OK, I have great credit and dont plan to buy anything major anytime soon. I have 5 credit cards, 2 having high interest rates. Should I close 2-3 credit cards to help my credit in the long run? I know it my score will go down at first, and thats ok, but a year and half from now is when I will want my score as high as possible. I just dont need 5 credit cards, I really only want 2 for emergencies. So should I forever keep them open or go ahead and close them?
Ok, so most say dont close them. So that means I will have these credit cards forever floating around and I'll never use them? I just dont see why I should just close them. I need more explanation people!

Call the card companies and attempt to negotiate for a better rate...if they won't budge then dump 'em.

Good Luck!

I know everyone will disagree with me but you should close them now if you are okay with your credit going down for a limited time. Everyone tells us don't close your card your credit will be hurt which is absolutely true. But it cost creditors money to keep your account open when you are not spending on it so guess what they have started closing out people's accounts when there is no activity on them. With letters saying to help you manage your finances we have closed your credit account due to no activity on this account in X number of years, months ect.

So what if in two years when you want to say buy a house or a car they decide to close that card and your credit will go down then anyway and probably at a bad time. Atleast right now you know you don't need anything credit wise and you know your credit will be hurt for awhile but atleast it is in YOUR control and not the Creditors.

cut them up or put them in a bag of water and put them in a freezer. But don't close them, because it will keep your credit in good standing as long as they're open. The longer the lines of credit are open and in good standing, that will reflect positively on you as being able to sustain credit cards for a long time. It will improve your "creditworthiness" the longer you have them. What you can do, is on those higher rate cards, simply call and ask them to lower the interest rate. Most companies will lower them as long as you have been current for more than 6 months. the worst they will say is "NO"