Credit score: Your Fico and Beacon are so important so which one of these will raise my score?

Question

I currently have eight credit cards but only use four of them. Right now only three have balances. I watch my credit score and in the past three months it has dropped from 735, 724, 718. The only thing I did different was about four months ago I got three new cards and this month I have a much higher balance than I normally do. Now I will pay down the balance and dont plan to get any more credit cards. Here's the question: Which will raise my credit score...to leave all eight accounts open and only use four of the cards or to close four accounts and leave four open?

Answer 1

your score dropped because you have too much available credit
get rid of some of it

Answer 2

Credit scoring is designed to keep the ordinary laymen in the dark. But here is what I know about closing and opening accounts.

Closing accounts is both good and bad. Leave your older accounts open and close the new ones. The more open accounts you have, the more potential debt liability. The older accounts show more credit history.

When you obtained your recent cards your scores went down because you applied for credit. Usually that is only a six month dip in scores and not too significant(less than 20 points).

If you obtained new cards because of interest rates than you have to take that into consideration. Also your debt ratio is higher because you say you are carrying a higher balance than usuall, That will also effect your scores.

If it were me, I would choose the four accounts that you want to remain open and close the rest. Your scores may drop momentarily but will recover within six months

Answer 3

Your score dropped due to "length of time accounts have been established", "Accounts to new to rate", and/or "proportion of balances to credit limit too high".

You opened new accounts, and that is not good in the credit scoring system. Your balance if over 40% of the limit is also not good. New accounts take a while to help your credit, but will over time.

I have about 8 credit cards, and none of them have balances over 25%. The more you have open and dont use, will help raise your score by available credit.

Dont close accounts, it lowers the length of time accounts have been established. Keep them all paid, use 2 or 3. The flucuation of 10-20 points is actually changing daily. Each inquiry affects the score that day, but your balances only update 1x monthly by XPN (fair Issac), every other month by another CBC, and the last CBC reports evey 3rd month. This also makes the credit scores of the 3 CBC differ because they may not have the most current account balances and status.

When you get a home loan, your score will jump tremendously!