Will canceling my account affect my credit score?

deeda, this can affect your score because of utilization. that means that you try to use a low percentage of your available credit. as in, you have several cards open but you only spend 100 dollars on credit, and it adds up 10% of your available credit of 10,000. if you close an account that you aren't using then your total available credit goes down to say 9000. then percentage of credit used will go up. this will lower score, but probably not by much. It is just a store card not a visa or amex, and if your credit limit wasn't that high then it won't change much.

Also if this card is an old one it may do more damage. If it shows years of good payment history then you are losing all that good reporting. If you must close it then you can but if it is a long history I would charge something little on it every few months and pay it off. Is there any annual fees with this card.

Hi Deeda,

I agree to what both cinnamngrl and fireyone has said. It is true, that closing an account may damage your score. It will lower your available credit, thus your percentage of usage of credit will go up. This, as a result will affect your score. Moreover, if you have a good history on this card, closing the account will damage your score all the more. Payment history plays the most important part in maintaining and developing the credit score.

Thanks,

Aaron.

But it is just a lane bryant card. Unless you have had it open for 10 years and have 10000 credit limit, I think the difference will be small.