Closed credit cards affect credit score?

[Anonymous]

This may sound dumb, but I use to gamble online a lot with poker and stuff, and would always close off a card number by calling each credit card company and saying I lost my card. I did this because I don't trust 100% all the online sites with unauthorized charges. This was before some credit card companies offer virtual numbers.

When I look at my credit report, I see that I have 20 accounts, but only 4 credit cards. They include past cards that are now closed because of "lost"

I know, this was stupid to report so many lost cards, but I didn't trust all the online poker sites.

So now, years later, I thought I would ask if this hurts my credit score some, or if it hurts lenders when they see I have 20 accounts, yet only 1-3 have a balance.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I just want to note that I didn't immediately close each card after one use, I would use a card for a couple months via different poker sites, pay it off, then close the card by saying I lost it.

Is there a way to get rid of all the closed accounts from my credit report?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Is there a way to get rid of all the closed accounts from my credit report?

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Unfortunately, no. Maybe you can ask the OC to remove, but they don't have to. Also, the lost account should only report for a finite time like 2 yrs. Someone stole my acct info off 2 CCs this past year and IIRC, they'll delete exactly two years later. Even if they don't delete, they'll continue to add a positive length of history.