 TITLE: What to Do if Your Personal Credit Line Is Closed CONTENT: How Does Closure of a Personal Line of Credit Affect Your Credit Score?\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------\nSimilar to a credit card account, a personal line of credit is a form of revolving credit. In both cases, a lender enables you to borrow against an approved credit limit and pay off the debt over time. Both credit card accounts and personal lines of credit also affect your credit scores, based on how you handle these accounts.\nThe FICO® Score☉ and VantageScore® credit scoring models place a lot of emphasis on how you manage your revolving credit. In particular, they keep a close eye on how much of your available credit you're using (your credit utilization). As your credit utilization climbs above 30%, your credit score could suffer. When a personal line of credit is closed, that chunk of available credit is lost, which could cause your overall credit utilization ratio to go up.\nIn addition, closure of a personal line of credit decreases the number of accounts you have and could reduce the average age of your accounts. Both of these factors can affect your credit score, but not to the same extent that a high credit utilization ratio can.\nIf you get enough notice that a lender plans to close your personal line of credit, consider reducing the balances on your other debts to potentially cushion any blow to your credit score. END