Will cancelling credit cards and changing banks ruin my credit rating?

I'm in the process of moving and will need to change banks from a local credit union to a more global bank. I've been with this credit union for about 6 years. If I closed my credit union account and opend another account where I am going to be living will my credit rating get a hit? I have heard that my credit history I had with the bank will not be on my credit report which will hurt my rating, since I have had a good history with this bank. I have this same question for credit cards as well, since I do not use my amex anymore, but have good credit with them, and do not want to pay the annual fee anymore. Will cancelling my amex remove the good credit I had with them from my credit report, which in turn hurt my credit rating?

Public Comments

1. No, your credit score will actually get better. Every time you close a credit card which has been paid off. Your credit score will increase. As far as the bank goes, you will only hurt there feeling, for loosing such a great and dedicated customer. Best Wishes
2. Your bank account doesn't report to the credit agencies, so you can change as much as you'd like. The only thing that will hurt the credit is that most banks will do a credit check before allowing you to open an account. Checking your credit will hit your credit by a few points. As far as the credit cards go, your credit score is based on your total credit card balance versus your total credit available. It doesn't really matter what cards the balances are on. Your good credit will remain on your credit report for 7-10 years even after cancelling your card.
3. if you have a good history with credit cards paying them off and cancel ling them will not have a negative affect on you credit.Should make your credit better. Changing banks will have no affect but if this is a credit union, you might want to consider keeping the relationship with them.Maybe you could bank with them on-line and set it up so you can transfer money into a local account or use atm's for withdrawals and direct deposit from work in this way if you ever need to borrow you already have the credit established with the credit union.
4. The above answers are wrong. Please take the time to go to http://www.myfico.com This is the home site for the people that developed the credit card scoring system used by the agencies. Part of your score involves credit history and your "debt to credit" ratio. If you cancel your credit card, it will have a negative effect on your score. However, it's also not good to have a card that charges you annual fees, especially when you don't use it. The drop in your score will be temporary, and should be restored in a few months. I suggest getting whatever credit you need first, then cancel the card. Your relationship with the bank isn't monitored by the credit bureau unless you have taken out loans. The loan info will be on your history and will not be removed when you switch banks. So you are safe there. My experience with credit unions is they have better interest rates on both savings and loans. Isn't there a way that you can somehow maintain your relationship with them?
5. The bank accounts will not have an effect on your credit, however, closing a credit card in good standing may hurt your score for awhile. It will hurt your score even more if you close this credit card account and open a new one. Part of credit scoring is the average age of your accounts. Your closing an "old" account and opening a new account will lower your average age of your accounts. It is not a hit that cannot be overcome though, and you should weigh in other things, such as will it be convienent to pay this bill from a distance (do they have online bill payment options or will you have to rely on the US postal service). In addition, keeping an account at the credit union may be beneficial to you should you need financing later on. Credit Unions tend to be more generous to their members in good standing (especially if you have a long history with them). Just a few thoughts.
6. First off changing banks should not have any affect on your credit score. However you do want to be careful that any automated bill payments are transferred to your new account to avoid any late payments. As for cancelling credit cards, this will not hurt your score either unless you have no other credit. The score factors are complicated but the thing you want to do is keep your debt to a minimum but not have zero debt. Having one or two open accounts with less than half of the full available credit is a good way to maintain a solid score. It should be noted that there are many different types of credit accounts and a wide array of factors used to determine your credit score. I would recommend buying a credit report directly from one or all of the credit bureas, along with some of the analysis products they offer, which will help guide you through what needs to change or stay the same with your credit in order to maintain or improve your score. vist http://www.equifax.com and check out the products they offer.