topic Re: Which credit cards to close? in Credit Cards

Which credit cards to close?

jrubedjmp311 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:43:42 GMT

I started my journey in 2017 with a 524 score. Im now at 816. However I have a ton of credit cards and want to know which to close.

Please help me decide. I used chatGPT but I dont know if I trust the answer.

Here is my lineup with balance, age and limit.

1. Capital One - 8 years 6 months - $0 balance - $2,900 limit.

2. Capital One - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.

3. Target Mastercard - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $5,500 limit.

4. Discover - 7 years - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.

5. PayPal Mastercard - 6 years 6 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

6. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $6,000 limit.

7. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $9,000 limit.

8. Care Credit - 3 years 5 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

9. Discover - 3 years 5 months- $0 balance - $7,500 limit.

10. AMEX - 3 years 1 month - $0 balance - $50,000 limit.

11. Chase - 1 year 1 month - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

ElvisCaprice — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:51:14 GMT

Close the ones you don't use, don't see any future use for and don't have a better PC option for. Balance, age(under 10 years) and limit are not factors.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

jrubedjmp311 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:52:35 GMT

I really want to drop the capital ones but they are the oldest.

I am an AU on a 25 year old citi card my wife has so that's been my anchor

Re: Which credit cards to close?

Dcowboy08 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 13:18:59 GMT

If they have an AF and you don't use, I would close them. If not, the only reason to close are ones that you never use and don't need to use in the future.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

BrutalBodyShots — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 15:41:22 GMT

@jrubedjmp311 wrote:
I really want to drop the capital ones but they are the oldest.

I am an AU on a 25 year old citi card my wife has so that's been my anchor

Hey there @jrubedjmp311! This is a pretty common question regarding the closure of cards. The reply above from @ElvisCaprice was a good one. Go ahead an close any cards that you don't use, don't see value in and simply don't want to have to think about again. The strongest credit profiles are built upon 3+ bank cards. You could literally close 2/3 of your cards and still satisfy that metric, so it's not about number.

Your "oldest" doesn't matter. It's a huge credit myth that you lose credit history and/or your aging metrics change when you close accounts. They don't. It doesn't matter if a card you close is 30 days old or 30 years old. When that account reports closed on your credit reports, absolutely nothing changes with respect to your age of accounts.

Also, the AU account is doing absolutely nothing for your credit profile at this time. Could it be grabbing you a couple more FICO points than if it wasn't there? Sure... but AU accounts are not your accounts. They are credit history that you are borrowing from someone else. Anyone looking at your credit reports knows that / lenders will even disregard them. The main benefit of an AU account is to brand new credit profiles where someone is looking to get their foot in the door with a new issuer and grab their first card. Beyond that, the ship sails very early on wit the main benefit of an AU account. For you with a sufficiently thick/aged file, I see zero reason to keep the AU account around in terms of your credit profile.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 01:41:29 GMT

@jrubedjmp311 wrote:
I started my journey in 2017 with a 524 score. Im now at 816. However I have a ton of credit cards and want to know which to close.

Here is my lineup with balance, age and limit.

1. Capital One - 8 years 6 months - $2,900 limit.

2. Capital One - 7 years 7 months - $12,500 limit.

3. Target Mastercard - 7 years 7 months - $5,500 limit.

4. Discover - 7 years - $12,500 limit.

5. PayPal Mastercard - 6 years 6 months - $20,000 limit.

6. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $6,000 limit.

7. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $9,000 limit.

8. Care Credit - 3 years 5 months - $20,000 limit.

9. Discover - 3 years 5 monthsn- $7,500 limit.

10. AMEX - 3 years 1 month - $50,000 limit.

11. Chase - 1 year 1 month - $20,000 limit.

Diversity of issuers is good. I'd start by shedding 1 card where you have 2 each with the issuer. Perhaps close 1, 6 and 9. Try to transfer & consolidate credit limits before closing the 2nd card. Generous card and aggregate CLs are nice to have.

Given your line-up of 4 cards in the 6-8 year range, close cards which are an annoyance to maintain due to lack of use. However, I would keep 2 of those cards. Credit age is important as are maintaining some older cards.

That being said, the difference between oldest at 7 vs 8 years is not significant.

For those who PIF, apr is not a consideration. If you feel a credit reserve is needed for potential hard times, having a low apr card is a consideration.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

FicoMike0 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:09:51 GMT

I mostly agree with @ElvisCaprice , except anything that's important to you is a factor. As far as age, closed accounts usually don't age out for 10 years. If you get no value from cap1, close, or sock drawer them. Modebly close any fee cards with no value.

You don't say what your goal is. Fewer cards? Fewer banks?

Re: Which credit cards to close?

Patient957 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:13:39 GMT

@jrubedjmp311

You didn't mention what your motivation is for wanting to close cards. People close cards for different reasons. Your personal reasons will guide the decision. Without that we're kind of shooting in the dark.

So why do you want to close cards?

Also you didn't mention annual fees. What are the annual fees on those cards?

