I do not believe it matters whether you closed the card or the issuer closed the card, both are negative in the FICO formula but neither is worse. It is very bad if the closed by issuer (or closed by customer) is also tagged with late payments or write offs.

I hears a rumor Paypal is purging old data so they have less at risk in case of a hack. Anyone been able to reopen a Paypal account after a hard shutdown? I have a lifetime ban and have been using an alternate e-mail to make payments. I am scared to give them my SSN on the alternate email so I can receive payments.

With all respect, I think the above statement is absolutely incorrect. Cards being closed isn't a negative factor. Cards are closed by one's initiation all the time. Likewise, cards get closed by the issuer for non-use all the time. I have over an 800 FICO score and have plenty of accounts I closed or the issuer closed through inactivity.

Matter of point, I just closed 5 CC accounts (out of 23) because I wasn't using them anymore and my FICO score went up after that.

What really counts is your credit utilization, not who closed the cards as long as all payments are historically on time.

I respect your personal experience. I agree that what counts is the credit utilization. When you close 5 accounts, definitely you reduce your total credit and everything being equal, your utilization goes up. So I do not know how you get a FICO score bump with the account closing.

The other important factors are payment history and number of accounts that have balance. I sometimes have 15 CCs that have balance (reward spending etc). I do see the complaints from CBs.

From my own experience, closing a CC with a low credit line has no or little impact to FICO score. But if I close a CC with $35,000 CL, it should result in a rise in credit utilization and drop your FICO.

What we normally recommend is that, if the CC carries AF and it does not fit your needs, then try to downgrade to no AF CC. If not possible, then just close it. Do not worry about credit score. Your AF cost is more than the few point impact (if any) on your credit. For the CCs without any AF, there is no need to close them. If you do want to close some, then do it slow. It is better to keep total credit line stable and the utilization stable.

I think few here would let 15 accounts carry a balance. Closing an account (either at the consumer's request or by issuer) should have zero net impact if you're not carrying a balance. A closed account will typically remain on one's credit reports for 10 years, so by the time the account falls off of the reports there will usually be minimal impact due to average age of accounts or longest account age.

always trnsfr ur cl from one to another unless it's only card of type

Not sure if you fully understand it. Carrying a balance does not mean I pay any interest. I would pay off the entire balance each month. After the CBs are educated, 15 or even 20 CCs having balance does not factor into the credit report any more.

For the people who are in the CC venture, we carry CCs of various banks, various flavors and various purposes. You want to optimize the rewards; You want to hit reward spending; You want to keep most CC issuing banks happy. So you want to keep the spending high to get most of the CCs you carry. That is the essence of this forum. If you keep a very low utilization (not simple statement balance %, but real utilization), then you do not get much out of the CCs you carry.

Right now, I utilize several CCs each from Chase (freedom), Bof A Cash Rewards, Discover, Citi and several travel reward CCs. Then I have US Bank + paying utility, AmEx Plat for travel, AmEx Gold for dining and grocery, BBP and SimpleCash+ for business spending. Then retail CCs such as Amazon and Uber etc. I'm quite happy to keep like $2,000 balance on each card to manage the total utilization. I could micro manage it and pay off most balance prior to statement dates. But I just set up auto pay and keep things low maintenance. There is already so much movement....

It is not negative on the FICO formula unless the person has a very thin profile that closure of accounts would bump up his utilization ratio.

late payments or write offs are coded by their own codes.

I understand it, and my assumption is nobody on here is paying interest. What I was saying is that many will let the all statements all cut with a zero balance except one or two cards with a token balance which is paid in full after the statement cuts.

Do not think so. If you get only $5,000 total balance on your $350,000 credit line, then it looks you get excess CL that you do not need. Lenders like to see you use their cards. When you apply for new cards, it is harder since you get little or no statement utilization.

<br /><br />On a very basic level, closing an account automatically increases your utilization ratio. Also closing an account affects your average length of account history. Both of these are negative factors in your FICO score. This is why you should not close your oldest accounts or high credit limit accounts. With that said, the effect is minimal on low limit accounts or recent accounts. I don;t know the other factors that increased your score but it could be several. You may have simply paid a large balance from the prior month. With all this said, I personally do close and open accounts and my Fico is ~800. I am just conscious of the formula and the most importatnt item for your score, is never pay late. I am not aware of any difference in the formula between you closing an account or an issuer closing an account, all else being equal.

It does not care who closed the accounts. Wells Fargo closed my CC during the peak of financial crisis. Citi closed my Home Depot CC due to inactivity. There are more. Who cares. You can explain easily if there were any human reviews.

Been reading a few blogs saying beware about MS'ing the min spend for Amex intro offers. Anyone have any issue with that? Just got the Every Day Preferred card and only need $1k which isn't too bad.

Datapoint and inquiry: Out of the blue, my Citi Double Cash and TY Preferred cards were closed by the issuer. Have had each for 10+ years. Relatively light MS usage of DC card up until several months ago. FICO score +790. Telephone CSR couldn't provide any additional information (other than saying that it looked "strange"), letter to be received by mail apparently only says to direct written question to "ERU" at Sioux Falls POB.

Any ideas?