Can canceling an old credit card with no balance due potentially harm your credit score?

Canceling an old credit card with no balance due can potentially harm your credit score due to the impact it may have on your credit utilization ratio and the length of your credit history. When you close a credit card account, you reduce your total available credit. If you have outstanding credit on other cards, this can increase your overall credit utilization ratio, which is a key factor in your credit score. Higher utilization percentages can signal potential risk to lenders, possibly leading to a lower score.

Additionally, canceling a card that is older can affect the average age of your credit accounts. A longer credit history positively influences your score, so removing an older card may shorten the length of your credit history, which can further impact your score negatively. Therefore, keeping older accounts open, especially with no balance, is often recommended to maintain a healthy credit score.