I have 37 accounts listed on my credit reports with the oldest being 30 years old. All are positive. About half of these are closed. Many are open but have no balances. I have two old accounts that I never use: the first is Burdines, opened 1984 (last reported April 2002) and the second is a furniture store, opened 1995 (last reported 1995). I moved out of state and will never use these accounts again. Should I close them? Should it affect my score at all? I have a good mix of retail and credit cards with good history. The total CL on these is $4100 ($600 Burdines and $3500 on the furniture store). The only advantage to keeping them open is that my credit card balances on other cards is very high. My ratios are at about 60%. So, this would affect my ratios a little. Any advice?
Keep them open. The average debt ration that one would want to get the Best score is 10% to 15%. From what you said you have $24,600 worth of credit card debt. What is you goal? Do you want to raise you credit score or pay off the debt?
I'm not sure where you got your figures. I have about $100,000 in credit limits, including store cards, and about $60,000 in credit card debt (almost all on major credit cards). The goal is paying down the debt, but keeping the score as high as possible. My score stays around 660-670 because of the high useage. It is gradually coming down as I pay off the debt (yes, it was even higher).
I am a sorry, I misread you first post. But as I mentioned before you get a better score for keeping your total average ratio below 10% or 15%. Its great that you are paying down the debt. I would keep these cards open. As you pay off cards you might consider putting them in a safety deposit box rather than closing them. As your credit score rises you may be able to transfer some of the debt to lower interest rate cards. Check out http://www.cardoffers.com Good luck.
Thomas, Good luck to you man! I am in the same boat. I've managed to get all my cc debt at 0% right now between 2 FUSA cards, and an AT&T universal card. Now I can make progress!
