Planning to Close 5 Accounts—Looking for Timing & FICO Advice

[E36]

Looking for advice on when to close a few credit cards and the impact on my credit score

I'm trying to simplify my wallet and have decided on the cards I want to keep long-term. My goal is to build stronger relationships with a handful of issuers and continue growing those credit limits rather than managing a bunch of smaller accounts. I am in the process of rebuilding my credit, and I think I'm ready to let go of some of my rebuilder cards.

Cards I'm keeping:

Issuer Card Opened Credit Limit Planned CLI

Bank of America	Atmos Rewards	Feb 2026	$6,000	August
Bread Financial	AAA Daily Rewards	Dec 2025	$6,900	December
American Express	Blue Cash Everyday	Aug 2025	$1,000	August
Goldman Sachs	Apple Card	Oct 2025	$3,000	—
Capital One	Savor	Mar 2024	$10,000	—
Synchrony	Venmo Visa	Oct 2024	$8,000	—

Total revolving credit I'm keeping: $34,900

Cards I'm planning to close:

Issuer Card Opened Credit Limit Planned Closing

Capital One	Quicksilver	Jul 2025	$500	August
WSFS Bank	cred.ai Unicorn	Jul 2023	$1,500	September
Merrick Bank	Ollo	Jul 2023	$2,400	December
WebBank	Avant	Sep 2024	$3,000	December

Total revolving credit to be closed: $7,400

Also planning to close:

Issuer Account Opened Line of Credit Planned Closing

Upgrade

Cash Rewards Elite

Aug 2024

—

Anytime

The Upgrade account is a personal line of credit rather than a revolving credit card, so I tend to forget about it and would like to simplify by closing it as well.

A few questions for those who have gone through something similar:

1. Does this timeline make sense, or would you space the closures out differently or just close all of them ASAP.

2. Should I wait until after my planned credit limit increases with Bank of America, Amex  before closing any accounts?

3. Will my FICO scores to change from closing these cards?

4. Since these are all in good standing with no annual fees, is there any advantage to leaving some of them open instead of closing them?

5. Since the Upgrade account is a personal line of credit rather than a revolving account, would closing it have any meaningful impact on my FICO scores?

6. Are there any of these accounts you would keep that I'm overlooking?

Additional context:

• Average monthly credit card spend and reported balance: ~$2,400 

• Current Fico 8: 716, 722, 708

• Long-term goal: simplify my credit profile while growing the limits on the cards I actually use.

• I currently use none of the accounts I'm planning to close

• None of the accounts I'm planning to close have annual fees or rewards that I use regularly.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions from those who've gone through a similar cleanup.

[ElvisCaprice]

     My answer is no to all your questions.  I don't know of any worthwhile PC's with those issuer CC's you intend to close.  Close them all immediately with no impact.  They will still age and remain on your profile for 10 years.  In fact, I think it's better you close them all first before you ask for new CC's or CLI's, youre profile will look better suited for growth to issuers.  I'm more of the mindset that new CC's are best, over CLI's, to churn or long term.  CLI's only if you absolutely need it for your spend/utilization.  CL has no direct impact on FICO.  It does impact SL's, higher CL's beget higher SL's, again, if you need them.  Otherwise keep ones CL in check to ones needs/spend.  

Utilization holds no memory on FICO 8.

     It's all about rewards, Fico & CL's can't be deposited in a checking account.  New CC SUBS can.  Time with the good habit of on time PIF, builds a solid profile.   That's all thats needed.  Meanwhile, during the journey, make some $$$ rewards.

[Thomas_Thumb]

Close the 4 cards this week. Card closures will have no negative impact on your ability to get CLIs on the remaining cards. A possible small impact on Fico score if % of cards reporting balances goes from below 50% to above 50% or if aggregate utilization goes from below 9% to 10% or higher. The LOC counts toward aggregate revolving utilization. Of course you can manage card payments to maintain reported AG UT below 9% and % of cards reporting to 50% or less.

Your AMEX could benefit from a couple 3x CLIs to get to $9k. Increasing GS to $5k is also worthwhile. As a general guideline I recommend keeping reported card utilizations under 29% and aggregate utilization under 9%.

[BallBounces]

Close them today, assuming you do not carry a balance.

