﻿ Don't Close Credit-Card Accounts-Kiplinger   Don't Close
Credit-Card Accounts  Kimberly Lankford  Keep old cards open to
show a good history of managing credit and to keep the amount of
available credit high to help your credit score.  Would closing
old credit-card accounts ever help my credit score?  No. "You're
never going to see an increase in your credit score from closing
a credit card," says Emily Davidson of Credit.com.  There are
two key reasons why closing old credit-card accounts can hurt
your credit score: The move affects your credit utilization
ratio and your credit history.  A key factor in your credit
score is the amount of available credit that you've used, called
your "utilization ratio." Generally, the lower the ratio, the
better.  The credit score looks at the amount of available
credit you've used on each card, but the more important number
is the total across all of your cards. This ratio goes up
whenever you close any accounts.  For example, if your balance
is $10,000 and your credit l