Which looks worse on a credit report?

Question

Having open credit cards with no balance, or cancelling them before they expire?

Answer 1

cancelling your credit cards. Keeping them open means you still have a line of credit with them. Paying them off is even better, so if you don't have a balance it means you keep them paid off. Don't close them out. The longer you stay with a credit card company (that you are paying on the regular basis) the better!

Answer 2

It depends on what your future plans are. For instance, if you are going to apply for a mortgage and have a lot of credit cards with available balances on them, it can actually work against you (depending on your income). Although you may not owe anthing on them at the time of your mortgage application, the credit is still available to you. So in the mortgage lenders eyes, they could approve your loan then you could run up all your credit cards and not be able to make your payments. I've actually had a similar experience when purchasing a car.

There is no harm to your credit if you cancel credit cards. When you cancel an account it shows up on your credit report and reads "Account Closed at Request of Consumer". I can't think of any lender that would view this as a bad thing. You may not want to cancel them all at once, but I would consider which ones you want to keep and slowly close out the other accounts.

Delinquent payments lower your credit score, canceling cards will not.

Answer 3

DO NOT cancel your credit cards!!!!!! This will affect your score drastically. It’s best to have zero balance. I would charge about $10 or so to keep the card in use and increase score by having a good utilization rate. Since I only have 300 characters I can’t get deep into this.

Answer 4

Having open credit cards with no balance is definitely better looking on a credit report. Cancelling them will lower your credit score. Just find a place to put them away where you're not tempted to use them, and when they expire and send you an updated one, put them away also. Having it for unforeseen emergencies make better sense than tying up your credit.

Answer 5

Having an open credit card with no balance looks better.

Answer 6

I'm going to vote for cancelling credit cards looking worse. If you have open cards with no balance, that shows that you are/have been approved for credit and aren't charging them all up to the limit. If you close them, that just looks suspicious.

Answer 7

Cancelling multiple credit cards in a short period looks bad.

Having several zero balances does not look bad. that makes a low credit to balance ratio - which is good.

if you have 10,000 in open available credit, but are only using 1,000 of it, not a bad thing - use it all - a bad thing.

Opening multiple cards in a short period - bad

having LOTS of cards - bad

paying on time - good

Paying late - bad

Answer 8

Do not cancel your cards, use them for everyday things be careful never to exceed 30% of your credit limit and pay in full before the due date and your score will continue to go up.

Answer 9

Having a credit report in general is stupid. It's a measurement of debt. You're never going to win with a credit report. Try to imagine a student without a loan. A car without a payment. A house without a mortgage. All are possible! Just follow the baby steps.

Answer 10

Cancelling them