Should I close my credit cards before leaving United States?

Question

I have been living in the US for ~5 years and have around 6 credit cards and 2 checking accounts. I was on a student visa (and then OPT) here which will also expire in June, 2020. I will be moving to Australia permanently in a month and don't think I will move back to the US to live in the near future. Should I close my credit card accounts? I wish to keep at least on checking account just to make sure I don't need to send or receive any payments (like taxes next year).

Answer 1

Some credit cards have annual fees that needs to be paid and if you no longer have an income in the country it might be difficult to know when and how to settle those and in some cases they can then be forwarded to Debt collection agencies.

This will then cause you an immense amount of trouble.

The above is the only drawback I can think of, if you think you can stay on top of these things there is no reason to cancel them, in fact it can be quite useful to have credit cards from other countries sometimes.

For example I currently live in china and many US ECOM sites do not accept credit cards from main land China, in this case it is very useful to have a US credit card to use.

For me personally I have credit cards from 3 different countries because I travel a lot but I also have property in each of those countries so I can receive mail/bills/notifications and I have people looking at my mail weekly to ensure it does not simply pile up.

In general it is always best to leave a country with a clean sheet and leave nothing behind that can cause you problems later on, but please bare the above in mind based on my experience.

Answer 2

The following would be some good reasons to keep your credit cards:

• Credit score/history - Even if you don't use the credit cards, you still build up your credit history, in case you want to take out a loan, buy a house/car in the future.
• Rewards - Does your card offer specific rewards? If you have a store-specific card that you actually use and you get good deals, why not keep it? If you travel often and you have a travel credit card with miles, you can still use that and benefit from it.
• Backup credit card - Sometimes a country may not accept certain cards from other countries. It's good to have a backup, and it might help if you need to pay for something in dollars or from the US (online order, streaming service, etc.)

If you have a card that you do not plan on using but that has an annual fee, you can consider closing that card, but if there is no annual fee, just keep it. The credit score is a good enough reason to just do nothing.