Does closing accounts lower one's credit score?

Question

Does closing accounts lower or increase one's credit score, or does it depend?

Is there an immediate reason that you're worried about your score? If not, do what makes sense for you and the score will take care of itself. — keshlam, Jan 20 '16 at 03:18

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '16 at 01:04

If you mean closing credit card accounts it will hurt your credit score in two ways:

1) It will reduce your available credit, which in turn will increase the utilization percentage of your credit if you owe a balance on any other card.

2) It will reduce the average age of your open accounts unless it was the last card you obtained.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 09 '17 at 07:20

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I do believe that closing your accounts could affect a negative credit score. If one does not have some credit card history, they assign a lower score to your ratings. I have problems because I don't have any large purchases that I am paying down.

It is okay to just keep your accounts at a zero balance.

edited Jan 09 '17 at 07:20

keshlam

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answered Jan 19 '16 at 23:17

Carol Darlington Boberg

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Yes, but it's safer to close the account so someone can't make fraudulent transactions with it. – Geremia Jan 19 '16 at 23:51
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They will mark the accounts inactive if you carry a zero balance for a long time which has a similar effect to closing it. – JohnFx Jan 20 '16 at 01:02
@JohnFx Yes, I've experienced even closed accounts still being charged/credited; what's closing even for, then? – Geremia Jan 20 '16 at 03:07

Does closing accounts lower one's credit score?

2 Answers2