re: Will canceling an Amex card hurt my credit?

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Will canceling an Amex card hurt my credit?

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Closing your credit card accounts will almost always lower your credit score. The real reason why this lowers your score is because you won’t be able to become more indebted and pay interest on new debt. What may look like good behavior (paying off installment loans faster, closing unused revolving accounts and so on) is really frowned upon by creditors because it isn’t good for their collective bottom line. So in other words, behaving responsibly is punished under the current credit scoring systems.

A good credit score is the result … not the goal! It’s not how much you make, it how much you keep. And while it may be true to some extent to not close your unused credit cards, providing you want to stay in debt, it really doesn’t matter that much for those that are or want to be wealthy.