So, you really want to kill your credit score, eh? Simple! Cancel one of your credit cards that had a really high rate and a $0 balance for the past several years! I did it, it can work for you too!
Ok, so this is ridiculous. The first credit card I got had a pretty high interest rate, something like 9.99% +prime and only $2,000 limit on it. Needless to say, I had it only for emergencies and buying a Wii (that cost me some money in interest! Bad move.) Well, it's been sitting in my wallet for a couple years, I have another credit card with a much lower 2.9% over prime and max of $7,500. I have no need for that other older card. So, I decided to close it out. Plus it was cluttering my online banking.
Oops.
Apparently, your oldest card is something you should hang on to and not close out. Even if you chop up the card so you never use it, just hang on to it for your credit score. Closing that out brought my credit score down from 718 to 684. That'd be not good. You would think that "in these tough economic times" banks would be looking to close out some accounts to reduce their potential losses. Hell, American Express is paying people $300 to close out their accounts! But no, I get penalized for doing that. I don't quite understand that. Whatever, but if you're considering closing out your credit card, don't do it. Just let it fester with $0 balance.
Edit: This is also our 100th post!
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