Closing CC accounts and Credit Rating

diamondgrl1177 · **Closing CC accounts and Credit Rating**

I'm getting ready to refinance and do a debt consolidation HEL loan. Granted it's not the best way to go, but fo right now, it will help me. I'm consolidating my current HEL, credit cards, Student loans, for 400 a month for 30 years. But I also want to cut up, close and cancel all my cc except one and use that to build points or emergency use only. But does that hurt my credit rating. I've read on Suze Orman not to close the account, but some of the cards charge me a yearly fee if I don't use them. I wnat to establish excellent credit for myself, right now I'm at good. So not really sure what to do.

lovindj25 · 03-21-2007, 10:10 AM

in interested to hear what other people say too...ive heard the same thing, that if you close credit card accounts, your credit rating will be affected. good question.

flybygrace · 03-21-2007, 10:12 AM

We closed off all our CCs and got screwed over. We found out its really bad to close them all out. It's better to keep a couple open I guess. I wish we had kept our Mastercard open for emergencies, and so we could BUILD our credit. We were so desperate to pay off our ccs and get right with our credit, that we just wanted them closed. Now we can't get a cc with less than 29% interest, even if they do approve us. I think I'd close off the ones that charge you an annual fee. Or maybe you can negotiate with the company to waive the fees for a year or something. I spent a LONG time trying to figure out what was best for DH and I to do regarding our credit - cancel them all or keep them? Will it hurt our credit or help it? I think someone needs to write a Personal Credit for Dummies book.. I'd do it myself, but I get a headache just thinking about it. And besides, I wouldn't know where to go for the right information, since I couldn't find it before!

Jellylou · 03-21-2007, 10:16 AM

I think that it looks better if you keep some open.
It is better to have more available credit on a couple cards than if you only have one card maxed out.
Otherwise it will look like you max out all your cards I think. (not that yours is maxed out)
But if you have more available credit than what you have charged that is better.

You won't have any available credit on the cards you close.
That is my understanding.
I would also like to hear what others say.

flybygrace · 03-21-2007, 10:18 AM

see how confused everyone is?

at least i'm not alone!

Em's Mom · 03-21-2007, 10:25 AM

I too have heard to keep them open, I know Clark Howard says to. I always thought it looked bad to have a bunch of credit cards. I don't know about the ones that will charge you for not using them, that's kind of crazy!

aliadam · 03-21-2007, 10:41 AM

Well I would close the ones that charge you a yearly fee. I didn't even know many cards still did that. All of our cards have free yearly fees. But you could probably leave open any without a fee. JMO

Schmare528 · 03-21-2007, 10:55 AM

Try to call the ones with the yearly fees and see if they will waive the fee, if not I would close them. There's no point on keeping them open and paying a fee. Plus if you talk to them and they say they can't waive the fee, ask to tranfer to someone so you can close the account....they might change their tune after that. My husband and I did that for interest rates on some of our cards. Not one company wanted us to close the accounts, they all lowered the rates. We were so proud we could pull that off!

Cookie2 · 03-21-2007, 11:09 AM

I close cc's all the time. I simply write them a letter (a form letter) which asks them to close the account and send me back a letter confirming that they have done so.

On my credit report these accounts appear as "closed per consumer request". As far as I can tell, with that note on there, they don't count against me. We've never had any problems, that's for sure.

Personally, I would never leave a credit account open, especially if I wasn't planning on using it. An open credit line is too vulnerable to be used for identity fraud. Plus I've had problems where I've left credit accounts open too long and when I wanted to close them, the business changed hands, and there wasn't anyone to contact to ask that it be closed. The account just stays out there! They don't even drop off after seven years because they are still an open account.

My advice ... actively manage your credit. Close the accounts.

lovindj25 · 03-21-2007, 03:27 PM

i closed a few many years ago and they do say "closed per consumer request", but im not sure how that affected my credit, since it was done so long ago....i myself have quite a few cards, like jcpenney, marshalls, bergners, etc...store cards, which i would like to close when the balances are paid....so im not even sure still if that would be bad or good to do.....hmmmm