Is there a such thing as too many cards?

[Anonymous]

When you cancel a credit card via the 1-800 # do you recieve anything in the mail or via email that the card has got canceled? Should I also submit the request in writting? I have never closed an account before. 

[RSX]

For Bordstrom I logged into their site. Selected Contact Us. Sent them an internal mail that I wanted to cancel. They closed it 2 days later.

Cap1 had an option on their website. Close account. Select reason why. Closed in 5 min

So likely no reason to call.

[Anonymous]

And if that’s still the way you want to do it, just ask them to send you a letter confirming the account has been closed.

[Anonymous]

Okay thank you for the help! 

[kdm31091]

There's an eternal debate on this subject. Some people say if no annual fee, no real harm in just leaving the account unused and open. You do still have to monitor it for fraud, but it doesn't harm anything to leave it open, unless you run into the occasional situations where lenders are concerned about your available credit (rare,  but does happen). FICO itself does not penalize for "too many" accounts and there is no threshold for "too many" in terms of your score or credit report, so it's largely preference and what you're comfortable with managing.

I'm more in the camp that if it truly is giving you no benefit, there is usually not much reason to keep it open, since it will still age on your credit file even if closed. Unless you're closing accounts to the point where your utilization will skyrocket or something, I don't see much benefit in keeping unwanted accounts. I personally have always just closed accounts when they no longer met my needs and never noticed any significant score change from doing so.

[dsotm76]

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@RSX wrote:

I am in the process of doing this myself.  I started with 16. And dropped 2 this week, and will be dropping my Amex Green in 2 months, before the AF in Jan

i suggest you drop

Amex Delta Skymiles. 1000

Amex Gold. 0

Cap1 Saks.  750

Torrid.  1250

Ulta.  1000

total is only 4000 lost which is a small % and shouldn’t affect your Util by much, if at all 

And the AF on Amex Gold will help you pay something else off

that would be a good start in my opinion.   

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Question, instead of closing the Delta, wouldn't it be ok to just lower it to the regular one with no AF?  That way the CL isn't lost.  Just wondering.

[Anonymous]

There’s nothing wrong with doing that. If the credit line is one that is desired to keep then go for it. If the idea is to get rid of cards that aren’t used, then just nuke it. $1k isn’t going to do much of anything to OPs UTI.

[iv]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

 FICO itself does not penalize for "too many" accounts and there is no threshold for "too many" in terms of your score or credit report, so it's largely preference and what you're comfortable with managing.

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FICO does penalize for "too many"...

It's a fairly minor effect, but I've had that pop up for TU4 in the last reason code slot... while at 18 total tradelines (cards, AU cards, auto loans, mortgages, and HELOCs).

[Anonymous]

The delta doesn’t have a AF. The Amex gold did of $250 but I did cancel that one already.

[kdm31091]

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@iv wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

 FICO itself does not penalize for "too many" accounts and there is no threshold for "too many" in terms of your score or credit report, so it's largely preference and what you're comfortable with managing.

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FICO does penalize for "too many"...

It's a fairly minor effect, but I've had that pop up for TU4 in the last reason code slot... while at 18 total tradelines (cards, AU cards, auto loans, mortgages, and HELOCs).

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Interesting. People never really mention this, so it's good to know. Apparently there is (however slight) a score ding for "too many" cards then.