In a recent column about simplifying your financial life, I recommended consolidating accounts and getting rid of ones that you don't use, especially when they have high fees.

A couple of readers wrote to me with credit score questions:

“If you cancel a credit card, doesn't it affect your credit score?” wondered the first.

“I have several credit cards that I do not use,” wrote another. “I pay off my credit card balances every month and have a credit score around 825. I would like to close some of the unused accounts but am not sure how it would affect my credit score. What do you recommend?”

Yes, canceling a credit card can affect your credit score, but it's complicated. And the possible benefits could outweigh the negatives, depending on your situation.

A credit score is made up of many different elements. Canceling a credit card can indeed adversely affect your credit score in several possible respects: your “credit utilization,” average age of your accounts and your credit mix.

Credit utilization refers to the ratio of the balance you carry to the total limits on all your cards. It's a large factor, about 35 percent of a typical credit score. Even if you pay off all your cards every month, like the second letter writer (and good for you!), you can get dinged on credit utilization if your balance goes above 30 percent of the limit on any of the cards at any point in the billing cycle.

However, you may be able to avoid hitting this limit by spreading your charges more evenly among your cards. If you have the financial resources, you can also lower your credit utilization by making two payments within a single billing cycle.

Also, with a high credit score like the second writer, you could try calling and asking to get your limit raised on one or two cards while closing others. Charging $3,000 a month on a single card with a $30,000 limit gives you the same credit utilization ratio as splitting the same amount between two cards with a $15,000 limit each.

Bottom line: If you have several unused cards, canceling one or two is unlikely to hurt such a high credit score. Don't cancel several cards all at once; spread them out over a year or more so you can check your credit report in between and make sure things are going OK. And when you go to cancel an account, make sure you do it formally in a letter and don't just put the card away and stop using it.

Average age of accounts is also a factor. Because part of your credit score is based on the length of your credit history, it's never advisable to close your oldest credit card account.

Credit mix is a minor factor compared to the others. It's pretty hard to find what the credit bureaus consider to be an optimal mix of credit accounts, but generally for a perfect score they like to see people with positive payment histories on both credit cards and some kind of installment debt like a mortgage, bank loan, student loan or auto loan. So don't get rid of all your credit cards — which is not what I was suggesting, in any case.

When deciding which ones to cancel, also keep in mind that retail or store-brand cards are less beneficial to your credit score than ones from major banks, which tend to be harder to get.

So I repeat what I said before. Unless your entire credit history is based on credit cards alone, or you are a fanatic when it comes to points and other incentive programs, there's no great reason to carry more than three or four cards: one for your home, one for business expenses and one for emergencies; or one for yourself, one for family expenses and one for emergencies.

Anya Kamenetz' most recent book is

“The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed with Standardized Testing, but You Don't Have to Be.” She welcomes your questions at diyubook@gmail.com.