Does your credit score get affected by how many accounts you have opened and closed?

Question

In the past three years, i have opebed six accounts. Out of those six, only two are still open. The last one that i closed was a store credit card which i closed with in two weeks of opening. Does having too many past accounts affect your credit score? I am also looking to open another credit card account.

Answer 1

Your credit score increases to a certain point with the number of credit card accounts you have open. In other words, if someone trusts you well enough to give you credit this is good.

However, if you have too many credit accounts then they look at the amount of credit you can maximize on all accounts. They add this amount to the total "debt" you owe. This is because you could max out each card and have this debt.

The accounts you have closed, if they were paid on time, will do nothing to lower your score. In theory they should raise your score, but I am not sure of this.

To raise your score you should have at least three cards. One store card, one gas company card, and one major credit card (Visa/Mastercard/Amer Express etc).  

Answer 2

yes it hurts your credit to close accounts more then it does to open them. Opening them can help but closing them always hurts it.

Answer 3

Do not open and close accounts. The number of past accounts does not matter just the status. Try and keep the old accounts with credit open and with no balance. Limit the opening of new accounts and inquiries since they knock your score down temporarily.

Answer 4

It gets affected by how much credit you have used, compared to the total amount of all available credit.

Answer 5

Yes it does. Opening too many accounts is not good for your score and closing old accounts can hurt your score also.

Answer 6

your credit score will be affected if you have too many inquiries.  do not close the account that you had the longest and oldest that is in good standing.  don't open too many credit cards.  your score get deducted each time you apply for credit