EXPERTS, please help me decide what to close.

[Kiwill]

I need to close some accounts, I just have waaay too many open accounts which at this point is really hurting my chances of eventually getting a Discover and/or AMEX and not to mention the stupid high apr's on most of them.  I am now in credit gardening mode but I have 13 revolving accounts reporting in all, my AAoA recent dropped to 4yrs due to my last derogs falling off and losing that history.  I'm going to list all my open revolving accounts and the dates they were opened, starting with the oldest:

1. JCPenny(AU) - 1980!

2. Capital One - 10/2007

3. Chase - 6/2008

4. Orchard - 2/2009

5. NY&CO. - 4/2009

6. Childrens Place - 4/2009

7. Macy's  - 4/2009

8. Pottery Barn - 4/2009

9. The Room Place - 4/2009

10. BBRZ - 5/2009

11. Restoration Hardware - 5/2009

12. Meijer(AU) - 9/2009

13. NFCU CC -  3/2010

14. NFCU NavChk - 11/2010 [not reporting yet)

As you can see, I lost my mind in 2009, lol!

Prior to applying for and receiving the NFCU NAVchk account, my credit history remains 30yrs/1mo and AAoA was 4yrs.  I recently applied for Discover and was denied for the following reasons:  

NUMBER OF OPEN REVOLVING ACCNTS WITH HIGH % OF BALANCE TO CREDIT LINE

% OF BALANCE TO CREDIT LIMIT TOO HIGH ON REVOLVING ACCOUNTS

TOO MANY INQUIRIES LAST 12 MONTHS

How many inquiries is too many for Discover?

Here is what Discover suggests I do to improve my credit score:

1. Minimize applications for other credit cards or loans

2. Reduce outstanding balances by paying more than the minimum payment

3. Make all credit payments on-time and avoid becoming over limit

4. Close any unused or unnecessary accounts

I was thinking of closing 3 of them:  BBRZ and Orchard because of the AF's and I don't need them, also Meijer since it was my last account opened prior to NFCU and I don't use it, just paying off the balance.  I'm really not trying to accomplish anything other than eliminating some cc's with the lease impact on my score as possible.  I managed to get $2,200 in CLI's to make up for the impact plus I will be using my NFCU NAVchek account to pay off the balances of most of my credit cards to save on interest.  There will be several thousand dollars available from this account as well to keep my debt to credit ratio down.  So experts, what do you think will create the smallest negative impact on my score?

[MarineVietVet]

I'll let others give specifics but I will say that simply closing a card will not have any immediate impact on your score as long as it has a zero balance. If it's in good standing it will continue to report for up to 10 years after closing which helps your AAoA and credit length history.

Here is an excellent thread about Closing Credit Cards.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Kiwill]

After all this time, i'm just now fully reading your profile name "Marine Vietnam Vet", right? 

Anyway thanks for the information, I thought I read somewhere that if you close an account even in good standing, that the credit limit is eliminated from your revolving available credit which "could" tank your credit score?  I just want to be sure i'm doing the right thing because in the past, i'd make a move and then read here it was a bad move and by that time, the damage is already done. 

[Travis-84]

You are correct, the credit is eliminated, and your utilitazion goes up (unless its already at 0).

Lets say you have 3 cards, all with a 1,000 credit limit (3k total)

You owe 500.00 on one card.  Your utilitazion is 500/3000 or 16%

You close one card, your utilitazion is now 500/2000 or 25%.

Marinevietvet was right though, the fact that you had the card (and the impact on AAoA) will remain for 10 years.

What is your utilitazion now?  You should work on getting that down as low as possible (and extra credit cards will help that, and if you have too many inquries, you just have to wait for those to fall off.

[JM-AM]

+1

[Kiwill]

Thanks!  My current utilization on EQ is 51% and TU is 53%, it should go lower once my CLI's and new line of credit reports.  I'm consolidating my debt to my NFCU NAVcheck lower APR in order to pay down my cc's faster by paying less interest. 

[MarineVietVet]

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@Kiwill wrote:

After all this time, i'm just now fully reading your profile name "Marine Vietnam Vet", right? 

Anyway thanks for the information, I thought I read somewhere that if you close an account even in good standing, that the credit limit is eliminated from your revolving available credit which "could" tank your credit score?  I just want to be sure i'm doing the right thing because in the past, i'd make a move and then read here it was a bad move and by that time, the damage is already done. 

---

Yes that's correct. I proudly served in Vietnam.

Ok back to your post. Yes you will lose the CL on any accounts you close but just losing the CL is not what could lower your scores. What happens is that if you have balances on other cards when you close accounts the utilization will naturally go up and that could possibly hurt your score.

If all accounts have zero balances then you will not be affected by a loss of CL.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Kiwill]

Because I will be transferring the balances on 8 of those accounts 2 of which already have a zero balance, only 4 accounts will report a balance, two of which areNFCU accounts.