Should I close my Target card and/or my Men's Wearhouse card?

Question

I think it might boost my score because these two cards only have a limit of $200 and $700 respectively. Both paid off in full, but I have two other credit cards that have 25K limits so I dont need these stupid cards. Should I close them? I think the avail balance on them is too low. I've had them both for less than a year. My goal is to boost my credit score. Thanks for your input

That's silly. Why would i need to have a Target card to buy birthday cards and other stuff when I have two perfectly good credit cards with $25k limits each?

No my target and Mens wearhouse card are less than a year old. My Mastercard and AMEX are almost 2 years old. If target upgraded me to a 10k visa I might keep it.

Answer 1

close them. your goal is to have the least amout of cards with the biggest amount of available credit. 2 cards for a total of 50K looks better than 4 cards for a total of 51K

Answer 2

Only close them if there is an annual fee.. If not then I'd just keep them open and paid off. Store it with the rest of your Credit Cards you don't use in a shoebox in your closet or cut them up so you're not tempted to use them. Like the first Answerer said, If you close them your credit score will drop. No harm in leaving them open.

I just keep one credit card with me that earns points and and try to pay it off every month so I don't incur any finance charghes. It's also linked to my Upromise account to earn money to pay of my student loans. That's something you might want to look into by the way. Nothing better than a free lunch.

Answer 3

If the store cards are older than your high limit credit cards, I wouldn't recommend closing them. You would be losing history on your credit, which will hurt your scores.
Just put them in your safe and let them sit.

Plus, you never know with Target, they may eventually automatically upgrade the guest card to the Visa, they have been upgrading the cards for many people lately.

Answer 4

I believe when they look at your credit to determine credit score, they look at available credit to debt ratio. So if you owe a lot on the other cards and aren't going to pay off a good chunk for awhile, then it might pay to keep them, if you are going to require a credit score check. (Say, if you are applying for a mortgage, a car loan, etc. and want to get a lower interest rate).

When my husband first moved here from Europe, he had to build credit from nothing, and our financial advisors told him to get credit cards and keep them for a few years, leave a small balance on them (sounds counter-intuitive, I know), but always pay on time. They argued against closing credit cards, unless you had a problem with either using credit or with the vendor/issuer somehow, but I think it depends on how much your income is, too. In our case, the income level is pretty high, so it's hard to get "too much credit" in credit card terms (scary).

So, look at how much you earn, versus how much credit you have, and how much credit you carry. If you don't carry any debt or very little, and have no intention of using either card, consider closing them both. Otherwise, it may be an idea to hold onto them for awhile, just to build credit. Just don't apply for more credit cards unless your income level can stand it.

Answer 5

You should close one of them at least. Your score will probably drop temporarily because you credit limit decreases but in the long run it is a good idea to not have too much revolving credit.

Answer 6

I say close the Men's Wearhouse card. You can get more of a variety of things with the Target card, whether it's gifts, clothing, food, homegoods, etc...

Answer 7

close the men's warehouse... you can use target for birthdays, Christmas, if your short on cash and need to...