@Anonymous wrote:
I am a new member and have ran my credit score real FICO score on this website. The score is 802 and I would like to keep it above 780 at all times. I have several credit cards (more than 5) and would like to close one that has a small limit and I never use. It was opened about 6 years ago and has an annual fee. Recently, I almost missed a payment by 30+ days because I forgot about the annual fee and I never use the card for anything; luckily I caught it before the 30 day mark where it get's reported to all 3 credit bureos.
My question is this, I am less than 10% of credit card usage acorss all my cards (exept AMEX which is no limit card) and closing the card in question might raise that level to 10 - 15 percent. I would like to close this card but don't know how negatively it will affect my credit score. Any insight?
Thanks.
Hello Runner1980 and welcome to the forums.
The only impact closing this might have is what you already brought up; losing it's CL (Credit Limit) will raise your utilization because of balances on other accounts. One way to negate this possible impact is make sure only one of your remaining CC's reports a small (<9% of CL) balance on it's monthly statement and then pay in full before the due date. On any other cards try and have them report a zero balance every month by timing your payments to achieve that zero balance several days before the statements post.
Here is an excellent thread about Closing Credit Cards that explains it much better than I can.
From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
