Should I cancel my cards?

[Anonymous]

I first joined this forum many years ago when I had terrible credit and wanted to improve it. I did, I got a lot of credit cards, I got a mortgage, I got good credit. My credit score is now 779 and I have no credit card debt yet I still have all these cards with hundreds of dollars in annual fees a year. I want to cancel these cards because I don’t want to pay annual fees for cards I don’t use, but I’m worried it’ll tank my credit if I cancel them.

Has anyone had any experience with this? And if I call the banks and have them cancel my cards, will they waive the fee or offer me a card without a fee? I’m just not sure what I should do. Next year my husband and I will probably be looking to buy a new house so I don’t want to tank my credit before we do this and then I can’t bring it up quickly.

[Anonymous]

Do you have any no-annual fee cards, and how long have you had them?

If you close old cards you may see a modest temporary decrease in your credit score, but as long as you're not seeking a loan at the time that's not a problem. If you're 750 or 760 for a few months instead of 779 that doesn't matter. 

[Anonymous]

I asked this in the credit card forums but it might be better for this one. I got a lot of rewards and travel cards as I was building my credit. Now I have a lot of credit cards and 0% utilization Nd good credit (779). The only card we even use is our Amex Platinum which we pay off every month. I’m happy to keep that card but I’m sick of paying annual feels for all of my other cards that I don’t even use anymore and haven’t in years. If I were to cancel all but 2 or 3 cards would it rank my credit score? Closing cards and then losing all of that open available credit? We want to buy another house next year so I don’t want to do anything that will hurt my credit before then.

[Anonymous]

I think the only no annual fee card I have is my Discover so I’d keep that. My AMEX is my oldest card because I used the trick this board told me and got my card back dated to my first card in college which was 20 years ago. I’ll keep my AMEX Platinum because it’s the one card we actually use and pay off every month. All the rest of the cards I’ve had for 5 years.

[Andypanda]

If you are not planning to apply for a mortgage or auto loan in the next year or 2, apply for a non af card or 2. The temporary drop in score is worth the savings of the af. My view is fico scores are just a tool to be used.

[Anonymous]

Hi, welcome to MyFico.

Closing revolving lines will decrease your average account age which does affect your FICO score. Your Amex Plat is considered a "charge card" which reports differently than a revolving line. FICO scoring models prefer for you to have at least 3 revolving credit lines open, with some type of active installment loan. 

Go through your cards and see which ones do not have an annual fee or other fees, current apr's and then look at the reward structure for each. Based on that, you should be able to tell which card needs to be eliminated, if any.

[Jnbmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi, welcome to MyFico.

Closing revolving lines will decrease your average account age which does affect your FICO score. Your Amex Plat is considered a "charge card" which reports differently than a revolving line. FICO scoring models prefer for you to have at least 3 revolving credit lines open, with some type of active installment loan. 

Go through your cards and see which ones do not have an annual fee or other fees, current apr's and then look at the reward structure for each. Based on that, you should be able to tell which card needs to be eliminated, if any.

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Closing your cards will not hurt your AAOA, your accounts will continue to report up to ten years. The only way your AAOA goes down is if you add cards, closing cards does not !!

If you list your cards and AFs we can get a better picture.

[Anonymous]

That’s the thing, we are potentially going to be looking for a new house next year. So I don’t really want any inquiries.

[AllZero]

If eligible, have you considered doing a product change to downgrade your annual fee CC to a no fee CC? Thus, keeping your available credit limits to help utilization % if you ever carry a balance.

[FireMedic1]

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@Jnbmom wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi, welcome to MyFico.

Closing revolving lines will decrease your average account age which does affect your FICO score. Your Amex Plat is considered a "charge card" which reports differently than a revolving line. FICO scoring models prefer for you to have at least 3 revolving credit lines open, with some type of active installment loan. 

Go through your cards and see which ones do not have an annual fee or other fees, current apr's and then look at the reward structure for each. Based on that, you should be able to tell which card needs to be eliminated, if any.

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Closing your cards will not hurt your AAOA, your accounts will continue to report up to ten years. The only way your AAOA goes down is if you add cards, closing cards does not !!

If you list your cards and AFs we can get a better picture.

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+1 Or if an old closed account of 14yrs falls off and get hit with a 10 pt loss like I did last month. Grrrrrrrr!  Least I got an extra 4yrs out of it.