With the recent AMEX account-closing wave, people are not only worried about recovering their points, they also worry whether there are any other side effects after a card is closed. Here’s a breakdown.

Impact 1: Credit history and score

Whether you close a card yourself or the bank closes it, your credit report is affected, which can affect your credit score. There are two main impacts. If your credit history is short and you have fewer cards, this effect is much more noticeable. But if you have a long history and many cards, shutting down one card—even if you have six or seven—usually does not have a big long-term impact.

  • Closing a card can shorten your credit history and reduce your average account age.
  • Closing a card can increase your debt-to-credit utilization ratio.

Let’s look at this in more detail. In the credit factors below, you can see that both credit history and utilization are two important components.

First is payment history, which generally refers to your history of paying card statements on time. The more of this clean payment history you have, the longer and healthier your history is, and the higher your credit score tends to be. If a card is closed, the payment history for that card stops growing, so there is some negative effect. But once the card is closed, the payment history will still remain on your credit report for at least ten years, so the impact from this angle is not huge.

Next is credit utilization. If you close a card, your utilization ratio will go up. For example, you have two cards: one with a $1,000 limit, another with a $2,000 limit, and your balance is $300. Your utilization is $300/($1,000+$2,000)=10%. If you close the $1,000-card, it becomes $300/$2,000=15%. If the card closed was the $2,000 one, utilization becomes 30%! In general, a higher utilization usually signals tighter cash flow and weaker repayment capacity, so it is negative for your score. That said, utilization under 20% is usually not a big difference and typically does not create strong negative effects. If you have many cards with high limits, utilization may only fluctuate around 1–3%. In that case, even if closing this batch of AMEX cards moves utilization from 3% to 5%, your score impact is usually minimal.

The third factor is credit history. This is directly tied to your cards. Credit history has two parts: your oldest card age, and your average account age. If the closed card is not your oldest card, the oldest-age metric is unaffected. For average age, once the card is closed, that account age no longer grows, so there is a slight negative effect. But this impact is usually small, because if you hold many cards, that average does not drop overnight.

Impact 2: Closure notation on your credit report

This first impact appears whether you close the card yourself or the bank does it. If you close it yourself, the report may show closed by owner; if the bank closes it, it may show closed by issuer/grantor. What’s the difference? One of the three major credit bureaus, Experian, has published that there is essentially no difference.

Dear Experian, I have an account listed as "Closed - Account closed at Credit Grantor's Request." What does this mean? I was never late on any payment for this account.- CVL

Experian's reply is:

When a credit-card account is closed, the lender may add a statement to the account stating whether it was closed by the cardholder or by the credit-card issuer. A statement saying the account was closed at the request of the credit grantor only means that the credit-card issuer closed the account, and it is not necessarily a concern. These statements do not impact credit scores and do not necessarily indicate problems with account management or repayment.

In the past, an account that was closed at the lender's request was considered negative information. That is no longer the case. People now frequently open and close credit-card accounts, and who closed the account is no longer an effective risk indicator. Why the lender may close the account can vary. Of course, if you are delinquent or have excess charges, your creditor may decide to close the account to prevent further charges, but there can be other reasons too. For example, if you have always made payments on time, but have not used the account for a while, your credit grantor may choose to close it because the account is inactive. If this does not describe your situation and you are not sure why the account was closed, you can call the creditor directly to ask.

Closed accounts do not hurt your credit as long as the account shows you paid on time. As long as the account shows all payments were made on time, it is viewed as positive credit regardless of who closed it. The fact that the account was closed by you or by the grantor is not treated as negative credit and will not be factored into the credit score.

Thank you for your inquiry


So according to Experian, passive closures by the bank are not very different from voluntary closures.

That said, if you have six or seven cards and they all show closed by the bank around the same time, when you apply for other cards, if a human underwriter reviews your application they might ask questions when they see that huge pattern. That can vary by case.

Impact 3: Being put on a blacklist

If you close your own card on your own, the bank typically does not add a special flag against you. But if you are closed for long-term delinquency, bankruptcy, or repeated rewards abuse, you can be placed on a blacklist. In other words, you may not be able to reapply with that bank in the near term. For example, after this AMEX closure wave, if you apply again you might see a decline reason like: "we previously cancelled your account." That means you are in the blacklist period, and applications are not likely to be approved during that time.

So how long does it take to get out of the blacklist? There’s no fixed answer; each bank has its own rules, and each person can be treated differently. In general, if you are closed, you might be back in about one to three years. For example, if AMEX closed you for failing a financial review, you may reapply in one or two years and be asked to submit updated tax returns; if that passes, you can be released. On the other hand, if you were closed and then sued the bank and got a large settlement, it could be five to ten years in the blacklist—possibly a lifetime ban. The bank may not want to do business with you.

For this AMEX closure wave, some people may have been flagged for reasons not personally related to them. AMEX cited points abuse, and at this level it is likely to mean at least three years in the blacklist.

How to reduce the impact

For the second and third impacts, there isn’t much we can actively do. The closure notation should stay on your credit report for up to ten years, but by the time you apply later, underwriting teams may not even review very old records in depth. For the third impact, it really comes down to the bank’s discretion. Note that receiving a card offer invitation from a bank does not mean you have been removed from the blacklist. Usually the bank’s marketing team and underwriting/risk team are separate, so getting marketing offers while declining in underwriting is normal. Still, after two or three years, you can try applying again to those banks to see if you’ve been released.

For the first impact, I recommend paying down the balance on the closed card and the balances on your other open cards after closure. Lowering balances lowers utilization, which reduces score impact. Also, if your score drops suddenly in a short time, it can affect other banks and may even trigger additional reviews or closures. So if your credit history is short and your balances are high, pay down more to reduce impact and risk.

Last, getting a card closed is never fun—I know that personally. I applied for the AMEX Blue Cash Everyday during my first year in the U.S., and even though I’ve been an AMEX customer for over a decade, I’d earned 3 million Membership Rewards points before all of that went away. It’s just one chapter; keep moving forward. Besides AMEX, there are still many banks worth using, with Chase and Citi both offering a lot of strong cards.

Check out these high recent sign-up bonuses:

If you’ve exhausted the card offers, you can also try bank account opening bonuses and brokerage/financial app onboarding offers—these typically don’t check your credit as strictly, and the rewards can be very competitive.

Some people leave, some people join. I wish everyone continued success in earning lots of rewards. The next time AMEX takes me off the blacklist, I’ll be back in full force.