Hi, this is my first post. I tried to find relevant information first but wasn't able to really answer my questions.
I have been in the US for the past 10 years I have acquired a total of about 12 revolving credit accounts two active mortgages (plus one paid off) and my score is currently 733 (It had been 768 a few months ago but I stupidly opened a BOA credit card, don't know what I was thinking there!)
After closing my BOA account I started to look around to see how I could restore my score but I also just wanted to clean up my credit report so that I could more easily spot errors.
I am aware that closing accounts can effect your score due to the change to total credit utilization and the loss of history but what would happen to my score if I closed a couple of accounts that only have about a 1 or 2% effect on my total credit utilization but with history going back about 8 years? In addition I have a couple that show no credit limit information at all, would cancelling these have any effect? Keep in mind I still have much larger accounts that go back 8 or 9 years.
The BOA account had a 11.5k limit but closing it didn't change my score (it only had 8 months history) so I guess it only causes a problem when opening it.
On a different topic what effect on my credit score (excluding the possibility of the person running up the bill) does adding an authorized user have?
The harm of a new account being added to your report won't be reversed by cancelling it immidiately afterwards. It still remains on your report (just not doing good in terms of utilization and more good payment history).
Rich - Do not close any accounts that are not costing you money (ie annual fees, ect.). The longer the account history the better. Just pay it off and let it age.
