Concern about credit score if credit card canceled question

[Anonymous]

Hello.  I am new to this forum so pardon me if this topic has already been talked about.

I'm wanting to cancel/close a credit card we have had since 2009.  We pay an annual fee of $59 for it and we no longer use it because we have another one in my name that we use.  We only use the one because we get travel miles.  The one we are wanting to close got travel miles too.  I might add that we pay this card off monthly and have never had a balance on any of our credit cards.  We also have pretty high credit limits. As far as I know, we have excellent credit.  We pay cash for everything, (except we put some things on the CC so we get the travel miles then pay monthly) so we won't be getting a loan in the near future.

Will closing this account drop my credit score? 

Also, is there anyway to get my credit score for free?

Thank you!

[marty56]

Welcome to the forum.  The only effect on your credit score in closing a account is to reduce your total available revolving credit which could raise your % util which could lower your score if your reported balances are high regardless if you PIF or not.  You can effect your reported balances by making payments before the statement drops to reduce your reported util so IMHO go ahead and close the account.  You should be good to go.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks Marty for that quick reply.

The balance on the account we want to close is only like $35 with a credit limit of $17,600.  The limit on the account we use is $25,000 with a balance of $1600 again paid off monthly.  So would this hurt or not?

Thanks!

[RobertEG]

Upon closing and paying the balance to $0, you would lose its $17,500 CL in the calculation of your overall % util.  Thus, if its individual % util is now lower than your overall $ util, then yes, it would raise your overall % util, and thus have some impact on your credit score.

How many other CCs do you have?  If only one remaining, it may push you into a thinner number of revolving accounts.  FICO likes to see multiple revolving lines of credit.

The economic benefit of eliminating the annual fee might be worth the short-term impact on your % util.  But just keep the % util on the remaining card low, and within a short time, you probably wont miss the CL on the closed card in your % util calculation.

[Anonymous]

Forgive me....but what is util??

[awal]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Forgive me....but what is util??

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Check out the Common Abbreviations Thread.