What’s the Best Strategy to Cancel a Credit Card?

Canceling a credit card may negatively affect your score. Learn how to cancel a credit card to minimize the damage and how to decide which card to close.

By Laura Adams, Quick and Dirty Tips and Debt.com

“My fiancé and I plan to get married as soon as this pandemic ends. Luckily, we both still have jobs, although I’ve been furloughed one week out of the month. We’re trying to pare down our financial lives to the bare necessities, so I want to get rid of at least some of our credit cards.

I have a Visa and Discover Card I’ve had forever, and four store cards that I only got because there was an initial discount. My fiancé has nine cards, and he’s always trying to use the ones that give him the most rewards. Unfortunately, he has so many he sometimes forgets to pay one, and between the late fees and the annual fees he’s paying, I’m not sure he’s really earning anything.

He doesn’t want to close any of our cards because he says it will destroy our credit score. I’d rather our score drop than keep cards we can’t keep track of in a bad economy. I don’t want to argue about this, so what do you think? Should we close some of our cards and if so, which ones are the best to close?”