Is it better to close paid off credit card accounts or keep them open, if you want to improve your score?

I have about 8 credit card accounts, only two have moderate balances, a few more with low balances and three at zero balance. Would it improve or hurt my credit score to close the three with zero balances?|||No, don't close any accounts until you have them all paid in full. Closing accounts lowers your overall limit which increases your debt percentage. Carrying balances of more than 30% of your limit, hurts your score.





Once you have them all paid off, you may want to close some. Keep the two oldest major credit cards that do not charge annual fees. If you have another major credit card with better APR/limit/rewards, keep that as well. Only keep store and gas cards if you have some special purpose and actually use the account.





Close accounts via letter and request written confirmation that the account is closed and 0 balance. Keep your request and the confirmation in your "forever" finances file.|||You would hurt your credit score. It is based on the percentage of unused credit available to you.|||Too many credit cards will hurt your credit score so as you have low debt to credit ratio. Use the guideline that overall debt/credit ratio should be less then 30%...or 35%.|||I've made this statement on several other responses relating to credit cards, balances owed and their credit limits. I think it bears repeating.





Banks will look for ANY reason to justify higher interest rates. Too many credit cards is one of them. You have 8 cards. Let's say each has $2,000 limit ane you owe 0$ on all 8. Sounds good, doesn't it? Your debt to limit ratio is 0%. Even if you have $400 balance on each one, you're under the 30% recommended ratio. The problem is you have a POTENTIAL debt obligation of $16,000. That may impact your ability to pay your other debt obligations (mortgage, car payment, living expenses, etc). That could put you in a higher risk bracket.





What we did: Got rid of all credit cards (in 1988) and took the minor hit on our FICO for the next year. Put our monthly payments into a savings account. Our FICOs were over 780. We were able to buy a second home with no problems (low interest) and finance a car.





FICO scores are a means that banks use to extort money from consumers in the form of interest and fees. You are actually BUYING a FICO score, not EARNING it.