I am so irritated with LL Bean because last year they switched the bank behind their VISA card to Bank of America, and then this year dumped Bank of America (BOFA) and went with a different credit card bank.

This would be okay, except my credit history and credit limit from the LL Bean card stays with B of America, and to get a new LL Bean card I need to apply for it as if it was brand-new credit.

Today in the mail came my Bank of America VISA card, telling me I've been a member since 1997 and I have a $39,000 line of credit.

I don't trust or like Bank of America for a number of reasons that I won't go into here.

I have been looking at information about FICO credit scores and the affect of canceling a credit card and/or getting a new one. Bottom line: it hurts your credit score somewhat to do that.

One Better Business Bureau article I read said that if you cancel a credit card, make sure you have a new line of credit to replace the amount you are canceling.

Well, shoot. Not that I intend to use this VISA card very much. Before the fall out with LL Bean, ordering from their catalog with it resulted in free shipping, but I haven't ordered from them in several years. And I had the card as a fall-back in case there was some problem with my Mastercard or the VISA card that is for my business.

Why do I care about my credit score? Well, for one thing we got something from Farmers Insurance one time telling us we didn't get the best rate on our car insurance because of our credit score. That really pissed me off because our houses are paid for, our cars are paid for, we pay off our credit cards every month, etc. etc. We have had mortgages in the past and paid them off, so it's not as if we haven't displayed the ability to handle credit wisely. The only cause I could think of was that we changed our address from Colorado to Las Vegas.

So I have to decide whether to activate this stinking BOFA credit card even though I think their business practices are the lowest of the low and I don't trust them for a moment because someday I might need that $39,000 line of credit if Mr. Troutbend is kidnapped and there is a ransom demand and I am afraid of hurting my stupid credit score by canceling that card.

I really just needed to vent about this, so thanks for 'listening.' Chime in you have any advice.