How does a canceled credit card affect your credit score?

I've had two credit card companies cancel their cards with me because I had not used their cards in years, how will this affect my credit score? Do they let the major credit bureaus know why it was canceled? |||If you owed money to those companies and never paid it back it would effect your credit, but if you just weren't using blank cards it wont effect anything.|||Great question,


Because I had one I just paid off and fighting it on my credit report. I paid it off every month but now the major credit card company is closing it doors because of the economy/ So they canceled my card. But it is showing up as a negative on my credit report. So I'm still trying to fight the credit bureaus as to why the negative.





The other cards, I haven't used them in years and they just sit open. They are showing up good. |||it won' affect it in a negative way it will just say "closed by creditor" from a lenders perspective it just means it was not used and that is not necessarily a bad thing. This is happening more often these days because banks want to minimize their exposure to more debt. If you have other cards not in use try to use the one you've had the longest. time with, just in case|||Every card you own has a credit limit.


The combined sum of all your card limits is your total credit limit.


If you lose one to inactivity cancellation then you lose that cards credit limit and your overall credit limit is reduced.





This will effect your credit score negatively because your overall credit has diminished.





You could try and call the credit card companies and ask them to reinstate the cards. Then make small charges, at least every 6 months, so that they can't cancel it again for "inactivity".


The norm is 6 months but please read your credit card agreement paperwork... they can change just about any term and it may be that you need to make charges more often.|||All of the previous answers are 'somewhat' correct.





It's not 'cancelling' your credit card - in credit bureau terms you are "Closing" the account - whether you do it or the company does it.





Your credit score is the result of a complex mathematical algorithm that takes into account your past credit history - both your historical willingness ability to repay debts, as well as the stability of your repayment history.





Closing one, or even a few accounts - whether you did it, or it was done by a creditor (and done without problems - delinquency, chargeoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcy, etc.) ... isn't materially going to move your score if you maintain a solid repayment history.





Now ... if your repayment history is speckled with issues, closing credit can hurt a little more ... but not nearly as much as the bad credit experiences. It's great 'media buzz' to report on how closing credit causes bad bureau scores, etc... but it's really just not materially true.





What's more important? The % of your open lines that you're using, the repayment history, how long you've been on the credit bureaus' files satisfactorily repaying debt, whether or not you've had repayment problems, tax liens, garnishments, etc.





As far as letting the bureaus know why the card was cancelled - they simply close the account in good or bad standing. You don't want 'bad.' - that will KILL your score. (Bankruptcies, chargeoffs, etc.) Bigger bad experiences hurt more, but any bad experience hurts a lot.











|||I don鈥檛 have the answer to all of your questions. However, there are some things that you CAN do to repair your credit. In fact, sometimes you can indeed get negative items removed; depending on the situation. This might be a good place to start.





I recommend trying the free course at http://www.redfoxcredit.com/repair.php They provide a lot of great information for improving your credit score, and it worked well for me.