How do I get credit for credit cards?

How to get rid of credit cards? Without hurting your credit?

• Alright, I have 5 credit cards, agh I know. I was young and stupid, anyway, I only owe on 2 of them (one $80 and one $60). Out of the 5, 4 are store credit cards. It doesn't seem to be hurting my credit, from what I can tell? How I know if you have to have a certain credit score at the electricity company I had to get, and they waived the deposit because of my credit score. So...my question..what should I do? I know cancelling a card hurts your credit. So, should I just keep them, cause like I said, I only owe on 2 of them. Or is there another way I could get rid of them?

• Answer:

  If you have a zero balance on the card then it wont hurt your credit if you just stop using them but keep the accounts open. If you close the accounts it means you technically can borrow LESS money now so it affects your credit rating and how much companies will loan to you.