Hot take: closing a $5,400 card to 'clean up' my report dropped my score 63 points, the age of your oldest card matters way more than people say

Vera Lewis · 2026-10-07T12:30:03.470175+00:00

I had a store card from 2012 with a $5,400 limit that I never touched, and my banker in Toledo told me to close it because too many open cards look bad to lenders. I did it in March, and my score went from 764 to 701 in about five weeks because I lost that card's age and my total limit dropped, so my use on the other cards suddenly looked huge. Has anyone actually had a lender care about too many open cards, or is that advice just floating around out there?

💡Thought Shares

Loading…

Hot take: closing a $5,400 card to 'clean up' my report dropped my score 63 points, the age of your oldest card matters way more than people say | Credit Advice - Thought Shares