Your credit scores are affected when you close credit card accounts.
Just because someone can pay off their credit card debt or have never even used the credit card doesn’t mean that the account should be closed. People do it thinking it will raise their credit score. This isn’t the case.
For example, if you have two or more cards from the same credit card company you should keep all of these credit card accounts open.
A certain percentage of your credit score is determined by the length of time you have an account open and what kind of account it is. People who close accounts often find that their credit scores have been lowered when they originally thought it would raise their already good score even higher. Always keep older accounts open to maintain a high credit rating. It doesn’t matter how many cards you have or what kind of credit you have, you should keep your accounts open.
Don’t close your accounts if you are in the middle of a bad debt consolidation either. Instead contact your credit card company and request to have a card with no annual fee. You do this by asking them to “demote” your account. By doing this, you will be able to maintain your credit score and save money at the same time.
When you make contact with your credit card company don’t close the account no matter how mad the customer service representative makes you. Keep pushing once you’ve made the call to get the answers you are wanting. If you can’t get help from the customer service representative, ask for their supervisor. If that still gets you nowhere, then ask to speak with the customer retention department. This department will always have the capabilities needed to do more for you because they have a lot more power.
It’s important to do anything you can to keep your credit score as high as possible. Knowing how closing an old credit card account will affect your score will keep you from getting a drop in your overall score. You can get a free credit report once a year from each of the 3 major reporting bureaus and can often pay a small fee to see what your credit score actually is.