teacher’s pension account, retirement accounts, etc. No way to get me permanently on there.
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Well, the logic of your not being able to access his retirement plans is that he might divorce you and get a new wife. So he, and only he, should be the one in charge of all that.
Besides the “don’t fill in the info being asked on the page” I also suggest calling back and saying you’re Bill Smith or whatever “man” of the house bs is (infuriating!) I had to do that once and I was asked “is this Robert?” in my normal voice said “it is” and that was that.
At work I often say I’m someone who has authority (male & female) and have never been called out on it.
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It might be recorded but I would think your husband would have say it was fraud and he isn’t apparently going to get on the phone. BTW, my husband’s name is definitely a guy’s name too but the way names are these days, who knows?
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I mean next time, yeah. But once already on the phone as “wife” they agent wasn’t going to go along with it.
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To be clear - it isn’t man of the house BS. It’s that companies have an obligation to protect your financial and personal information. My husband would have no better luck calling my credit card company regarding my information or accounts. I understand people’s frustration as I also handle all the financial matters, but considering how painful fraud and identity theft can be, I don’t exactly want companies speaking to other people regarding my financial accounts.
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I agree, protection of information is paramount; I’m only perturbed because “the wife” is holding their own card, which they were calling about, and has all the information.
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Update: Okay, someone, let’s just say it was my H, just called and quickly got the issue fixed with a speedy password reset because apparently they require that after a certain amount of time. Gave the temporary pw, went online, picked a new one, voila.
When I called the first time, there was no information about timely resetting required. Instead a got a guy who first mirrored my page to try to find the answer, then spent ten minutes talking to IT, then another ten trying to get a temp–without ever explaining that it was because of a required reset. He had no idea why it wasn’t working and what that page asking for SS# was about.
So glad “H” got a better answer, or more probably, a less incompetent agent.
Probably will hang onto this card, not because of credit score but more because of a higher limit, which we never use, but nice to have.
Now, onto figure out the Discover card takeover by Capitol One, which has just sent me (prime card holder) a notice that with the takeover, my authorized user will apparently get another account??? which makes no sense. I’m really going to miss Discover’s amazing customer service.
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I also have added my H to the call (3 way call) so he could give the company permission to speak with me about his account. Of course, I told him in advance to expect the call. Once he was added to the call, it only took about 3 minutes to jump through the hoops to give me permission.
H has no problem playing hot potato with the phone—being handed the phone and saying, yes, please speak to my wife, xxxx, who is right here with me and resolve all the issues! We do that for medical, financial, and everything else he doesn’t want to be hassled with. It has worked fine as we are often together.
Looks like CapitalOne will continue to maintain Discover as its own brand and network.
Seems like the main change will be for CapitalOne deposit account customers, whose debit/ATM cards will be switched to the Discover network (previously on the Mastercard network).
Yeah, H does not like dealing with the phone, and, i will say, not really good at it. Partial deafness does not help. Even just “yes, talk to my wife” gets way more complicated than necessary. Like the agent wants to hear his sidebar comments on the process. But also, he isn’t retired yet, so often not available.
The new process I instigated today was much more successful. 
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That had been my expectation, but the letter I got from them was quite different.