So this is going to hurt a score that isnt great right now to begin with because it is a long account free and credit report Phoenix as well as lowering the available free and credit report Phoenix credit. Lowering your available credit can free and credit report Phoenix be a good thing if you have too much credit available, but it can also be bad if you have outstanding debt because it raises your utilization rate. Ideally you want zero%, but a rate of 30% or lower isnt too free and credit report Phoenix bad. Canceling a 10 year old free and credit report Phoenix line of credit can hurt a little, especially if your other lines of credit are relatively new. The average age of credit is taken into account in the FICO scores. Keep plugging away and your scores will continue to rise. when i learned about the credit history thing, i started not to close my unused credit cards, i just hope that this do good free and credit report Phoenix to me Too much available credit can be a bad thing? As in, the more available, the more it shows youre responsible and not running up debt. free online credit report I live in Canada, but I imagine the same thing would apply here. Would you mind telling how much it dropped your score, if you know? Ive got a card Im not using that Ive been thinking about free and credit report Phoenix closing, but Id love to be able to estimate how much its going to hurt me. Richard, free and credit report Phoenix I dont know exactly how much more score dropped, but average length free and credit report Phoenix of credit history accounts for 15% free and credit report Phoenix of your score. Since this was my longest tenured card, it substantially free and credit report Phoenix dropped the average age of my credit. As for how much it will drop your score, I have no idea. For older cards, free and credit report Phoenix many people recommend just dropping the limit as low as you can and keeping the card open. get credit reports If the card you are thinking about closing is not your oldest card, then it wont matter as much. Think Outside, Yes, too much available credit can be a bad thing, especially if your debt to income ratio is high. Even if free and credit report Phoenix your debt to income ratio isnt free and credit report Phoenix high, then it means you have a lot of available credit and could go charge up a lot of debt in a short period of time and leave your creditors stuck with the bill. One thing people can do is purchase free and credit report Phoenix their credit score once a year at a certain time each year (after they pay off their credit card debt) and see how the score has increased or decreased and figure out why that happend. Even though I closed my credit card accounts years ago, I found that as a result of my secured credit card last year, my score jumped which is good for me. I would say that it is better to have one card than multiple cards, even if you dont use it, but inactivity can hurt your score because you free and credit report Phoenix are not using it so even $100 a month, say your phone free and credit report Phoenix bill, charge it to the card and send the payment to free and credit report Phoenix your card before the end of the billing cycle would help show good payment history. check report online free credit report Richard, I closed a balance-transfer card earlier this year free and credit report Phoenix and a few months later my score was up 70 points but I was also reducing the free and credit report Phoenix amount of credit I use.
I had last checked my score shortly after getting the card, and paid off about 50% of the available credit on that card right before closing it so I definitely made some progress on the amount owed.