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Closing your oldest account will decrease your credit score because that sets the base line or starting point for your credit history. I suggest you close card No. 2. Card No. 1 has a greater available balance. Of course, you did not disclose the interest rates on either card, and if card No. 2 has a signficantly lower interest rate then you should leave that one open. If you keep it open, I suggest you discontinue the "fraud detection" on card No. 1. You paying almost $100/year for something that most credit card companies do for free. Let me give you some information on how your credit score is calculated so that you can understand the basis of my recommendations. Your score is based on several variables, including: 1) Payment history, which counts for approximately 35% of your score, is the most heavily weighted factor used in calculating your credit score. Consistently paying your bills on time has a positive influence on your score, while late or missed payments will hurt you in this area. If you have delinquent payments, the older the delinquency the less the negative impact on your score will be. Collection accounts and bankruptcy filings are also taken into consideration when analyzing your payment history. 2) Total debt and total available credit, which counts for about 30%. This section looks at how much debt you have compared to the total available credit on your accounts. If all of your accounts are maxed out, you will be considered a poor credit risk, because it appears that you are struggling to pay off the debt you have already incurred. If your account balances are relatively low compared to your available credit, this part of the risk analysis should help your overall credit score. The score calculation also looks at these two factors independently. Having too much available credit, whether you have used it or not, could hurt your credit score, as statistical studies have shown that people with excessive amounts of available credit are a higher credit risk. Unfortunately, the bureaus do not define exactly what they consider excessive, so best tip is to use credit conservatively and to keep your debt to credit limit ratio low. 3) Length of positive credit history, which counts for about 15%. The longer you maintain accounts in good standing, the better your score will be. This shows that you are able to make a long-term commitment to a creditor and are consistently responsible about making your payments. If you have accounts with long history (5 or more years) and no missed payments, you should keep these open and paid off. 4) Mix of types of credit, which counts for approximately 10%. Having several different types of credit, such a credit cards, consumer loans, and secured debt, will have a positive influence on your credit score. Having too much of one type of credit can have a negative impact. 5) The number of new credit applications you have recently completed, which accounts for about 10% of your score. Applying for too much new credit in a short time period makes indicates that you could be credit risk, as you may be desperately trying to keep your head above water. The models make an exception for people who are shopping around for a loan, so if you are simply applying to see who can give you the best rate on a new loan, you need not worry too much about damaging your credit score. I hope that the information I have provided helps you Find. Learn. Save. Best, Bill www.bills.com

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by Bills.com

3 weeks ago

Asker's Rating: 

Your credit score will take a hit. If the cards have a zero balance. What is the NEED to close those accounts?

by A.J.- 3 weeks ago

Cancelling your card will only hurt you - here are two ways. 1. It will reduce your total overall available balance of all your credit cards on your credit report. 2. You may be deleting your oldest credit card account. "Length of credit history" is a whopping 15% of your fico. Now, if the account has an annual fee close it - otherwise, use it yearly and pay it in full so you never pay interest on it. /

by Judy- 3 weeks ago

Yeah keep your cards. Cancel the fraud detection and anti scam things because they are nothing but a revenue source. Use them once a month and pay it off just so you don't have to pay a yearly fee. Your cards have a really low limit for your score and the length of time you have had them. Call up all your credit card companies and ask for a higher limit and then ask if you can upgrade the cards to ones that give rewards. I love my chase card because it gives me 1% cashback on everything plus 2% off of target purchases. I also use my Menards card for gas because it is 2% instead of 1% cash back. Your cards should be making you money not costing you. Only people with crumby credit have to pay to use a CC.

by Arrogant John- 3 weeks ago

First thing I'd do is cancel the fraud detection and payment protection on the inactive cards, no reason to cancel them. You are not someone who is trying to establish credit, you've already done so. If the $1300 has 0 interest for a year and you are making the monthly payments, you're not losing anything.

by Tracy H- 3 weeks ago

Closing your oldest account will hurt your score. Closing any other account may hurt your score, but also may help your score. Having payment protection on an account with a $0 balance is a complete waste of money. If you did not have the payment protection, and the balance was $0, then no payments would be required, so there would be no need for the payment protection plan. Paying for fraud detection is usually not a good idea. It does more to protect the bank than to protect you. If a fraud is not detecting because you do not have fraud detection, you usually do not lose more than $50 to the fraud (less than what you pay each year for the detection), although the bank may lose thousands. I recommend that you cancel the fraud detection and payment protection, but keep the accounts open.

by StephenWeinstein- 3 weeks ago

I am Mrs Amy John,currently living in texas,USA.I am a widow at the moment with three kids and i was stuck in a financial situation by may 2009 and i needed to refinance and pay my bills.I tried seeking loans from various loan firms both private and corporate but never with success,and most banks declined my credit.But as God would have it,i was introduced to a man of God a private loan lender by name Mr Endurance Dawn who gave me a loan of $28,000USD and today am a business owner and my kids are doing well at the moment.So dear,if you must contact any firm with reference to securing a loan with low interest rate of 3% and better repayment plans and schedule,please contactMr Endurance Dawn.He doesn't know that am doing this but am so happy now and i decided to let people know more about him and also i want God to bless him more.You can contact him through his email at endurancelendingfirm@gmail.com

by God is Good- 3 weeks ago

You can use this credit monitoring service to pre-estimate future scores for different scenarios of such payments - credit-report-score.10001mb.com

by Clay- 3 weeks ago