Closing a checking or savings account does not affect your credit score
Banks do not report checking or savings accounts to the three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — so closing one will not show up on your credit report at all. Your credit score is built only from borrowing activity: credit cards, loans, mortgages, and payment history on those accounts. A checking account, no matter how long you have held it or how much money sits in it, plays no role in that calculation.
This is one of the clearest distinctions in banking: accounts where you deposit and spend your own money (deposit accounts) are separate from accounts where you borrow money (credit accounts). Only the second type touches your credit.
Key Takeaways
- Closing a checking or savings account will not appear on your credit report or change your credit score in any way.
- Banks report deposit accounts only to ChexSystems, a banking history system separate from credit bureaus, which does not affect credit scoring.
- Closing an account may show up in ChexSystems for a few years, which some banks check when you open a new account, but this is not a credit issue.
- The only way closing a bank account indirectly affects credit is if you miss a payment on a credit card or loan because you closed the account the payment came from.
Why banks do not report deposit accounts to credit bureaus
Credit bureaus exist to track how reliably you repay borrowed money. A checking account is your own money sitting in a bank — there is no debt, no loan, and nothing being repaid. The bank has no reason to report it to credit agencies, and federal law does not require them to.
What banks do report is whether you have overdrawn the account, missed a payment on a linked credit product, or defaulted on a loan. The account closure itself is not one of those events.
ChexSystems is different from your credit report
When you close a checking or savings account, the closure may appear in ChexSystems, which is a banking history database that tracks your account activity at banks and credit unions. ChexSystems records things like overdrafts, bounced checks, and closed accounts — information that helps banks decide whether to open a new account for you.
ChexSystems is not a credit bureau. It does not affect your credit score. Some banks check ChexSystems when you explore for a new account, but they are looking at banking behavior, not creditworthiness. A closed account in ChexSystems may make a bank hesitant to open a new account for you if the closure was due to overdrafts or fraud, but it will not lower your credit score.
ChexSystems records typically stay on file for five years, though the exact timeline varies by bank and situation.
When closing an account could indirectly affect your credit
Closing a bank account itself does not hurt your credit, but what you do after closing it might. The most common scenario is missing a payment on a credit card or loan because you closed the account where the automatic payment was set up.
For example, if your credit card payment comes out of your checking account automatically each month, and you close that account without setting up the payment at your new bank, you could miss a payment. A missed payment will show up on your credit report and lower your score. The damage comes from the missed payment, not from closing the account.
To avoid this, before you close any account, check whether any bills, loan payments, or automatic transfers are tied to it. Move those payments to your new account first, or set them up with a different payment method.
Closing a savings account has no credit impact either
Savings accounts are even further removed from credit scoring than checking accounts. You cannot overdraw a savings account, and banks almost never link savings accounts to credit products. Closing a savings account will not appear anywhere on your credit report or in ChexSystems in any meaningful way.
The only exception is if you had a linked overdraft protection between a savings account and a credit card or loan. In that case, closing the savings account might affect the terms of the credit product, but it still will not change your credit score.
What actually affects your credit score
Your credit score is built from five categories: payment history (35%), amounts owed on credit accounts (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix — having different types of credit like cards and loans (10%) — and new credit inquiries (10%).
Closing a bank account does not touch any of these. It does not change your payment history, the amount you owe, how long you have had credit, or anything else that matters to credit scoring.
The only bank-related action that affects credit is closing a credit card account, which can lower your score because it reduces your available credit and may shorten your credit history. But that is a credit account, not a deposit account.
What to do before closing an account
Before you close a checking or savings account, take these steps to protect yourself:
- Check your account statements from the last three months to see what automatic payments or transfers are linked to it.
- Contact your employer, if you receive direct deposit, and update your banking information.
- Log into any bills you pay automatically — utilities, insurance, subscriptions — and change the account they draw from.
- Check your credit card and loan statements to see if any payments are set to come from this account.
- Wait for any pending deposits or checks to clear before closing.
- Ask the bank whether they will report the closure to ChexSystems and what it will show.
Once you have moved everything over, you can close the account without worry. The closure will not affect your credit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will closing a bank account show up on my credit report?
No. Bank account closures do not appear on credit reports at all. They may show up in ChexSystems, a separate banking history database, but ChexSystems does not affect credit scores.
Can closing multiple bank accounts hurt my credit?
No. Closing as many bank accounts as you want will not lower your credit score. Only credit accounts — credit cards, loans, mortgages — affect credit scoring.
What if I closed an account because I overdrew it?
The overdraft itself may appear in ChexSystems and could make some banks hesitant to open a new account for you, but it will not affect your credit score. The closure alone definitely will not.
Does closing a joint account affect both people's credit?
No. Neither person's credit score is affected by closing a joint checking or savings account. However, if the account had overdraft protection linked to a credit card, closing it could affect the credit card terms for both account holders.
If I close my account, can I reopen it later?
Most banks allow you to reopen a closed account within a certain window — often 30 to 90 days — without a new process. After that, you would need to open a new account. Check with your bank about their specific policy.