Consolidating, canceling other cards?

[intecel]

I currently have 8 credit cards. All have been maxxed out at one point. I just got another credit card that will consolidate all remaining balances except for 1 other card with a much better rate.

Does it look better on a credit report to cancel all the other cards except for these two, or to keep the other 7 since they will be at $0 balances, lowering my debt to limit ratio?

[abscondo]

Canceling cards is not a good idea. It looks worse. Keep 'em with zero balances.

[intecel]

Thanks! I'll just keep them at $0.00.

[billege]

The higher the ratio of available credit to used credit, the higher your overall FICO score will be. IE:
If you have $10,000 available, and have $8,000 used, that's not good.
If you have $10,000 available, and have $800 used, that is good.

You may want to close a few just for convienance sake. Who needs 8 credit cards?

If you're looking to make that just a bit easier to manage: Pick out the cards that have crappy terms. No one should pay any annual fees for a credit card, close those.

Make sure you're not going to get hit with any "maintanence fees" on an empty card. Some companies do that, don't keep a card that does.

Lose the cards with idiotic interest rates. If you want the card because of the account's age, but the rate is too high, call and ask for a reduction. If you're sitting on a $0 balance, with a good payment history, you'll be suprised how many cards will lower your rate on that card, just because you asked. The phone call to do that will be a pain, and they'll proly be overly happy to offer you a special rate, on a specific line of credit for that card. Just keep repeating "I have lower APR cards offering me an account, the APR on this card is too high. I like your customer service, however, and if you lower my APR I would stay with your company."

Chuck the youngest account cards. Account history length is a factor in your FICO score. Don't close your oldest cards unless they really suck.

Given you say you've maxed 8 ccards out at one point or another, it may help your spending habits to not have a deck of plastic available. I don't know. For me, I used to move money from card to card, spend here to pay there, all sorts of bad spending habits. It was very helpful to me to limit my charging choices. I have one card now, and it's the first decent account I ever got. Nice APR, no fees, and every other card I had has been closed. Whammo, closed. I don't even have an actual plastic card for that account, I cut that up. However, the account is active, and it's 0 balance and age help my FICO score. If I ever need the credit, I'm sure they'll be happy to send me another card.