A good number of consumers ask us if they should close credit cards they're not using anymore. In fact, many of them think it will help their credit score due to the fact that they'll have less potential risk. The exact opposite is true. Closing accounts will have a negative impact on your credit score for two reasons.

1. The utilization, or total amount of credit available to you vs. the total amount of balances you carry is a large part of your credit score. If you close some credit cards it will decrease the amount of available credit you have causing a spike in your "revolving utilization'. That is very bad and we've seen credit scores drop by as much as 100 points by closing a credit card.

2. Closing older credit cards will lower your average age of credit history. Another important factor in your credit score.

Rarely is closing credit cards good for your credit score. If you don’t want to use them don’t (with the exception of an occasional small purchase like gas). If you don't ever use it, the issuer will probably close it due to inactivity. There is no guarantee that using it occasionally will keep them open, but not using them ever will almost guarantee it will get closed.