You said you're wanting to close the Capital One cards, but you didn't state if there are any you are certain you want to keep or if they're all on the chopping block. Are there any keepers?

If you answer these questions, you'll get much better advice. I have a feeling it's going to end with just closing the Capital One cards, but it's hard to say for sure without more info.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

GZG — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 20:26:48 GMT

@jrubedjmp311 wrote:
I started my journey in 2017 with a 524 score. Im now at 816. However I have a ton of credit cards and want to know which to close.
1. Capital One - 8 years 6 months - $0 balance - $2,900 limit.
2. Capital One - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.
3. Target Mastercard - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $5,500 limit.
4. Discover - 7 years - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.
5. PayPal Mastercard - 6 years 6 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.
6. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $6,000 limit.
7. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $9,000 limit.
8. Care Credit - 3 years 5 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.
9. Discover - 3 years 5 months- $0 balance - $7,500 limit.
10. AMEX - 3 years 1 month - $0 balance - $50,000 limit.
11. Chase - 1 year 1 month - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

don't think I would close any of these tbh, if there's cards with annual fees or cards you know you'll never use, you can consider closing them, but you don't need to close any of these.

the biggest thing I would take stock of is your high amount of credit with Synchrony, if you want future synchrony products and don't intend to use your current Synch products, I might close one of those.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

Aim_High — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:16:10 GMT

@jrubedjmp311 wrote:
I started my journey in 2017 with a 524 score. Im now at 816. However I have a ton of credit cards and want to know which to close. Please help me decide. I used chatGPT but I dont know if I trust the answer.

Here is my lineup with balance, age and limit.
1. Capital One - 8 years 6 months - $0 balance - $2,900 limit.
2. Capital One - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.
3. Target Mastercard - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $5,500 limit.
4. Discover - 7 years - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.
5. PayPal Mastercard - 6 years 6 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.
6. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $6,000 limit.
7. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $9,000 limit.
8. Care Credit - 3 years 5 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.
9. Discover - 3 years 5 months- $0 balance - $7,500 limit.
10. AMEX - 3 years 1 month - $0 balance - $50,000 limit.
11. Chase - 1 year 1 month - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

Some good advice to start above to start with, @jrubedjmp311. But yes, we would need to know what the goal is with the closures among other things. Just to simplify, I assume? Are there AFs on any cards? One of the most important factors that you didn't mention is which cards some of these are (instead of just a lender name) and how useful the rewards (if any) are to your spending habits. I agree with @Thomas_Thumb that maintaining diversity of lenders during the process would be a consideration. Also, preserving credit limits by combining where possible would help maintain a high TCL for aggregate utilization calculations, even though you aren't currently carrying balances.

Are both the Discover cards the 5% rotating categories, and did you do that to double-dip on rewards? Care Credit is one I would probably close if I didn't see a need to use it in the coming year or so. If you shop frequently at Target, that one would probably be a keeper due to the high rewards. Again, more information would be helpful.

The final aspect would be your personal opinion about retaining lenders for other reasons. For example, do you already bank with Chase or Bank of America and would consolidating deposit and credit cards be easier to manage? Do you enjoy the great customer service from certain lenders like AMEX, Chase, or Discover? Are there perks on any of these cards that you value and that you would miss? Do you think you might benefit from balance transfer offers that come frequently from some lenders? (I get a lot from several of these lenders.)

Re: Which credit cards to close?

Aim_High — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 01:44:35 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Credit age is important as are maintaining some older cards. I disagree with BBS view on this. b
That being said, the difference between oldest at 7 vs 8 years is not significant.

I agree with @Thomas_Thumb that credit age is a consideration, although possibly overrated sometimes as @BrutalBodyShots pointed out. The three of us had a discussion recently at >this thread< if you want to read more about it. There were some excellent points made from both perspectives. IMO, keeping some older cards open is always good since it allows you to open cards in the future with less potential impact on AAoA. However, especially in a case like this where there's no more than two years age difference between your five oldest cards, it would have little impact.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

ElvisCaprice — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 02:05:33 GMT

Re: Which credit cards to close?

BrutalBodyShots — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 04:54:59 GMT

@Aim_High wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Credit age is important as are maintaining some older cards. I disagree with BBS view on this. b

I think TT's stance on this was that AoOA of 15+ years matters in terms of an 850 being reached. Since closed cards remain on your reports for ~10 years following closure, I could see his argument to not close a card that's younger than 5 years in age if it's your oldest account. So long as you have a card thats 5+ years old (that's still open) you could close anything else, even one that's (say) 30 years old and your AoOA still won't ever drop below 15 years.

All of that though is talking "850" which of course we all know isn't necessary or needed top score wise to get the best products at the best rates. If someone closes a 2-3 year old card that's their "oldest" account and in a decade their AoOA drops to 12-13 years, it's not going to kill a profile or anything. All that means is that the 850 pinnacle may not be attainable for another 2-3 years depending on profile, but no doubt the top notch 820-835 scores (or whatever) are still going to be sufficiently strong and for all intents and purposes "equal" to what an 850 would do for someone.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

ptatohed — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 04:43:55 GMT

I see no need to ever close a no-AF card. I think I've closed one once because of a tiff I had with the CSR over the phone. I've had many get closed on their own for non-use. Which is fine.

