Utilising my 8 credit cards to the best possible effect

Hi,
I will soon be trying to get a fairly large mortgage (looking at houses worth about £500,000), probably with an LTV of about 75% and am looking for advice as to how best to improve my credit worthiness by means of utilising my credit cards to the best possible effect.

In recent years I’ve found it extremely difficult to get any kind of finance even though I am a fairly high earner (roughly £70,000 per year self-employed).

There are a number of obvious contributing factors that have led to me being constantly refused credit and I’ve also learned that there were a few less obvious factors, all of which I have now taken steps to address.

My main problems in the past have been caused by having huge long and short term debt. I’ve had 10 mortgages (9 Buy to Let and 1 residential) and I’ve now reduced this to 8 and 1 (a lot of lenders seem to see 10 mortgages as being the magic “maximum” number). I currently have £109,000 worth of available credit card credit and have finally reduced my utilisation to zero, which will hopefully make a big difference. Over the past 10 years my utilisation has always been extremely high, peaking at 90% at the end of last year before I took steps to pay everything off very rapidly. I also don’t’ have any loans, despite relying heavily on them in the fairly recent past (I have just had one approved recently though, resulting in the only hard credit search I’ve had done on my in the past 6 months. This was for a £1,500 interest free loan that was offered by the energy saving trust. One other important thing, I have 2 defaults – one for £40 that has just expired after 6 years (for an unpaid gas bill) and another for £60 (unpaid mobile bill) which expires this December. My payment record (for all other types of credit) has been otherwise flawless.

So with a new mortgage application in mind, I think I have done everything I possibly can do to maximise my chances (I’ve done all other stuff like registering myself to vote and updating my addresses etc.). The one final thing I think I can still do to help though is to utilise my credit cards as effectively as possible. The 8 cards I have were opened in 2002, 2006 (x2), 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016 (x2). I no longer need to rely on any type of credit (except mortgages of course!) but understand that clever utilisation of the credit cards could increase my chances of getting another mortgage. So how best should I do this? I now have my direct debits set to pay the balance in full each month but should I be utilising the cards up to a certain level or is it enough just make sure I use each card once per month (for a small amount)? Also, should I be cancelling off the ones I’ve taken out more recently? If so, how many should I cancel? Bear in mind I quite like the option of having £109,000 credit available but I’m happy to take a hit for the greater good if need be!

I realise there probably isn’t a definitive answer but any advice and tips would be welcomed.

Incidentally, my “credit scores” with Experian, Equifax and Call credit have recently changed to “fair”, “good” and “2/5” respectively, having always been the lowest possible category in all cases. I know that the “credit scores” don’t mean a great deal but it’s certainly an indication that the recent efforts I’ve made are having an effect.