If I pay off my credit cards should I keep them?

myron

Just looking for some advice. I have four credit cards and one store card/account. This year I may finally be in the position to pay them all off. I've continually owed a balance on all of them since around 2004. In total I've made around 600 monthly payments across the five and out of those 600 only around 4 or 5 have been late. I've never checked my credit score but I am guessing it is ok.

My question is this - when I've paid them all off I want to close all but one of them. I do not want the temptation of having easy credit anymore. If I do this though will it damage my credit score? Or would it look better to have long standing accounts with a good track record which are all nicely paid off?

Thanks

themull1

Close them, if you need another card in the future, you can take advantage of a 0% offer. Ive done this, and never had problems with credit.

Tixy

It is definitely a good idea to keep at least one account open to maintain an ongoing credit history.
Providing you don't then regularly max out that remaining account then closing down the unused accounts shouldn't generally have a negative impact on your ability to get credit.

The_Boss

I'd keep two personally. Knowing your salary, credit limits and details of any other credit agreements/mobile phone contracts would help.