Raising Your Credit Score
REM #F708
By Ilyce R. Glink
Summary: A reader wants to raise his credit score by cancelling some of his cards. Ilyce gives tips on how to improve your credit rating.
Q: I am interested in raising my credit score. Based on your recent article,
I now understand it is in my best interest to keep the credit accounts I have
had the longest open.
But, I have several gas cards and department store cards. Would it be in my
best interest to eliminate a certain group of credit, such as gas cards or department
store cards?
A: If you want to raise your credit score, then you'll want to keep your credit
cards open as long as possible. Unless you absolutely have to close an account,
you're better off keeping it open.
If you feel as though you have too many lines of credit open (which can also
be a negative when it comes to your credit score), then pull a copy of your
credit history at www.annualcreditreport.com
and see which accounts have been opened the longest.
Keep the oldest accounts open and then close some of the others in writing.
You'll want to make sure that any balances on the card are paid off before you
close the account (or you'll wind up trashing your credit history unnecessarily).
In general, it doesn't hurt you to have a couple of gas cards and a department
store card. What really hurts is when you don't pay your bills on time.
NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher.
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