Close Credit Card

If I close a credit card account, will that lower my credit score? What will happen if I close several?

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Bill's Answer: Bills.com Resident Expert

Yes, if you close a credit card account you may lower your credit score. Before discussing that let me correct what may be a misconception on your part. There is no family or household credit score. Each person has their own credit score. In the case of a married couple, one spouse may have an 800 score, and the other 420 depending on their repayment history. See the Bills.com resource Credit and Marriage for more on this subject.

Regarding your question, if you close a credit card account, make certain you do not close the oldest account. See the Bills.com resource Credit Cards History for additional discussion on the variables that go into a credit report equation. In a nutshell, the oldest account sets the starting point of a person's history. If you close a credit card account that is the oldest, your history may reset, and cause decrease in your score.

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Best,

Bill

www.bills.com/

Comments (1)


ParisGirl111 .
February 23, 2010
In response to the question regarding if the score will go down if an account is closed, I have heard that if you close store cards such as Walmart or Macy's that your score will actually go up because the store cards tend to cauase your score to go down.
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