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I'm a graduate student who shouldn't have listened to her mother when she was younger. She convinced me to open all these store credit cards and now I have way too many. I want to know if I should close these accounts, and how much it'll affect my score. I feel uncomfortable with so many floating around, especially since I don't use them. I have zero credit card debt and have never paid any bills late.
I have 5 active credit cards. 4 are store cards that I haven't used since the first time I got them. One credit card I use and will keep. I have 2 inactive credit cards, also from stores. My oldest account is from 2003, and it's a store credit card that's still active. My credit card that I actually use is from 2005, so it would become my oldest account if I were to inactivate the other one. What should I do? I've never looked at my credit report before today, so this is all new to me. Any input would be helpful.
Thanks!
I would keep at least 3 cards open and make sure to keep them active by using them at least 1 every 3 months.
The 2 that are currently inactive is probably safe to close those and you probably won't really loose points because you have no debt and does not sound like you will loose to much age.
Just to clarify- the 2 "inactive" credit cards that I alluded to earlier are actually closed accounts. I didn't realize there was a distinction. I closed those myself a year ago.
Also, with regards to the link mentioned below, I have no balance on any of my credit cards so even if I close a couple cards and my total limit goes down, my UTIL percentage (if I'm understanding this correctly) will stay at 0%
I guess on this board the use of the statement "5 active accounts" in combination with "way too many" will cause some scratching of heads . OK, I know this is a subjective matter .
Personally, I find the number "5" for credit accounts ideal, if you don't have anything else (mortgage, car loan). This gives you the opportunity to use 2 of them and still report less than 5 tradelines as used. If you have a car loan, you can still use one card with the same result.
I wouldn't close anything that doesn't cost any fees in your situation.