Yes. It will affect your credit score. You could possibly cancel a card or loan that has a long history. And, you will probably raise your credit utilization score which will lower your score.

For example, if you have $5,000 in creidt card debt spread over three cards that have a credit limit of $10,000 each. You have a credit utilization ratio of 16.6% (5k/30k). Cancelling one of your cards with a zero balance will increase your ratio to 20% (5k/20k) and make you look more risky to lend to.

I believe Hank is right. But you might also consider the long term affects of having one fewer credit card. If you feel it will help control your spending, for instance, then it could be worth a slight drop now to become more credit-worthy later.

I am not very schooled on how this works or why it works this way - but yes it can and does affect your credit score. I canceled a credit card that I was no longer using,several actually, and next thing I knew my credit score did a nice little drop. So my personal advice, think wisely before doing it, and looking into it closely.