It is not whether you should or should not close accounts that are inactive... it is when to close them. Contrary to what some of the 'so-called-experts may tell you, closing accounts, inactive or not, with or without balances WILL NOT RAISE YOUR SCORES!! (initially anyway)
In fact, closing them WILL tend to DROP your scores immediately after closing them. Again, it is just like the result of paying off old collections, closing accounts that are inactive immediately brings those accounts to the forefront of the scoring algorithms and appear to be new credit activity. New activity is a show of risk and therefor the scores are adjusted accordingly.
Now that said, eventually, your scores will definitely go up as a result of closing credit accounts. Less credit is less risk (as long as you have at least 3 to 4 active and open accounts). So, again, it is the timing that is important. If you are applying for credit within the next 60 days or so, don't close them yet. If you are more than a couple months out, by all means, close those inactive accounts and watch the scores come up over the next 60 days or so.
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