My uncle told me to close an old card to "clean up" my credit, and it cost me 40 points

Hugo Gonzalez · 2026-10-04T08:40:03.53452+00:00

My uncle has been doing his own taxes and money stuff for 30 years, so when he told me to close a store card I never touched, I listened. This was back in March, and the card had a $1,500 limit that had been open since 2016. He said having too many open lines looks messy to lenders, so I called and shut it down. About 6 weeks later I applied for a car loan at my credit union in Mesa and my score had dropped from 742 to 702. The loan officer pulled up my report and pointed at the closed account. She explained that closing it cut my total available credit and bumped my usage ratio way up, since I was still carrying a balance on my other card. That 40 point hit stuck around for almost 4 months. I get that he meant well, but I wish I had just asked the credit union first instead of taking money advice from family. Has anyone else been burned by advice from a relative who meant good but did not know the details?

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My uncle told me to close an old card to "clean up" my credit, and it cost me 40 points | Credit Scores - Topic Shares