<i.>3. Keep all the accounts active because it helps my FICO score?

The correct answer is three. Closing your accounts reduces your available credit to debt ratio, making you appear to be deeper in debt. You literally would need six digits of available credit to have the opposite problem of too much possible available credit.

Also keep in mind that from a FICO scoring stand point, unused accounts in good standing no longer are used in the equation if they are inactive for six months. This is opposed to unused accounts in bad standing which are used for seven years in FICO scoring. To keep them as part of the equation you should buy a lunch, rent a video, get a tank of gas, etc. once every four to six months on unused accounts, go home and make an online payment before you forget.

I'll say it again, the more I look at the FICO scoring system, the more I feel it is flawed (flawed does not translate into broken).