I have 10 credit cards open, is it better to have open credit card accounts with no balance or to close them?

Question

My credit score is a 690 and I want it higher. If I close some of my credit card accounts will it go up or does it show negatively when you close accounts?

Answer 1

I happen to disagree with many of the above comments. Scores of 620-650 are considered average, scores above 650 are considered high scores.

The biggest contributors to your score are: Paying on time, Account balances compared to max credit available, Credit length, and type of credit. The rough percentages are below:

Payment History 35% of your score
Outstanding Balances 30% of your score
Lenght of Credit History 15% of your score
Type of credit 10% of your score
Inquiries 10% of your score

Usually the number of open accounts does not have an major impact on your credit. I have actually seen the opposite occur that when you start closing accounts your credit actually drops due to various things such as now you account balances start to get to close to your max available credit, etc.

Pay your bills ALWAYS on time. Pay credit cards down or close to zero every month.

Make sure your balances relative to your max credit is low, somewhere in the 10-20%. IE if you have a $5,000 limit do not put more then $1000 on the card in a month, and be sure you have funds to pay that down to almost zero when the bill comes.

Lenght of credit... If you find it necessary to close any accounts DO NOT CLOSE the ones you have had forever. Keep those ones open. Close recently opened credit IF YOU MUST. The longer you have an account in good standing open the better. A good length to have a card open is 15 years. You will be doing good if once you hit that mark.

Type of credit... make sure you have a variety of cards, such as gas cards, department store cards, bank issued visa and mastercards, etc.

If you have a lot of recent inquiries it can lower you credit score as it makes you look desperate for credit. Try to make sure to not open new accounts within a year or so of eachother.

I have suggestions to help you increase your credit score... Do you own a home? If not a mortgage will help to increase your credit score... Open auto loan...? A paid of or open auto loan will increase your credit score... Pretty much and LONG TERM and Large amount loans will have a great impact on your credit score.... If you can show that you have made a 2K house payment for the past 10 years.... You have shown your ability to pay, which will be reflected by your credit score.

Do a voluntary inquiry into your credit. This does not have a negative effect on your score... You can get it free from www.annualcreditreport.com or you can pay www.myfico.com or other similar site to get your credit score and view your credit report. Be sure that all the information on your credit report is valid and dispute anything you see as odd.

Get your credit score from all 3 credit bureaus... Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. Each one scores you differently... You can have a large range of credit scores between the 3... Say for example 720 with transunion, 690 with Equifax, and 708 with Experian. So it is worth it to see the overall picture. Please note that when you request your credit report from the bureaus you often do not get your FICO score. You may have to use www.myfico.com to get those.

My hand hurts from typing :) so if you need more help or advise please let me know or email me. I would be glad to help you in anyway that I can.

Hope I was of some help.

Answer 2

Peopl/e will advice you differently. I have a 790 score so if you want to copy me just close all of them less the two main ones and run no balance on them. Use them for everything you can use them for, even 30 transactions a month and get a standing order that automatically pays the balance when it is due. That's it, make sure there is always money in th ebank to pay, not sure how long it took me to get there as I don't really care for my score but that's how I got my score.

RE:
I have 10 credit cards open, is it better to have open credit card accounts with no balance or to close them?
My credit score is a 690 and I want it higher. If I close some of my credit card accounts will it go up or does it show negatively when you close accounts?

Answer 3

No matter how many cards you carry, it's a good idea to keep the ratio of outstanding balance to total available credit as low as possible. Credit scores look at how much of your available credit you've used. When you're close to the limit, you look out of control. From a score-lowering perspective, debt reduction should start with the cards on which you're closest to your credit limit (though from the point of view of shrinking the overall amount of your debt, it's best to pay off your highest-interest-rate cards first; see ASK SUZE on DEBT, pages 78-85, or THE ROAD TO WEALTH, Pages 27-32.) Be aware, however, that paying off a collection account or a judgment will not remove it from your credit report. It will stay on your report for seven years.


Don't close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score. In fact, owing a fixed amount but having fewer open accounts may lower your score. Conversely, don't open a number of new credit cards that you don't need, just to increase your available credit. This approach could backfire and actually lower your score.

Answer 4

Contrary to calc's post, this is too much in having revolving credit open, regardless if 5 are zero balances. The reason being, I worked for 15 yrs in the lending institution. Even though you have zero balances, it that account is open, we had to look at the maximum line of credit available on that card when reviewing debt to ratio for loans. If each card had a limit of $3,000.00 you have accessibility to $30,000 in just credit cards. Close out all but two. There is absolutely no need, to have store department cards, two or three VISA's or Mastercard's and one American Express.

Answer 5

It's better to have them closed so you are not tempted to use them. Credit Card debt can be a terrible burdon if not properly maintained. I also believe it's more about your available credit to how much you have charged ratio. Get those balances paid down and then start closing them.

I know there are some good sites out there for FICO score information.

Answer 6

Close any unnecessary cards ASAP. If you call the credit card company to cancel, your card will still remain open for another year. After calling them, you'll need to write a letter to officially close your account. This way, no mysterious balance will show up on your card. Having three cards open should be a good amount, with one of them being a debit card.
There is no effect on your score when you close out a $0 balance card.

Answer 7

you want to have a credit line, a good way to do that is to have a credit card, and in good standing with a good balance and good payment history, will increase your credit score. Having multiple credit cards, even with a zero balance, can lower your credit score. It might show you have more credit available then you have ability to cover. You should have what you need and ditch the rest.

Answer 8

Open lines of credit - even if not used for many years - pull down your Credit Score - it will be a real chore to close those accounts and then to get the Credit Score Companies to remove them - it is a big problem.

Answer 9

Peopl/e will advice you differently. I have a 790 score so if you want to copy me just close all of them less the two main ones and run no balance on them. Use them for everything you can use them for, even 30 transactions a month and get a standing order that automatically pays the balance when it is due. That's it, make sure there is always money in th ebank to pay, not sure how long it took me to get there as I don't really care for my score but that's how I got my score.

Answer 10

I have never heard of anyone having 10 credit cards
close most of them
the only thing that will affect your rating is whether you make your payments on time