Impact of having unused CC on credit rating?

dellboy102

Hi Guys

I've just been accepted for the Egg money card and was intending to use that innstead of my capital one card so I get 1% cashback on purchases rather then nothing, I was going to cancel my cap one however I've just discovered their identity theft protection services for card holders ( http://www.capitalone.co.uk/web/capital-one-identity-theft-protection.jsf ).
My question was is there any negative impact on my credit rating if I keep a dormant credit card?, or I guess the real question is, is any "non activity" recorded in our credit rating files, I will probably be getting my first mortgage soon so I really want to try and keep my rating as good as poss!.

Thanks for reading!

Richard019

dellboy102 wrote: »

Hi Guys

I've just been accepted for the Egg money card and was intending to use that innstead of my capital one card so I get 1% cashback on purchases rather then nothing, I was going to cancel my cap one however I've just discovered their identity theft protection services for card holders ( http://www.capitalone.co.uk/web/capital-one-identity-theft-protection.jsf ).
My question was is there any negative impact on my credit rating if I keep a dormant credit card?, or I guess the real question is, is any "non activity" recorded in our credit rating files, I will probably be getting my first mortgage soon so I really want to try and keep my rating as good as poss!.

Thanks for reading!

I'm pretty certain when I looked at my credit file that I couldn't tell the difference between the unused cards and the "paid in full each month" cards.

In any case, when I got my mortgage the only credit I'd ever had was 2 totally unused credit cards (for 2 years or so) and my student overdraft. I was still given their best interest rate and after getting it referred to the underwriters more than 4 times my actual salary. Given a lot of my pay is unguaranteed (but regular) overtime it was effectively 5.5 times.

Admittedly I did have a 30%+ deposit but it doesn't seem like the cards were a problem. It was also a few months pre-credit crunch which from a personal point of view was fortunate as I doubt I'd get the same amount now.

exel1966

dellboy102 wrote: »

My question was is there any negative impact on my credit rating if I keep a dormant credit card?, or I guess the real question is, is any "non activity" recorded in our credit rating files, I will probably be getting my first mortgage soon so I really want to try and keep my rating as good as poss!.

Thanks for reading!

Only so much that anyone looking at your credit history will see the other card and will see the available credit you have access to on that card which can and probably will be taken into account when assessing a credit limit on further cards. Non activity could be recorded,but it will depend on the organisation, but that isn't a problem.

It shouldn't affect a mortgage application as different criteria are used.

A good reason for holding onto your Capital One card is that it also gives you FREE access to your credit report twice yearly and you'll get alereted everytime somebody looks at your report.