How does closing a credit account after a balance transfer affect your credit?

I've read several yahoo answers about balance transfers in which the answerer advises NOT to close the credit account after transferring a balance. How does this negatively affect the account holder?|||The more credit that you have availiable to you ,that you carry a 0 ballance on increases your credit score.If the are no fees with your cards you should not close them,Ie Mastercard,Visa.You should use them occassionally and pay them off as soon as you get the bill.Never miss a payment and rember if you are paying your bill over the internet , it takes 3 days to process.A wise person will only use credit cards for nessities and pay it so as they get home.This will allow you to gain the rewards that some cards offer and yet pay no interest as remember for every 1000.00$ balance that you carry you are paying 30.00$ interest and that is a waste of money.|||the credit bureau wants to see a low balance to credit limit ratio. say you have a credit card with a 2000 limit and 1500 balance - that's a very high and bad 75% of your credit limit being used. Now you get a new card with a 2000 limit and transfer the 1500 balance - if you keep the old card open, now your % of credit used is only 1500/4000 = 37.5%. If you then close out the old card, your ratio goes back up to 75% and your credit score takes a hit - ideally - they want your balance to be less than 20% of your available credit|||It's weird but don't do it. Because of how FICO score is established closing an account lowers your debt to credit ratio and lowers your score.|||Hurts it because it decreases your total available credit and closes an older account in favor of a newer one. Leave it open with zero balance.