ShortcakesSweets, be careful about canceling credit card accounts. I just heard this week that when you close down accounts, it will negatively affect your credit rating. Go figure. I think that if you have a yearly charge, then go ahead and cancel, otherwise you could always get a plastic dish, fill it with water, put your cards in it and freeze it. Sounds silly, but if you have to wait for it to thaw out, then you have time to think about whether or not you need to use the card and you have a greater chance of not using it. This is what an accountant told me years ago. I still do not understand the credit ratings, if you do not owe anyone, your credit ratings suffer, if you owe too much, it suffers, and if you cancel paid off accounts it suffers. When or what makes a good credit rating?
omg, those credit ratings things seem like such a scam to me! Your score goes down if you get a new card ... it goes down if you use too much credit ... it goes down if you pay them off and cancel the account.
I closed one account and the company actually threatened me with how it would affect my credit rating!! 
I have heard that canceling all of your lines of credit once paid off can be a negative impact because it is like you are starting all over with no credit under your name .. You should keep some lines of credit open, just not use them ..
Well, that just stinks. I was under the impression that if you have a bunch of opened credit accounts even with zero balances that it would negatively affect your credit rating because creditors see it as a disaster waiting to happen.
Oh, well, I'm still going to pay them off, shred the cards and not use the account.
Well, that just stinks. I was under the impression that if you have a bunch of opened credit accounts even with zero balances that it would negatively affect your credit rating because creditors see it as a disaster waiting to happen.
Oh, well, I'm still going to pay them off, shred the cards and not use the account.
Shortcakes, I've heard that too. It seems they've got you no matter what. If you have high balances, you're dinged for that. If you pay them off and have no debt, then they tell you, "Yeah, but you COULD charge up $10,000 worth of stuff tomorrow!"
damned if you do ... damned if you don't.
I find the whole thing a racket designed to screw the consumer. My hubby was a banker for 25 years and he agrees!
As you can see from my signature, I am a Dave Ramsey fan. We have done the emergency fund, debt snowball and started closing credit card accounts. We were tired of always owing for something. And we really don't care what our credit score is or what effect this is having on our score.
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