Credit Report Situation: Help Needed

[JJBoyd1001]

I just reviewed my credit report online and my score is around the mid 700s. Now when i reviewed my report I viewed 2 Credit Card accounts "opened" by my bank in my name one for $6,000 opened 2 years ago and one for $10,000 opened a year ago (I shredded these cards when i saw them). I would like to be able to finance a car by 2009 or 2010 and a higher score will obviously help me and would like to know what is the best option of handling this situation? should I close those 2 accounts myself? How will that affect my score? any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

~~~~~~~ JJBoyd

 

[zzzz]

Your current score is not bad -- it's better than most.

Eliminating credit history can sometimes hurt your score. Do you have other cards with a longer history?

The fact you have $0 balances on these cards helps your debt to credit ratio. If you eliminate them, you will increase the percentage of debt relative to your credit. That could hurt your score.

So I would stand pat.

 

[JJBoyd1001]

My Visa, Mastercard, Discover and AMEX were all created in 2002, 2005, 2005 and 2007 respectively so all but 1 of them is older then those 2 other cards that i shredded. my score could get higher due to that fact that 2 of my cards have more then 65% of the available balance used but I am in the process of paying them both down by the end of the year. I am just worried that me calling up and closing those accounts and having 16K of available balance knocked off (even though i shredded the cards and will never use them).

~~~~~~~~~ JJBoyd

 

[pasotex]

Experian has a service where you can adjust your credit and see how it impacts your score. I am not sure that your situation is an adjustable parameter. I think you can try it free for one month so it may be worth a shot.

 

[El Sapo]

I second what zzzz said. I'd stand pat. You might actually lower your score in the process and you're doing fine, credit-wise, as is.

 

[Endust]

your score is a diamond in the current environment. i think the conventional wisdom is that you should never cancel an existing credit line.

 

[El Cid Vicious]

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[JJBoyd1001]

Thanks everyone for the advice.