What Credit cards should I close to maximize my score?

Question

I just paid off all of my credit cards and now I'm left with the following cards all with zero balances (I know it's a lot, sorry):

Card Date Opened Credit limit

Capital One 2007 2000

Badcock (furniture) 2007 2000

Visa 2006 2500

Visa X4 Cards 2005 1500 (each)

Lowes 2005 700

Shell 2005 350

Brandsmart (electron.) 2005 3500

Amex 2005 2000

Home Depot 2005 2000

Sears 2002 500

Master Card 2002 1800

Target 2001 200

Master Card x3 2003 500 (each)

Mobil 2004 1350

Answer 1

Closing your credit cards would not benefit your FICO score. Just shred them up.

Answer 2

NONE....only ones you should closed are the "secured" credit kind, otherwise....leave them all and keep them at ZERO balance.  Will look great on your credit.  Looks like you are allowed credit but don't use it.  It builds trust.

After paying all of those you probably just got a big boost on your credit score.

Answer 3

keep the older ones

the longer you keep credit running, the better.

closing newer ones will not hurt

Answer 4

I am going to disagree with just about everyone and say keep them all open except the 3 Master cards opened in 2003 and the 4 Visa's opened in 2005 only because it will be so hard to keep track of that many of the same type cards.

Since a full 30% of your score is based on your debt to credit ratio you are now in great shape.

Simply use all of the rest of them at least twice a year for every day thing that you would normally pay cash for and pay them off in full before the due date.

Remember it's not how many cards you have that counts, it's how you manage the ones you have.

Answer 5

i heard that closing a credit card lowers your score. i would just pay them off and keep them active.

Answer 6

All of them that you don't use.

What I hadn't appreciated is that when assessing your status, a prospective lender will look at your available credit on cards that you don't use.

You have a total of approx $26,000 available credit, any prospective new potential lender may view that at as risk in case you start to use that credit and end up in a position where you can't possibly pay it off. I made the mistake of applying for a new 0% interest credit card whilst I had six existing cards with no debt, I was refused as the potential credit that I could have taken advantage of was very significant, and the lender did not want to add to that stockpileof 'potential' debt.

I got a credit report which showed me all these accounts that I had forgotten about, I closed off four of the redundant accounts and got a card from another bank straight away...

Keep the one or two with the lowest interest and make sure you write to ALL the others terminating your account.

Answer 7

Close ALL of them.

This is an identity theft disaster waiting to happen.

Answer 8

Close every one of them, and use a debit card for all of your purchases.  Having all of this potential credit lying around is just asking for trouble.  Get in the habit of paying cash/debit card for everything.

Answer 9

The smart thing to do is to cut up all your cards but two.  Actually one is ample.  Make a deal with whichever one you keep by calling and speaking to them.  If you have a good credit rating you should be able to get a GREAT interest rate.  For instance I have a 0 % with three card co's for a year then after that they guarantee me nothing over 2.9.  You may be able to do the same.  As you know you only need one credit card and the best thing to do is pay it off tottally each month.

Answer 10

Keep the two oldest major credit cards that do not have annual fees.  You might keep one of the newer accounts if it has better interest, higher limit, or rewards.  Only keep store and gas charge cards if you have some special purpose and actually use them.

Close the rest via mail and request written confirmation that the account is closed and 0 balance.

Lots of people are going to tell you to keep all those accounts open.  But having a stack of credit cards in your sock drawer is a really bad idea.  You have to secure and monitor all those accounts against fraud and ID theft.

Closing all those extra accounts will initially lower your score.  However, as long as you don't carry balances, your score will quickly rebound.