If you DO carry a balance, stop that, and close the cards anyway, 

[FicoMike0]

Ditto @Thomas_Thumb 

Don't wait on the amex request the 3X cl I today. Then again in 6 months. Just make sure you pif every month and amex will likely go 3X every 6 months until you get close to 50% of reported income in total exposure. I was surprised when they went $9,000 to 27,000 on a card I never put $500 on, but they did.

[BrutalBodyShots]

Great responses from everyone that has already correctly stated that there is no penalty associated with closing credit cards.

[E36]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

Ditto @Thomas_Thumb 

Don't wait on the amex request the 3X cl I today. Then again in 6 months. Just make sure you pif every month and amex will likely go 3X every 6 months until you get close to 50% of reported income in total exposure. I was surprised when they went $9,000 to 27,000 on a card I never put $500 on, but they did.

---

I had Amex Business Prime, and I just did my last CLI in May. That CLI resets the clock for all cards Amex even personal.  I wrote another post, Amex CLI'd my Business prime from $7K to $14K to $20K. But the time I tried to CLI my Amex BCE, it got denied.

[E36]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

Close the 4 cards this week. Card closures will have no negative impact on your ability to get CLIs on the remaining cards. A possible small impact on Fico score if % of cards reporting balances goes from below 50% to above 50% or if aggregate utilization goes from below 9% to 10% or higher. The LOC counts toward aggregate revolving utilization. Of course you can manage card payments to maintain reported AG UT below 9% and % of cards reporting to 50% or less.

Your AMEX could benefit from a couple 3x CLIs to get to $9k. Increasing GS to $5k is also worthwhile. As a general guideline I recommend keeping reported card utilizations under 29% and aggregate utilization under 9%.

---

Okay, so to just reiterate what you are saying, is if I have 6 credit cards, then 3 or less report a balance. But if 4 gets reported then I will be impacted?

Also, I am an AU on one card making it 7 credit cards, how does that affect.

Either way , ar eyou saying I should have no more than 3 cards with a reported balance by the end of the month?

[E36]

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@ElvisCaprice wrote:

     My answer is no to all your questions.  I don't know of any worthwhile PC's with those issuer CC's you intend to close.  Close them all immediately with no impact.  They will still age and remain on your profile for 10 years.  In fact, I think it's better you close them all first before you ask for new CC's or CLI's, youre profile will look better suited for growth to issuers.  I'm more of the mindset that new CC's are best, over CLI's, to churn or long term.  CLI's only if you absolutely need it for your spend/utilization.  CL has no direct impact on FICO.  It does impact SL's, higher CL's beget higher SL's, again, if you need them.  Otherwise keep ones CL in check to ones needs/spend.  

Utilization holds no memory on FICO 8.

     It's all about rewards, Fico & CL's can't be deposited in a checking account.  New CC SUBS can.  Time with the good habit of on time PIF, builds a solid profile.   That's all thats needed.  Meanwhile, during the journey, make some $$$ rewards.

---

Edit: I took your advice and got an Amex Surpass.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@E36 wrote:

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

Close the 4 cards this week. Card closures will have no negative impact on your ability to get CLIs on the remaining cards. A possible small impact on Fico score if % of cards reporting balances goes from below 50% to above 50% or if aggregate utilization goes from below 9% to 10% or higher. 

As a general guideline I recommend keeping reported card utilizations under 29% and aggregate utilization under 9%.

---

Okay, so to just reiterate what you are saying, is if I have 6 credit cards, then 3 or less report a balance. But if 4 gets reported then I will be impacted?

Also, I am an AU on one card making it 7 credit cards, how does that affect.

Either way , are you saying I should have no more than 3 cards with a reported balance by the end of the month?

---

The AU card is looked at independent of your personal cards. Its utilization won't affect your score or be included in your number of accounts with balances. Fico has a strange way of looking at AU accounts. If you have 1 or more AU cards, Fico looks for AU account activity. If all AU accounts report $0, Fico assigns a small penalty to the AU holder for no AU account activity. 

If you have 6 personal revolving accounts; reporting small balances on 4 cards typically drops score compared to 3 accounts reporting. Is that a concern? There is no lingering impact when # of accounts reporting is reduced.