Here are two important questions for credit card consumers:
How many credit cards do you have?
Do you need all of them?
Many consumers carry several credit cards with them on a daily basis, but use only a few over any given period of time. For many people, two or three credit cards are all that is truly needed. The rest of them can be cancelled, and probably should be cancelled.
One of the very best reasons for canceling some of those cards is that it reduces your temptation to use them. After all, you cannot put additional credit on something that you do not have. However, before you begin chopping up those unused credit cards, consider the following.
Make sure that the credit card you are going to cancel is an empty account. This means that the balance on the card is zero. If you owe anything on the account, even a few dollars, make sure that you pay it off completely before you cancel the card.
Silence is golden. If you are planning to cancel a card, keep it to yourself. In other words, do not tell the credit card company that you are planning to leave. This applies when you have a balance on the account but are planning to pay it...