Old credit cards that have 0 limit and no balance

[jennileann]

Hi there, pretty new here. I've looked around on the net and I can't exactly find what I'm looking for. I fell on hard times last year and got behind on two credit cards. I caught up a short while later and have paid off one and still have about 1,300.00 left on a Rooms to Go card. I will have it paid off in January. Both the accounts are still active per-say but they have no credit avaliable for purchase and I understand why with my falling behind those two months. But my question is, should I leave them open after paying them off, or close them. I know its not good to close them, but with the 0 credit on them I wouldn't doubt that looks good either. Both the cards themselves are expired, I never opened the new ones, just shredded them. Trying to get out of debt here. Only bills I have are my car and the one credit card, besides my utilities. And we will have to build a house within the next 2 years cause we lost ours in hurricane Issac and a camper will only last so long lol. So I'm trying to make things right now so that when the time comes I will not have problems with a home loan. Thank you so much in advance.

Jenni

[Ramose]

Well, I'm not too good with credit card ratings but after a quick Google search I found this at credit.about.com

In short, your credit score could be affected by closing a credit card if:
The card still has a balance.
It still has available credit when your other cards don't.
It was the first card you ever opened (though this won't matter for about 10 years)
You don't have any other credit cards.

EDIT: On a side note, finally decided to make a post?

Hi there, pretty new here.

Join Date: Feb 2008

[bjl584]

Credit scores are determined by available credit and credit history among other factors. Since neither is able to be used for anything, then closing them probably won't hurt you too much as long as they aren't old lines of credit. But on the other hand, I wouldn't focus too much on your score. Just focus on paying off your debts and getting your finances in order. Your score will take care of itself.