TU still has my AU card on it, and it's still counting its history (which is why I went on it.)
BTW, I noticed on the BofA website that if you are AU, you "might" be held responsible for the charges that you make. (Usually an AU card has a slightly different number from that of the main card.) You might want to check this out on whichever card you AU on.
There is generally no score benefit in closing cards. You might close cards because they have fees, or you have so many that you're in danger of forgetting payments or something, but generally you do better to toss most of them in the sock drawer and rotate through periodically.
When it comes to mortgage apps, it is true that some lenders get nervous if you have a lot of revolving credit floating around out there, and they might ask you to close some. If this ever happens to you, I would call my CCC's, explain the situation, and ask if you can close the cards during the mortgage app process and re-open them afterwards. If they say yes, you would want to ask:
--will you do a hard inq to re-open?
--how long can the card stay closed? (sometimes mortgage apps drag on)
--will you re-open it with the original history intact? (this is important to your scores!)
--would there be any other positive or negative impact on my account status?
I have seen posts saying that this was done. I would just want to be really, really sure that something wouldn't blow up. Maybe just close the newer cards, so that if magically the CCC won't re-open them after all, at least you don't lose your history.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007