As you pay down debt - which cards to close?

**disneysteve** · 10-13-2016, 03:00 PM

It doesn't matter what the interest rate is. You're never going to carry a balance again. A bigger problem is if the card has an annual fee.

**HundredK** · 10-13-2016, 03:27 PM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

It doesn't matter what the interest rate is. You're never going to carry a balance again. A bigger problem is if the card has an annual fee.

Fair point. So just keep it open and check on it every once in a while, I guess, to make sure there's no unauthorized use. And what about other cards that aren't my oldest card? Just close them, or leave them open to so that I have a larger amount of available credit?

**creditcardfree** · 10-13-2016, 03:49 PM

Steve is right. Once you pay off debt and expect to stay out of debt the interest rate doesn't matter. It isn't the end of the world if you close the oldest card. Your score WILL go down, but it won't stay down long. It will keep rising.

If you don't expect to be borrowing, where your credit score, is important. Don't worry about which card to keep open. I actually have closed my oldest card...it was an Old Navy Visa. I stopped shopping Old Navy, thus the benefits of the card were nil. So I cancelled it. I currently have a score over 800 (usually between 815-830). Only sharing to help.

**GoodSteward** · 10-13-2016, 06:14 PM

If you think you'll charge it back up, close it. Otherwise, leave it open. Not only will the history cause your score to go down, so will the rise in credit usage to limits since that limit will no longer be factored in. When you get out of debt I would close all but a few cards maybe. I think a new policy is to close them for you if you don't use them after a few years, so it might be a mute point eventually.

**scfr** · 10-14-2016, 07:21 AM

Good cases can be made on both sides (keeping them open or closing them). I think it depends on how many cards we are talking about, what your credit score is now, and how important it is to you to have a high score. Once your score is high enough, closing a card every now and then isn't going to have a major impact.

Personally, I don't like having unnecessary cards to keep track of, and I don't feel the need for a top-notch score (and wouldn't have one any way because I don't have any loans), so I close cards that I no longer use. But if I were working to build my credit score up I would probably do differently.

(FYI - The one time my credit score took a big hit was when I paid off my mortgage.)

**Jluke** · 10-14-2016, 09:29 AM

Originally posted by scfr View Post

(FYI - The one time my credit score took a big hit was when I paid off my mortgage.)

I paid my mortgage off in May 2016. My FICO scored stayed the same for a few months, then today it was updated and it went up ~11 points (now over 800). I don't know how/why just wanted to share in case anyone reads this as a negative to paying off your mortgage.

**HundredK** · 10-14-2016, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by GoodSteward View Post

If you think you'll charge it back up, close it.

No, I do not see myself charging them back up unless something catastrophic were to happen (working on getting proper emergency savings in order)

Regarding whether I care about my credit score - yes, to some extent. It's possible at some point that we might want to buy a condo and take out a mortgage, although we do enjoy renting and are in no hurry. And I still have a ton of debt to pay off and a lot to learn from you guys before we even get to the point of thinking about what that might look like.

**scfr** · 10-15-2016, 07:18 AM

Originally posted by Jluke View Post

I paid my mortgage off in May 2016. My FICO scored stayed the same for a few months, then today it was updated and it went up ~11 points (now over 800). I don't know how/why just wanted to share in case anyone reads this as a negative to paying off your mortgage.

Very good point. Paying off our mortgage early was definitely a positive for us, regardless of the drop in credit score. Just remember than when you no longer have any debt or any need for a loan, the importance of an extremely high credit score wanes.

**Eagle** · 10-18-2016, 01:42 PM

Originally posted by HundredK View Post

As most of you know, I'm aggressively working on paying down a large amount of credit card debt. I am wondering, as I pay these off, how to determine which credit cards should remain open and which I should close? I think it's important to keep your oldest credit card open, right? But what if that has a ****ty interest rate and isn't a card I ever see myself using again? I'd love to only keep a few open (to get travel and cashback perks), but I don't want to kill my credit score by closing all the others.

Just wondering if anyone has a workable strategy for this?

I realized recently I have quote a few credit cards. I closed my oldest one with CaptialOne since we haven't used it in a couple years. I'll probably close others before the end of the year.

Just close one out every few months and you should be okay.

I might keep one or two open if you are wanting to keep up with your credit score.

As you pay down debt - which cards to close?