[stimpy]

Figure this would be a decent place to ask as there's some financial moguls here.

I'm looking for some advice on who I should contact that can look at my credit report and offer me advice on what to close out and what not to close out.

I'm not looking to buy anything - already own a house, car, etc. I was a big fan of financing things growing up which was the reason my credit score is/was over 770 when I bought my house at the age of 25. But what I'd like to do now is have a 'credit advisor' take a look over what I have and tell me to 'close this' or 'keep that'. I once closed out a credit card that dropped my credit score 100 points so I'm hesitant.

Anyone know a company that provides a service such as this?
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[jlspeed29]

ehh...i really dont know of an advisor bro...


do you want to give me some basic info?
i could help..i'm have a 750 fico

[mpimping]

You don't want to close anything that isn't paid off. Call the guy who did your mortgage and have him run your credit. he can go over the report with you and talk to somebody at the credit service that he or she uses and can figure something out. Close out the highest interest cards and keep the lowest.

[Kiemyster]

Originally Posted by mpimping

Close out the highest interest cards and keep the lowest.

Thats where the magic happens. take his advice, its GOLDEN. <--- yes, i realize thats not gold. but its as close as i could be bothered to get.

[stimpy]

You don't want to close out the highest interest cards if those are your longest standing cards - that's closing a big piece of credit history which will harm your credit as far as I know...

I'm not a complete nub at this stuff - I have a 770+ score for a reason. I just have a lot of stuff opened up over the years that I don't know whether to close or not. I think I have too much 'available' credit to me which is harming my score.

Of course I'm not going to close anything not paid off either :P
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[grumpybear]

If you close items that are less then 2 years old the impact to your credit report will be slim to none unless those items have high credit limits or there are a number of them.

One thing to keep in mind when you close anything, everything with a credit limit is put in the calcuation that figures what your ratio of "used vs. available" credit is and that ratio (also known as the Credit-utilization ratio) has big impact on your credit score. In fact, the ratio accounts for 30% of the calculation used by Fair-Issac to figure your credit score and is second only to the 35% weight given to your payment history. So if you screw it up, the impact to your credit can be enormous.

Example, say you have $10,000 of available credit between all your credit cards, etc. and you have total balances of $3,000 so your ratio is 30%, that's good because it should always be under 33%. Now say you close two credit cards that you never use, one with a $1,000 and one with a $2,000 credit line. Because you closed them, your available credit has now dropped to only $7,000 but the balances are still $3,000. That move will cause the ratio to jump to 43% and your credit score will drop because it. So in reality, the move that you thought was good was actually bad. Too much available credit is not necessarily a bad thing unless alot of the accounts are new. Having alot of new accounts at once will cause your score to drop in the beginning but it will climb back up over time as long as you use that credit wisely.

If you're not having trouble with credit or looking to buying something big then I would suggest leaving everything alone.

[grumpybear]

Originally Posted by mpimping

Close out the highest interest cards and keep the lowest.

Originally Posted by Kiemyster

Thats where the magic happens. take his advice, its GOLDEN. <--- yes, i realize thats not gold. but its as close as i could be bothered to get.

No it's not golden and it is short-sided advice at best and reckless at worst. If managing your credit was that easy people wouldn't have so many issues. All items should be assessed at the credit limit, age, balance, and interest rate level by themselves and as part of the larger credit picture before making any decisions and sometimes the best decision is to do nothing. When figuring a credit score, credit cards are assessed both individually and as part of the group so if you close the wrong card, it can be a double-punch to the face of your credit.

To the OP, based on what you're saying it sounds like your focus may be better served by looking at your debt to income ratio and making sure that's not too high. Closing things out won't help improve that, only paying down debt and/or increasing your income will improve it. If your credit score is high 700's then you're in better shape then 90-95% of Americans and you should be proud of that.