Consolidation vs. Closing

[CreditScholar]

Can anyone explain the FICO impacts of closing credit cards vs. consolidating the credit lines of 2 cards into one?

I'm starting to get too many cards for my liking, and it looks like my 2 BofA cards are the likely targets. One will need to go in the next year or two.

[Anonymous]

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@CreditScholar wrote:

Can anyone explain the FICO impacts of closing credit cards vs. consolidating the credit lines of 2 cards into one?

I'm starting to get too many cards for my liking, and it looks like my 2 BofA cards are the likely targets. One will need to go in the next year or two.

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If you just close a card you will lose that CL contribution to your total CL and as a result your % utilization may go up depending on spending, negatively affecting your score.

Some banks will allow you to move all or nearly all of your CL over to another card before closing an account. In that sense, you will maintain your total CL but will still end up with a closed card. I think BofA is actually one of the banks that does not allow consolidation.

Either way, the closed card itself will have no negative effect on your score and will report as a paid, closed account for 10 years from date of closing (still contributing to your average age of accounts).