How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

I have heard that if you cancel your credit card,that it lowers your credit score.

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

If you have a good credit limit unused (less than 20%...never go over that amount) then your credit score could be affected by lowering your debt to credit ratio. The more credit you have and the less you use the better...especially if a life emergency comes along (a real one). on the other hand you can also have too much credit based on the actual income earned you provided to your creditors when you got the card which may make them or others less likely to give you more credit.

You can cancel a credit card by calling up and saying i%26#039;d like to cancel my credit card. they%26#039;ll ask you why maybe try to talk you out of it but you can say i just don%26#039;t need it period please cancel it. It will show as cancelled by comsumer paid normally or something like that and will not be a negative but like i said earlier you can have too much credit or too little credit.

best option is to keep all credit cards use them all once a month for reasonable purchases and pay them all off each month if you can be responsible. if you can%26#039;t be responsible cancel them. if you keep them use them for a couple things small each month and pay the statements off in full when they come you will build a credit history which is also important to future lenders.

no recommendation here. do what you feel is best for you.

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

report it stolen!..problem solved

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

it might help if you noted why you are looking to close the card, it%26#039;s generally a bad idea to close a card. you especially want to keep the ones you%26#039;ve had the longest, with a mostly zero balance. the idea is the ratio of your debt to available credit. you want to keep debt low, and possibility to accrue debt high. those bloodsuckers like that sort of thing.

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

Boy did you hear wrong --- credit cards remain on your credit history for many years. It will just show a 0 balance that no money is owed. Pay off the card and cancel -- then cut up the card... You will not be punished to cancel.

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

It does, because it stops using the payment history on THAT CARD in the calculation of your credit score....so your credit history is scored %26quot;younger%26quot; than what it is.

Just because an account appears on your credit report, does not mean it has been used in the calculation of that score.

Unless there is a fee attached to it, or keeping it would cause you exceed 10 trade lines, keep it and just stop using it.

Too many loan officers advise people to %26#039;pay off and cancel%26#039; and they don%26#039;t understand that lowers the score...then they would come crying to me wondering %26quot;what happened%26quot; b/c the damage is irreversable, when their client got knocked out of a loan program.

You would have had to underwrite a lot of loans and see how this gets affected to understand that it DOES lower a credit score.

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

I%26#039;m sorry but Gerald is wrong in his answer. It hurts your score to CLOSE the account, whether it%26#039;s paid in full or not. As for reporting it stolen, that doesn%26#039;t close your account -- it merely cancels the current card and gives you another one.

I don%26#039;t recommend you take out a loan to pay it off, but if you have available credit on another card that you can transfer the balance to, do that and just remain resolved to not use the card -- but don%26#039;t close or cancel the card.

I know how you feel about the high interest rate. Try calling them to negotiate a lower rate. I did that with one of my cards, and I had a good history with them, but they wouldn%26#039;t lower the rate and out of anger, I closed the account. I wasn%26#039;t hurting them, I hurt myself. If you%26#039;re like me, you%26#039;re emotional about your situation; I totally understand how you feel.

Just try to transfer the balance or negotiate a lower rate. Pay the minimum due PLUS the finance charge amount or more. Don%26#039;t use the card, and you%26#039;ll see it go down. It takes time, but you%26#039;ll see it go down.

How can you cancel a credit card without lowering my credit score?

Canceling a credit card can significantly raise your credit-utilization ratio and in turn lower your credit score. One of the most significant factors in your credit score besides your payment history is how%26lt;!--much you owe in relation to how much credit you have. This accounts for 30% of your credit score. However, the amount you owe is not simply the total amount of debt, it%26#039;s your debt in relation to how much credit you have. This is referred to as the credit-utilization ratio.

http://bestcreditcards.freehostia.com/

The credit-utilization ratio is a key factor in determining how you manage credit. The lower the ratio, the more you are viewed as a responsible credit user by creditors. For example, let%26#039;s say you have $10,000 in credit on 3 credit cards and have a total amount of debt of $2500. Your credit-utilization--%26gt;ratio would be 25%. If you cancel one of your cards that has a zero balance and a credit line of $5000, your credit-utilization ratio would increase to 50%. The higher ratio would lower your credit score.