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I have been searching all over this site and cannot find information about how closing STORE ONLY (not a visa, not a mastercard etc) credit card impacts the FICO score.
For example I have a Sears card I can only use at sears I havent used in over 10 years I want to close. I have a Home Depot store only credit card I can only use at Home Depot again I havent used in over 10 years I am tired of carrying around but havent closed in fear of it impacting my FICO.
Will it or do credit cards, real credit cards only impact that? My accounts are in perfect standing I am just tired of having them out there.
@Anonymous wrote:I have been searching all over this site and cannot find information about how closing STORE ONLY (not a visa, not a mastercard etc) credit card impacts the FICO score.
For example I have a Sears card I can only use at sears I havent used in over 10 years I want to close. I have a Home Depot store only credit card I can only use at Home Depot again I havent used in over 10 years I am tired of carrying around but havent closed in fear of it impacting my FICO.
Will it or do credit cards, real credit cards only impact that? My accounts are in perfect standing I am just tired of having them out there.
There wouldn't be any difference either as a store card or a bank card.
Closing cards will never boost your FICO score.
Closing cards might hurt your FICO score if your revolving utilization increases as a result of losing the credit limit, or having more cards with balances.
If I were you I wouldn't do anything on your Sears and Home Depot cards.
Take a look at this sticky thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Closing-Credit-Cards/td-p/347190
From: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/closing-credit-card-dings-credit-score-3.aspx (Interview with Fico Product Manager)
Q: Here's another misconception for you: Does it impact your score any less to close a department-store card versus a bank credit card?
A: No. In terms of the credit card utilization, it does not impact. My only hesitation (is) in the long run there could be a difference, and that's going back to those five areas (which make up your credit score). The credit mix (is) like 10 percent -- and that looks at the proportion of different kinds of credit. The big categories would be credit cards and mortgages and auto loans. But then within credit cards, it breaks it down into whether you have bank cards or department-store cards. If you close off all your bank cards and they get deleted from your report in a few years, and all you're left with is department-store cards, that can hurt your score a little bit. Down the road that can hurt you, but that's a very minimally weighted part of the scoring. For most people, it's not going to matter a whole lot.
So only in that special case where it is your last store card. (He goes on to say that having only bank cards is a little better than having only store cards)
@Anonymous wrote:
For example I have a Sears card I can only use at sears I havent used in over 10 years I want to close. I have a Home Depot store only credit card I can only use at Home Depot again I havent used in over 10 years I am tired of carrying around but havent closed in fear of it impacting my FICO.
You don't have to carry the cards around. Just SD (sock drawer) them and let them sit in there. Anyway after 10 years of no activity they are probably closed! Have you verified this on your reports yet? If they aren't closed then there is no need to close them and keep them just for util and AAoA, because after 10 years a closed account may disappear.