The OPs list of cards was very vague in only listing the issuer. Which cards are these? Are there any AFs? Which do you use and which do you not use?

No need to close a no-AF. If you are worried about fraud, just freeze it.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

BrutalBodyShots — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:00:31 GMT

I used to think that way, @ptatohed, but my stance has changed over the years. It's not just fraud. It could be something silly like a fee being added, an old recurring charge going through, who knows what else. There's always a non-zero risk associated with keeping a card open that one doesn't need/want any longer. To drop that risk to zero, closing the card is the answer. A lot of people look at it like a glass half full glass half empty argument. People will say "well it doesn't hurt to keep them open!" One can easily state the converse though, that it "doesn't help to keep them open" either. For me though, it comes down to that risk that's simply unnecessary.

The amount of posts I've seen on the Credit and CreditCards subs over at Reddit from people keeping cards open and ending up regretting it is substantial. You wouldn't think it would become problematic very often, but I've definitely reconsidered that outlook based on the amount of data points witnessed. IMO, it's simply not worth it.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

TrapLine — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 10:14:35 GMT

As has been written in this thread there are different perspectives on closing credit cards and lines of credit.

Since I spent five years relishing my Fico 08 850 score and remained very focused on it ... there was no actual needed benefit. Just did it to do it.

How I lost my grand status of the Fico 850 was by closing older cards. While I have never revisited the Fico 850 (presently Fico 08 837), I had the peace of mind that the cards were not cluttering my life and the safety with security of knowing they were gone worked for me. Today, I still cull the herd and live with the Fico Score hits (if any) and let it go.

Other posters have mentioned the high Fico Scores are not required for good products and speaking for myself, found it did not always open the doors I desired. Interesting!

Re: Which credit cards to close?

BrutalBodyShots — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:29:46 GMT

@TrapLine wrote:

How I lost my grand status of the Fico 850 was by closing older cards.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? If you closed older cards, the impact to your scores (related to aging metrics) would have taken place a decade later. Did you lose the 850 a decade later? If that's what you're saying, can you describe your aging metrics / number of cards on your credit file both pre/post 850?

Re: Which credit cards to close?

AndrewF — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:14:20 GMT

@jrubedjmp311 wrote:
I started my journey in 2017 with a 524 score. Im now at 816. However I have a ton of credit cards and want to know which to close.

Please help me decide. I used chatGPT but I dont know if I trust the answer.

Here is my lineup with balance, age and limit.

1. Capital One - 8 years 6 months - $0 balance - $2,900 limit.

2. Capital One - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.

3. Target Mastercard - 7 years 7 months - $0 balance - $5,500 limit.

4. Discover - 7 years - $0 balance - $12,500 limit.

5. PayPal Mastercard - 6 years 6 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

6. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $6,000 limit.

7. Bank of America - 4 years 3 months - $0 balance - $9,000 limit.

8. Care Credit - 3 years 5 months - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

9. Discover - 3 years 5 months- $0 balance - $7,500 limit.

10. AMEX - 3 years 1 month - $0 balance - $50,000 limit.

11. Chase - 1 year 1 month - $0 balance - $20,000 limit.

The Capital One cards can do a combine and close. Move all but $500 of the CL of the less desirable card to the more desirable card and close the less desirable one.

See if BofA will let you do that too.

Then you just have 9 to go.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

AndrewF — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:20:49 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
I used to think that way, @ptatohed, but my stance has changed over the years. It's not just fraud. It could be something silly like a fee being added, an old recurring charge going through, who knows what else. There's always a non-zero risk associated with keeping a card open that one doesn't need/want any longer. To drop that risk to zero, closing the card is the answer. A lot of people look at it like a glass half full glass half empty argument. People will say "well it doesn't hurt to keep them open!" One can easily state the converse though, that it "doesn't help to keep them open" either. For me though, it comes down to that risk that's simply unnecessary.

The amount of posts I've seen on the Credit and CreditCards subs over at Reddit from people keeping cards open and ending up regretting it is substantial. You wouldn't think it would become problematic very often, but I've definitely reconsidered that outlook based on the amount of data points witnessed. IMO, it's simply not worth it.

My spouse's Wells Fargo credit card got a small fraud charge on it from "LinkedIn Gold" and I caught it because it said the bill was due on that card. I said "We're not using that one." and went to look. I found out later they do this to see which cards work, figuring that it will be lost on the cardholder in a sea of transactions, but then later they'll go in and clean you out buying crypto or something.

We ended up closing the card after Wells Fargo replaced the cards and deleted the LinkedIn Gold purchase.

Re: Which credit cards to close?

BrutalBodyShots — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:33:44 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:
We ended up closing the card after Wells Fargo replaced the cards and deleted the LinkedIn Gold purchase.

Smart.