Closing a credit card can hurt your score — and myFICO explicitly states they “never recommend closing a credit card for the sole purpose of raising your FICO Score.” But the impact isn’t always large, and sometimes closing a card is the right call anyway. It depends on how the closure changes two specific parts of your credit profile.
How closing a card affects utilization
Credit utilization is the ratio of your total balances to your total available credit. According to myFICO, it makes up about 30% of your FICO Score.
When you close a card, you lose that card’s credit limit. Your total available credit goes down, but your balances stay the same — so your utilization ratio goes up.
An example from myFICO: if you have $0 balance on a card with a $3,000 limit and close it, your total available credit drops by $3,000. If you have balances on other cards, your utilization jumps even though you didn’t spend anything new.
How much this matters depends on how large the closed card’s limit is relative to your total available credit. Closing a $500 limit card when you have $20,000 in total credit is barely noticeable. Closing your highest-limit card could spike your utilization significantly.
How closing a card affects credit history length
Length of credit history accounts for about 15% of your FICO Score, per myFICO. Closing a card doesn’t instantly erase that history — Experian notes that closed accounts in good standing remain on your credit report for up to 10 years, continuing to count toward your average account age during that time.
The catch: once the closed account eventually drops off your report, it can lower your average account age and shorten your credit history. This matters most if the card being closed is your oldest account.
When it’s worth closing anyway
Keeping a card open purely for credit score reasons isn’t always the right call. Closing a card makes sense when:
- It charges a high annual fee you’re not getting value from
- The interest rate is prohibitively high and you sometimes carry a balance
- You consistently overspend on that card and want to remove the temptation
- A lender requires account closure as a condition of approval for a new loan
It’s generally not worth it if the sole goal is improving your score — it won’t work, and may do the opposite.
When to keep a card open
Hold onto a card if any of these apply:
- It’s your oldest account and closing it would reduce your average credit age meaningfully
- You have limited other accounts and closing it would reduce your credit mix
- The card carries a high limit and closing it would meaningfully raise your utilization ratio
- You have a major loan application coming up in the next few months
If you want to stop using a card without closing it, put a small recurring charge on it — a streaming subscription, for example — set up autopay for the full balance, and ignore it. As long as the issuer doesn’t close it for inactivity, the account stays open and the history keeps building.
What closing a card won’t do
Closing a card with a negative payment history won’t remove that history from your report. FICO still considers closed accounts. According to the CFPB, accounts with missed payments generally remain on your report for seven years regardless of whether the account is open or closed.
The decision to close a card should be made based on fees, behavior, and whether the card still serves a purpose — not on the assumption that closing it will clean up your credit profile.