How closing a credit card account (7 month of use only) can influence in my credit score?
Credit Card
slam3345 asked:
I opened a credit card account 7 months ago and I realized that I don’t need it any more. I am a college student and right now i have 3 credit cards. I do spend money moderately and I do pay my cards off on time. Since I I just started my credit history is ok to cancel my second or third card or should I just keep them open. I realized that I dont need three credit cards. How would it affect my credit score?
Patrick
I opened a credit card account 7 months ago and I realized that I don’t need it any more. I am a college student and right now i have 3 credit cards. I do spend money moderately and I do pay my cards off on time. Since I I just started my credit history is ok to cancel my second or third card or should I just keep them open. I realized that I dont need three credit cards. How would it affect my credit score?
Patrick
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 am
Alan
it will decrease it.. keep it and only use say once every six months
July 25th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Diana
If you cancel, it will not affect your credit score. In fact, the more cards you have can hurt you. So getting rid of a card or two will not hurt you.
July 28th, 2009 at 3:40 am
Patricia
it will decrease your credit score. credit cards only increase your credit score after they are active for something like 3 years. talk to your bank — they should be able to verify it.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Brad
It will not harm your score…in fact it will help it. Just make sure that you tell the credit card company that you want it noted that you, not they wanted to cancel it.
August 1st, 2009 at 3:21 am
Anne
It can drop your credit score, my hubby canceled his and he got hit hard. Call the company and ask them about the repercussions of canceling.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 am
Susan
Don’t worry about the Credit Score hype. Banks have spent years and millions of dollars brainwashing you that you’re not a good person unless you owe them money at high interest rates. They say that improving you credit score could save you money. How much did you spend on interest by buying on credit in order to build up your credit score? They want you to borrow money at high interest rates, forget the disguise.
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Luis
Don’t close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score.
If it doesn t have annual fee just don’t use it.
August 5th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Harry
Don’t close it.. It sounds like you have the discipline to handle your credit if you were thinking of getting rid of one. Use that card once a month (movies, loaf of bread whatever) and when the bill comes, in pay it. Don’t carry a balance. Even if you don’t need it, let it work for you for the long run. The positive history you create (with no effort) will obviously lead to higher limits ,and most important, creditworthiness. You never know when that card may come in handy. If there is an annual fee, you can probably negotiate that down to nothing at all by explaining that you don’t need the card. If you are a good credit risk, that bank doesn’t want you to turn your card in. If you still close it, MAKE SURE IT SHOWS ON YOUR REPORT THAT YOU VOLUNTARILY CLOSED IT or make the notation with the bureaus yourself. This is the only time that closing the account will hurt you because the bank is not going to go through the trouble of noitifying the ‘Credit Bureau as to why the account was closed.