Does closing credit card accounts voluntarily damage your credit score?

No, I would dump the store credit cards.

Beyond that, it is usually recommended to keep your credit card accounts (visa, mc, am ex discover) and just contact them to reduce the available credit limit.

Yes. But it’s a relatively small ding and most people feel like it is worth it. Your score is partially based on the amount of credit available to you. By cutting that amount of credit, your score is dinged.

(Edited to say: Consumerist.com talks about this all the time—I’m looking for a good article for you.)

Some good reading, though your specific question is not answered in the article, it is talked about in the comments.

One person in the comments of the first article talks about a friend who was really having credit problems, so as she paid off her cards, she also closed them. While it was good to the friend to not have the credit available, it killed her credit rating because every time she’d get her debt to credit ratio in a good place, she’d do away with the available credit, plunging her score.

But in general, if you are good with your credit, closing the accounts is a small ding that goes away fairly quickly.

What goes into your FICO score?