https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:30:51 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746733 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:47:46 +0000 MrsStormy 746733@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Jacks: This is how I understand it as well.</p> <p>I was also told from a friend in the industry the best thing for your credit is to maintain a balance on your credit care (about 30% of your limit) for a time, and just show you can make payments. This is really hard for us since we don't use our cards much and we like to just pay off, but occiassionally we will put something largish on our lowest interest card and take a few months to make payments. We should probably do this more frequently than we do. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746602 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:04:37 +0000 fussygal 746602@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>CreditKarma has some great tools where you can see what certain actions will do to your credit (closing cards, paying them off, adding more to the balance, etc.). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746553 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:50:21 +0000 looch 746553@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My score is high so even when we applied for a mortgage, the fact that I had recently applied for some credit (which lowered the score a bit) didn't make a difference in the rate we were offered. So, I think if you are a year away, I'd close the cards. Your score will recover. The identity theft risk isn't worth it IMO. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746498 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:31:16 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 746498@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. wagon: my understanding is that paying off your cards every month is good, but does not contribute to your credit history. They want to see that you will occasionally carry a balance (otherwise its not in their interest to extend you credit). Because of this (and please correct me if I'm off base on this), we will every once in a while buy plane tickets or some other big ticket item and then pay it in two lump sums, so hat we've carried a small balance for a month. We only do this on our lowest interest rate card and are very deliberate about it :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746490 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:28:09 +0000 immabeetoo 746490@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Especially if you're looking to buy a home soon, I'd leave them open and then close them (if you're wanting to close them) once you're 100% done with the home buying process. Ditto to what @yoursilverlining said - we never carry a balance month to month but charge everything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746485 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:26:14 +0000 yoursilverlining 746485@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaMoose: even if you always pay off your cards in full, your ratio won't always be 0 because the credit score people pull once a month and may pull when you have a balance. We use a points cc for all purchases and always pay it of in full each month but when we pull our credit reports it will show whatever balance the card has on it that day. So if they pull mid way through the month it will show a balance of say, 3k; and your snapshot balance will affect whatever the ratio is, and your score.</p> <p>I would leave all cards open. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746418 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:10:40 +0000 sunny 746418@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Your credit score is composed of several factors: average account age and ratio of utilized credit are among them.</p> <p>By closing newer accounts, you will probably improve the average account age but your utilization ratio will go up.</p> <p>I'm guessing that your score may drop a bit but will recover. I would just leave them open if it were me.</p> <p>For those who would like to learn more about credit I think CreditKarma.com is an excellent resource. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746335 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:48:25 +0000 winniebee 746335@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My understanding is that if you close a bunch of accounts at one time, that can negatively impact your score. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746326 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:45:21 +0000 Pirouette 746326@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I closed a few store cards a few years ago (because i decided the risk of identity theft was worth than the risk of slightly lowering my score) and what happened was my credit score took a very slight dip immediately after closing and then went right back up again after that (within 6 months). I'd say if you are planning on applying for a mortgage or something within the next few months, maybe wait a little, but otherwise go ahead and close them. The other advantage to closing them was they didn't count into my credit, so i was able to apply for a new (better) credit card and didn't appear to have so much credit already. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746306 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:41:17 +0000 MamaMoose 746306@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: Good point. We don't plan on buying our next house for at least another year so maybe I should go ahead and close them and hopefully recover from the small hit before we apply for our next mortgage. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746276 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:37:19 +0000 looch 746276@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I closed almost all of my store credit cards years ago, largely because I was a victim of identity theft and I didn't want old accounts out there just in case my identity was compromised again. Having "old" accounts on the books is too tempting for people to misuse by supressing statements and all that kind of shady stuff, so I'd rather take a small hit on the score over the short term. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746190 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:18:37 +0000 MamaMoose 746190@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The cards have all been opened within the past three years so pretty short history.</p> <p>@mrs. wagon: These cards can only be used at the stores, so we couldn't use them to pay for other things (but we wouldn't anyway since we use our one main card for almost everything in order to consolidate our rewards points.)</p> <p>@Bookworm: I see what you're saying about the ratio. But we never carry a balance on our cards so the ratio would always be 0 out of the total anyway. My concern is that when you apply for something large like a mortgage I *think* they look at ALL the credit available to you and basically consider a worst case scenario where you used all of that credit... so it can be bad to have too much available to use. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746173 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:13:55 +0000 mrs. wagon 746173@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>As far as I understand, things like length of credit history with a card as well as available credit across all your credit cards are important. So I would keep them open. I think most store cards they automatically close your account if they're inactive for many years anyway. </p> <p>I have also heard that having a zero balance credit card for a long time is not good either... they want to see that you are spending and able to pay off your balance. So using it for something regular (like gas or to pay a monthly bill) and paying it off each month should help your credit score as well. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746167 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:11:53 +0000 Bookish 746167@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The way I understand it, there is a credit ratio. So, if you have 10,000$ in available credit, and are using 9,000$ of it, that ratio would be weighted differently in your score than if you had 1,000$. </p> <p>For that reason, I have never closed a credit card, because it would raise my debt ratio. Using the above numbers, if I had 1,000$ on 10,000$ worth of credit cards, and then closed 2 cards and had only 5,000$ worth of credit, my ratio has shot up and potentially dinged my credit, even though I hadn't put anything on the cards.</p> <p>Hope that makes sense :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746165 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:11:10 +0000 Revel 746165@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My very basic knowledge is that the age of the accounts affect your score, as well as the ratio of balance carried to available credit. The older cards give you a long credit history (good) and more available credit bumps up your score. So I don't think having those store cards open hurts you if they are not carrying a balance. I wouldn't think you'd take a big hit to close them if you wanted to, but I wouldn't close them if they are your oldest cards. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/credit-cards-and-credit-scores#post-746149 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:04:00 +0000 MamaMoose 746149@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So I should know the answer to this question since I work in financial services... but I deal more with investing so I don't.</p> <p>Can someone explain to me the basics of how credit cards affect credit scores? Hubs and I both have excellent credit and always make our payments in full and on time. (One time there was an issue with the e-delivery of my statement and I was late on my credit card and Master Card called to make sure I wasn't dead since I never missed a payment in years!). We have a few store credit cards that we opened in order to take advantage of long term interest free financing (Best Buy for our Washer/Dryer and Home Depot for our countertops, etc). They are all paid off now and I'm wondering if it's better for my credit to leave them open or close them out? </p>