What are the effects (good and bad) of allowing a credit card to expire? FICO score impact?

Yes, there would be a negative impact to your FICO score because one component of it is your debt ratio, meaning the ratio of your outstanding debt to your available credit. That ratio will rise as your available credit falls (when cards are closed).

The only way to "get" and keep a FICO score is to go into debt and stay in debt. If you do so on good terms with your lenders, your score will rise.... if not, it falls. If you do neither and don't go into debt, you won't have a FICO score. A better question is to ask how you can become financially secure so that you don't need a FICO score to be successful with money.

If you insist on the value of a FICO score (and in reality it is a good thing to have a nice one, of course), it's probably wise to keep at least your oldest revolving credit account open and in good standing. To play their game, perhaps buy some groceries on it every now and then and pay it off. If you must.....

I'm afraid Kathy (immediately below) is wrong...maybe that's the way it should be, but it isn't. I believe there's a point where it begins to hurt you, but anything less than 3 or 4 credit cards can only help your score if they're in good standing. PS - your cards won't just expire and go away... you'll get an automatic renewal in the mail - trust me. You'll always have to cancel them if you want them to go away.

*** Even if you don't activate the renewal cards, your account will still remain open. You just won't be able to use your card until it's activated.

Actually, if you cancel your cards your FICO score will go down. Best to let them sit, unused, and keep paying your monthly bills on time without error. Home Equity lines, especially smaller lines actually cause huge hits on the FICO score, even if you are opening one up to pay off credit debt. Funny thing is, the larger the loan the less of a hit you will take when opening up an account. A larger loan shows the Credit Agencies that people are willing to take a larger risk with you, and this will eventually improve your credit score even more.

There is one way to get a free FICO score, go to a lender and tell them you are interested in getting a loan and they will generate a score for you. Unfortunately this process will lower your score a few points and you'll have to pretend you really are interested in a loan. It's probably simpler to just pay for one online at myfico.com, you can usually find a discount code online and get one for about $12.

As for the credit card, its complicated.

- If you have many active cards, you look like a bad person. So getting rid of one makes you look safer.

- But if you have too few cards (0-1), you look like a risk and your score may suffer.

- Your "debt to limit" ratio may increase if you cancel a card, a high ratio here may lower your score.

- If you cancel a high-limit card and then have only low limit cards, you look more risky and your score may suffer.

- Some cards are commonly given to risky consumers, if you have one of these you look risky by association. Getting rid of one of these might help your score.

- One factor in your score is your longest account, if you cancel your oldest card your score will suffer.

See what I mean about complicated? Overall I'd say keep the card if it has no annual fee and if you don't have any other cards, but if it has an annual fee and you have several similar cards, go ahead and cancel it.

numerous individuals assist you to comprehend to maintain those account open perpetually. yet having a stack of credit taking part in cards on your sock drawer is a bad theory. you need to video demonstrate and take care of those credit taking part in cards to keep away from fraud and identity theft. regularly i could advise protecting the two oldest substantial credit taking part in cards that don't have annual expenditures. even nevertheless it appears that evidently that the Chase card isn't that a lot older than the others. With that low shrink, i could close it. i could additionally evaluate final the yank exhibit till there is something particular approximately it to you. as long as you do no longer carry balances on any of your credit taking part in cards, the drop on your score could rebound in a couple of minutes.

cancel them...its better to cancel unused cards than to let them expire. Shows the credit compaines that you CARE about your credit and are more likely to get MORE/Better credit and better rates in the future...the more cards you have sitting around doing nothing, makes your credit score go down...(silly but it's true....)