Will lowering my available credit hurt or help my credit score?

I have a few credit cards that have zero balances, and rather than closing the accounts, is it better to just lower my available credit on them? Will doing that lower or raise my credit score?|||In the short-term it will lower your credit score. FICO calculates based on:





鈥? Payment History (30%)


鈥? Amount of Credit Used (20%)


鈥? Amount of Cash flow (15%)


鈥? Types of Credit (10%)


鈥? Credit Balances (10%)


鈥? Amount of Available Credit (5%)


鈥? New Credit Lines Opened (5%)


鈥? Length of Credit History (5%)|||If you are carrying balances on other credit cards, lowering your limit could cause your debt to limit ratio to increase to more than 30%. This would hurt your score. If you are not carrying balances on other cards, it won't make any difference.





There really is no advantage to lowering your limit. Having high available limits does not negatively impact your score. If you don't plan on using the accounts, it is smarter to just close them. A stack of unused credit cards in your sock drawer is asking for problems with ID theft or fraud. Inactive accounts also do nothing to improve your score.|||It might lower your credit score as you'd be increasing your utilization rate if you're carrying balances.


However, it could remove the temptation to get into debt again....