Canceling Cards a Bad thing? Having too many cards a bad thing?

Question

If I have too many credit cards, and want to cancel the ones that I hardly use because of crappy interest rates, does that ruin my credit? What if you have a lot of cards, all with no balances? Does that make your credit go down?

Answer 1

If you have a lot of credit cards, even with no balances on them, it will hurt your credit. You could one day go and max out all the cards and then walk away. It also hurts you if you have no credit cards. The best thing to do is to have one or two cards and carry no balance on it.

Answer 2

The reason why there are so many people in serious debt today is because of plastic money ,,,, It's so easy to purchase on a card but so very hard to pay it back ,,,, Especially at their inflated percentage rates ,,, It might be a good idea to have just one that you never use or maybe a fuel card ,,, As I under stand it cash is no good anymore even if it's only to rent a car ,,,, The corporate sector has it all set up so the traffic runs their way so to speak ,,,, As for how many cards you should have depends on your ability to deal with the debts that come along with them ,, The closes est thing I have to a credit card isn't really a credit card at all ,,,, What I have through my bank is what they call a debit card ,,,, It works like a credit card as far as being able to get things but with out the high interest costs ,,,,

Answer 3

Hello, canceling credit cards all at once can affect your credit score however let's say you have 10 credit cards and 4 with no balances; then cancel the four with no balances and try to maintain the remaining cards you have.

Gradually work your way down to two if not one credit card, but never ever cancel all the cards at once. Not canceling your cards all at once will keep your credit score from going down as well as increase your credit because on file it shows that you are maintaining the remaing cards so therefore your credit will not vanish.

Keeping credit cards that have no balances has the potential to make your credit go down but it can also keep your credit in good standing, only you can decide whether or not you still want to keep them, if your not using them anymore get rid of them but try to make sure you have at least two credit cards remaining in your name.

Hope this helps

Answer 4

What ever you do don't open up alot of credit cards becuase when you start doing that it will ruin you credit ability. Your better off just to have 2 or 3 cards but no more and the ones you don't use call and shut them becuase if they stay open it will show on your credit report what you have and how many. If you stay with 2 good cards your credit will be better as the more you use them and pay them off you will build credit with those cards and your credit will keep increasing.

Answer 5

Wow. Some terrible advice on here.

Canceling credit cards is a bad thing for several reasons.

First, you lose the credit history associated with those cards. And second, you lose the amount of available credit those cards once provided.

Basically look at it like this:

Credit card A: $5,000 credit line, $2,500 balance
Credit card B: $5,000 credit line, zero balance

So your credit picture looks like this:

$2,500 of $10,000 used, $7,500 available

Now if you close card B, you're credit picture would change to:

$2,500 of $5,000 used, $2,500 available

In other words, you're total available credit would drop from 75% to 25%. Creditors would rather you have more available credit, not less.

Sure you can have too many cards, but if you only have 5-6, an auto loan, mortgages, etc, it's not bad. In fact it shows you have credit depth, and a history of paying on time.

Learn more about credit, mortgage, and personal finance:

http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com

Answer 6

Part of your credit score will be based on the amount of credit that you use versus the amount of credit that you have available. Those who use most of the credit that is extended to them are considred higher risk. Therefore those unused credit cards (especially major credit cards like visa, amex) are counted as credit that has been extended to you that you are not currently using (therefore likely increasing your credit score). If you cancel them, the percentage of your total credit that you are using will go up, and may drop your score.

Having many individual store credit cards (i.e. target, macys, bestbuy, circuitcity etc). supposedly place you in a higher risk category and can lower your score. These may be best closed.

Answer 7

Suze Orman says not to cancel credit cards that have large limits because part of your credit score is calculated by your debt to limit ratio.

For example, let's say you have three cc, one with a 10K limit, one with a 5K limit and one with a 2K limit. And let's say that you only have 1K balance on the 2K card. You're only using about 5% of your credit limit. If you close the 10K card and the 5K card, you will have 50% debt - that will make your FICO score go down and your interest rate go up.

Check out Suze's website for more information.

Answer 8

CANCEL them all and cut them up. do not use credit cards. Do a monthly budget and save for the extra stuff you want.