Closing Accounts

[Anonymous]

I have heard that closing accounts can incrase your credit score and also closing accounts can decrease your credit score. Does anyone know the correct answer. The accounts are excellient; however, I want a lower interest rate and thought I would close the higher interest rate accounts.

Thank you,

[Tuscani]

Do not close an account unless it is costing you money.

[Anonymous]

What about the premise that you have too many accounts? I believe FICO recommends having 4 credit card accounts.  I've seen some posts that state negative comments about having too many accounts.

[smallfry]

Don't close them. No AF keep them open. High APR then PIF every month. What would you do if the cards you decided to keep open do AA on you and you can't use them? Keep the cards for utilization if nothing else.

Message Edited by smallfry on 06-20-2007 05:45 AM

[Anonymous]

when you call to close them they will give a lower interest rate to keep it open.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What about the premise that you have too many accounts? I believe FICO recommends having 4 credit card accounts. I've seen some posts that state negative comments about having too many accounts.

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I think they were talking about too many accounts with "balances".

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

What about the premise that you have too many accounts? I believe FICO recommends having 4 credit card accounts. I've seen some posts that state negative comments about having too many accounts.

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I think they were talking about too many accounts with "balances".

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http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=5347

[Anonymous]

This topic is a few weeks old, but I'll give it a shot. I foolishly closed an account in January (Bank of America), and by doing that, my FICO score took an ugly plunger. Upon closing the account, the rep I was speaking to stated that I could reopen the account if I ever "felt the need". In terms of improving my FICO score, would it be worth it to reopen the account or should I just let it be? Thanks in advance!

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This topic is a few weeks old, but I'll give it a shot. I foolishly closed an account in January (Bank of America), and by doing that, my FICO score took an ugly plunger. Upon closing the account, the rep I was speaking to stated that I could reopen the account if I ever "felt the need". In terms of improving my FICO score, would it be worth it to reopen the account or should I just let it be? Thanks in advance!

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Hi, horsecore, welcome to the forums!

It's actually a year and a few weeks old, but it's a subject that never dies. fused has a great thread on this, and it's stickied on the Credit Cards forum.

If you can get BofA to pinky-swear promise/ guarantee that the re-opened account will show the original opening date, so that you don't get hit for a new account, I'd definitely do it.

A few people here sometimes get a flag on their FICO reports for "too many accounts," but it doesn't seem to carry much of a penalty, if any. If you had a crazy high number of accounts, and you're worried about keeping on top of all of them, there's room for some judicious pruning, but you would want to research the heck out of it first. GL!

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

This topic is a few weeks old, but I'll give it a shot. I foolishly closed an account in January (Bank of America), and by doing that, my FICO score took an ugly plunger. Upon closing the account, the rep I was speaking to stated that I could reopen the account if I ever "felt the need". In terms of improving my FICO score, would it be worth it to reopen the account or should I just let it be? Thanks in advance!

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Hi, horsecore, welcome to the forums!

It's actually a year and a few weeks old, but it's a subject that never dies. fused has a great thread on this, and it's stickied on the Credit Cards forum.

If you can get BofA to pinky-swear promise/ guarantee that the re-opened account will show the original opening date, so that you don't get hit for a new account, I'd definitely do it.

A few people here sometimes get a flag on their FICO reports for "too many accounts," but it doesn't seem to carry much of a penalty, if any. If you had a crazy high number of accounts, and you're worried about keeping on top of all of them, there's room for some judicious pruning, but you would want to research the heck out of it first. GL!

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LOL...shows how much I pay attention! Thanks for the helpful input haulingthescoreup! I greatly appreciate it! I think I will give BofA a call and see what they say. Thanks again!