Will closing a credit card hurt my wife's credit score?

[bank5]

I'd like to close my DW's credit card account so we don't have to bother with two accounts. However, I don't want it to negatively effect her credit score. Here's our situation:

Our credit scores are both around 750. Her credit card has been open for 5 years (~$4k credit limit) and I just added her to my credit card account that I've had open for 5 years (~$18k credit limit). We pay our credit cards in full every month. Will closing her card hurt her credit score? If so, any idea how much it will bring down the score?

 

[bbbamI]

There was some discussion in this thread....
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f30/fico-score-question-39980.html?highlight=fico+score

 

[bank5]

Thanks for the link.

I've heard some financial advisors say that closing a credit card doesn't hurt your fico score if don't carry a balance and have good credit. Seems like most people on here like to keep their oldest credit card open and I'll probably do the same. I wonder how much it would lower my fico score if I closed it. I'm guessing just a couple of points if any at all.

 

[FinanceDude]

Yes, and no. The CC companies look very closely at utilization rations. For example, closing a card that has a limit of $10,000 out of an overall credit card limits of $100,000 is no big deal. If you have an overall credit limit of $20,000, it IS a big deal.

I recommend only CLOSING out ONE credit card a year, at most....... CUTTING up cards I recommend all the time.......

 

[Walt34]

When we retired and moved DW asked about closing out her one credit card. I suggested she keep it open so she'd have credit in her own name.

I'm six years older than her so statistically I'm more likely to have The Big Ache before she does and in that event she may need or want credit in her own name.