I'm not an expert on credit scores, but I have done a good bit of research on how they're impacted by different variables. I know that a long history of a line of credit is seen as a positive; however, many open accounts can be weighted as a negative.
Is there a general guideline for balancing this? Specifically, while our credit score is 'excellent', we have around 10-15 lines of credit (e.g., department store cards, major creditors, mortgage, etc.) -- many of the department store cards we don't even use. Would we be better off leaving the lines of credit open so that they reflect a longer history of credit, or should we close them out to cut down on the number of lines of credit we have open?