Closing a savings account does not damage your credit score
Closing a savings account has no direct effect on your credit. Credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—do not track savings accounts, money market accounts, or checking accounts. They track only credit activity: loans you have taken, credit cards you carry, and how you pay them. A savings account closure will not appear on your credit report and will not change your credit score.
The confusion often comes from mixing up savings accounts with credit accounts. A savings account is a place to store money. A credit card or loan is a promise to repay borrowed money. Only the second type shows up in your credit history. Closing the first type is invisible to credit scoring.
Key Takeaways
- Savings accounts, checking accounts, and money market accounts do not appear on your credit report, so closing one will not affect your credit score.
- Credit bureaus only track credit products like loans and credit cards, not deposit accounts.
- Closing a credit card can hurt your score because it reduces available credit and may shorten your credit history, but closing a savings account does neither.
- If you have a linked credit card or loan tied to your savings account, closing the account does not close the credit product.
- Banks may report account closures to ChexSystems, a checking account history database, but this is separate from your credit report and does not affect credit scores.
Why savings accounts do not appear on credit reports
Credit reports exist to show lenders how you handle borrowed money. A savings account is your own money sitting in a bank—there is no debt, no payment history, and no risk to a lender. Because of that, credit bureaus have no reason to track it and no legal right to include it in your credit file.
Your credit report contains only accounts where you owe money or have a line of credit available: credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, personal loans, student loans, and similar products. Each of these shows a credit history—how much you borrowed, how much you owe now, and whether you paid on time. A savings account shows none of that.
This is why you can have a large savings balance and still have a low credit score, or have no savings and a high credit score. The two are measured in completely different systems.
The difference between closing a savings account and closing a credit card
Closing a credit card can hurt your credit score. Closing a savings account cannot. The difference matters because people often confuse the two.
When you close a credit card, your available credit shrinks. If you had a $5,000 limit and you close it, lenders see you as having $5,000 less credit available. This can raise your credit utilization ratio—the percentage of your available credit that you are currently using—and a higher utilization ratio lowers your score. Additionally, closing a credit card can shorten your credit history if it was an old account, and older accounts help your score.
When you close a savings account, none of this happens. You have no available credit tied to the account, no utilization ratio affected, and no credit history shortened. The account simply stops existing.
What happens to linked credit products when you close a savings account
Some banks tie a savings account to a credit card or line of credit. If you close the savings account, the credit product remains open unless you close it separately. Closing the savings account does not automatically close the credit card or credit line.
For example, if you have a bank credit card and a savings account at the same institution, closing the savings account will not close the credit card. The card will stay active, your credit limit will remain the same, and your credit report will not change. You would have to contact the bank and close the credit card separately if you wanted to do that.
The same applies to home equity lines of credit, overdraft protection tied to savings, or any other credit feature linked to your account. The savings account and the credit product are separate in the bank's system and on your credit report.
ChexSystems reports and why they are not credit reports
When you close a savings account, the bank may report the closure to ChexSystems, a database that tracks checking and savings account history. This is not the same as a credit report. ChexSystems is used by banks to decide whether to open new accounts for you, not by credit card companies or lenders to decide whether to lend to you.
A negative mark on ChexSystems—such as closing an account with an outstanding balance or a history of overdrafts—can make it harder to open a new bank account elsewhere. But it will not appear on your credit report and will not affect your credit score. The two systems are separate.
Most account closures are reported neutrally to ChexSystems and do not harm your ability to open a new account. Closures that do cause problems are usually those involving unpaid fees, fraud, or repeated overdrafts.
Reasons to close a savings account that have nothing to do with credit
You might close a savings account for many practical reasons: the bank charges high fees, you are moving to a different bank, you want to consolidate accounts, or you simply no longer need it. None of these decisions will hurt your credit.
Before you close, check whether you have any automatic payments or transfers set up through the account. Make sure you have moved any money you want to keep. If the account has a balance, withdraw it or transfer it to another account. If you owe the bank money—unpaid fees, for example—settle that before closing to avoid a negative ChexSystems report.
Once you have handled those details, closing the account is straightforward and will not affect your credit in any way.
What actually affects your credit score
Your credit score is built from five main factors: payment history (35%), amounts owed on credit accounts (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix—the variety of credit types you use (10%)—and new credit inquiries (10%). Closing a savings account touches none of these.
What does affect your score: missing a credit card payment, paying off a loan early, opening a new credit card, carrying a high balance on a credit card, or closing a credit card account. These are all credit activities. Deposit accounts—savings, checking, money market—do not factor in at all.
If you are concerned about your credit score, focus on credit products, not bank accounts. Pay credit card bills on time, keep balances low, and avoid opening too many new credit accounts in a short period.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will closing my savings account show up on my credit report?
No. Savings accounts do not appear on credit reports at all, whether open or closed. Only credit products like credit cards and loans show up. You can close a savings account without any impact on your credit file.
Can closing a savings account affect my ability to get a loan?
Not directly. Lenders look at your credit score and credit history, not your savings account status. However, if you close a savings account with an outstanding balance or unpaid fees, that might show up on ChexSystems, which some lenders check. Settle any outstanding issues before closing to avoid that problem.
What if I close my savings account and open a new one at a different bank?
This will not hurt your credit. Opening a new savings account does not trigger a hard inquiry or appear on your credit report. The old account closure and the new account opening are both invisible to credit scoring.
Does my savings account balance affect my credit score?
No. Credit scores measure how you handle borrowed money, not how much money you have saved. You could have $100,000 in savings and a low credit score, or no savings and a high credit score. The two are completely separate.
If I have overdraft protection linked to my savings account, will closing it hurt my credit?
Closing the savings account will not hurt your credit. However, if the overdraft protection is a separate credit line, closing that line could affect your score the same way closing a credit card would. Check with your bank about whether the overdraft protection is a standalone credit product before you close the account.