closing a credit card?

Question

I have a few credit cards, 7 actually most of them i owe nothing on. they are the store ones, target, victoria secret, american eagle, old navy, kohls, jcpennys, and express. will it hurt my credit to close the ones i dont owe anything on or dont use?

Answer 1

It wont hurt, but it will affect your credit a little.
Don't forget the purpose of a credit report. It is to show a "history" of your ability to maintain a good standing.

The longer one keeps an account open (even if there is no activity) the better off you will be
Close only those that charge monthly or yearly fees.

The best thing is to use them on occasion and pay them off when you get the statement. Don't charge large amounts, just small charges.

I have one charge card that I have not used in over 7 years, but the credit limit keeps going up. But here I have a history of good standing for a long period of time.

But it's all up to you and your decision is yours to make
Good luck

Answer 2

Surprisingly, yes it will lower your Credit Score if you close the accounts.
Part of your credit score is determined by what % of credit debt you have to total avaible credit.
If you close an account with a credit line of $1000, then your total available credit amount decreases, and thereby increases you debt to credit availability %.
What you can do, is consolidate you available credit. To do that, start by applying for a major credit card, like Visa. Then close an account with the same available credit. Every time your credit line is extended on th major card, close another department store account. Eventually, ou will have one Visa card (usable in all the stores) with the same available credit as you have now.

Answer 3

There should be no problem with closing any credit card which carries zero balance. Certainly it should not effect your credit. The true advantage for using a store card is for easy settlement of returned merchandise. My experience has been " the fewer cards I have , the better control over expenses." Also if the card offers rewards you benefit from larger activity.

Answer 4

Very good question. The store ones end today! Visa is a major credit card and one that is worth holding for a day you may need it.

From what i understand cutting off the big credit cards does raise flags,however if you do not owe..it is nothing bad...BUT I would keep one. If you need to use it, pay it up the following month.

The stores ones.....say bye bye!

Answer 5

I regularly go through and close the ones I am not using. I usually go on my credit report (Transunion) and get the addresses of the ones I am not using and close them.

The credit reporters update monthly. If you are going to buy anything big in the near future, ask for a letter from the company stating that the account is paid in full and closed. That is good for indentity protection as well. No one could use that account if they had your information.

Every person gets a free copy of their credit report once a year. It is according to which state you live in. In West Virginia we get ours in September. This is not one of those hidden agenda things. You don't have to sign up for monthly or yearly fees. It is a one time thing. I found a bunch of old accounts that I thought had been closed and weren't. You can sign up over the net.

Answer 6

If you dont owe anything on it and you dont use it, DO NOT close the account because I think that it does hurt your credit. But if you just cut it up it will be the same thing and it wont hurt you at all.

p.s.
I burned my credit cards I didnt want for security reasons. (Better than throwing it in the trash)

Answer 7

Depends. If you have no outstanding balances and pay everything off, you don't need to have such cards open. Close them and show that you have some control on your credit. If you have some balances, your balances are equal to 25% of your available credit. Close the rest.

Answer 8

Nope. It may actually increase your credit rating.

The best thing you can do for your credit rating is be regularly paying off existing credit, paying out some interest. Paying off immediately doesn't help much because the creditor doesn't get to make any money off of it.

However, unless you are using credit cards that way, they would prefer you not have them simply because they represent more ways you can get yourself into trouble quickly.

Answer 9

nope. U just have all those credits ahnging out on your report anyway. For them to reflect on your score, you have to use a small percentage of them and repay 'em. If you are jot using them, I'd say close 'em all.

One revolving credit that u use and repay is far more beneficial than one million ones u don't use.

Answer 10

While it does increase your debt to available credit ratio (i.e. you have access to less credit after closing the cards, so your debt carries more weight), it will not make a significant difference.