Is there a safe way to reduce amount of CC's I own?

[Anonymous]

Would it be a bad idea or me to close my Indigo card and for my husband to close is Mission Lane card? We tend to forget about them and it would be easier to just have our Cap 1 and Military star cards to keep up with. Also should we carry a small balance on cc's? Does using them heavily and paying them off monthly make us in favor for CLI's? Basically, how do we use what we have to work in our benefits? 

Me:

Cap One - $750 - $0 Balance - opened 4/2019

Indigo - $300 - $0 balance - opened 8/2019

Military Star Card - $5100 - $0 balance - opened 7/2019

Husband 

Cap One - $300 - $0 balance opened 10/2020

Military Star Card - $5,100 - $0 balance - opened 07/2019

Mission Lane - $300 - $0 balance - opened 6/2019

Thanks!

[coldfusion]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Would it be a bad idea or me to close my Indigo card and for my husband to close is Mission Lane card? We tend to forget about them and it would be easier to just have our Cap 1 and Military star cards to keep up with. Also should we carry a small balance on cc's? Does using them heavily and paying them off monthly make us in favor for CLI's? Basically, how do we use what we have to work in our benefits? 

Me:

Cap One - $750 - $0 Balance - opened 4/2019

Indigo - $300 - $0 balance - opened 8/2019

Military Star Card - $5100 - $0 balance - opened 7/2019

Husband 

Cap One - $300 - $0 balance opened 10/2020

Military Star Card - $5,100 - $0 balance - opened 07/2019

Mission Lane - $300 - $0 balance - opened 6/2019

Thanks!

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Letting a balance report and then PIF yes because it demonstrates publicly that you use the card. 

Regularly carrying a balance as a strategy and not as a matter of necessity no, because you're paying for the privilege of demonstrating publicly that you use the card. 

Capitol One does factor in usage heavily when evaluating CLI requests. 

IMO it wouldn't be a terrible idea to close those 2 cards.

[FormerCollegeDJ]

RE: Closing credit cards

My general opinion is that if the card is paid off, it doesn't have an annual fee, it isn't a very old account (or by far your oldest account) and you don't want to/plan to use it, let the credit card issuer make the decision to close it for you; there's no need to contact them.  Unless you have a thin and/or new profile, having the bank close your card due to non-use doesn't create that much impact.

I've had many credit cards since late 1994 and probably have had banks (or in the case of store cards, retailers) close cards on me due to non-use probably a total of 6-10 times.  (Interestingly, the one card issuer that never closed my card due to non-use was American Express; I used my Amex Hilton Honors card very sparingly for many years until probably about early 2018.  American Express never closed the card during all those years of non-use or limited use.)  Those closures have never impacted my ability to be approved for other cards I wanted at a particular time or permanently damaged my credit score (currently in the low 800s).  I've even been able to apply for the same or a very similar card a few years later and get approved for it.  (Before I started paying attention to rewards, I had a Chase Freedom that was issued to me when the Amtrak Guest Rewards program shifted from Chase to Bank of America in 2015.  I never used the card, and it was closed IIRC a little more than a year later.  Fast forward four years and I applied and was approved for both the Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Freedom Flex in 2020.)