Closed Amex Blue! Should I close more?

[haulingthescoreup]

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@crosbyk1 wrote:

Just feel like I have so many cards to look after. 

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IMO, that's a perfectly legitimate reason. (And one that people who think that they want a zillion cards might ponder. It can be a real PITA to stay on top of all these things after you've gone bat-wild in the apping/ hunting stage.)

Just be smart with what you close. Obviously, AF cards are in the bullseye, although you might want to think through things if they're extraordinarily old. They'll count in your history as long as they report (up to 10 years), but eventually they do come off, so you might want to project where your credit will be in 10 years. Also, closed accounts have been known to come off early, especially on Equifax.

I've closed a couple of cards that had low CL's with no hope of growth and/or bad CS.

If rewards are lame, or if the rewards are in areas where you rarely use a card, that might be worth evaluating.

Store cards don't do anything special for FICO scores, so unless you have a store card for a store where you actually shop and provides killer perks, they might not be missed. (If all you have is store cards, and you add a bank card, it will help, but it does not appear to work in reverse.)

Leave a variety of banks/ credit unions so that you don't find that you're down to a handful of cards controlled by one or two banks.

And again, the comments about thinking through the impact of closing older cards apply to all the above.

Otherwise, I think it's completely appropriate to get your credit portfolio into a size and shape that you're comfortable with.

Read fused's Closing Credit Cards for more thoughts.

[clocktick]

Agreed.  I just closed 2 cards and plan on closing 2 more within the next year.  I thought about the "repercussions" but really don't care nor want these cards, sock-drawered or not.  If you feel your list is too long then definitely cut some out of your CC life!  I would just keep yourself educated on what might possibly happen to your score in the long-run or reports in the short-run (if deleted before their "time").