Close unused CC's b4 new 1 for BT? PLEASE CLOSE

jackbremer

UPDATED WITH MORE ACCURATE INFO

Hi all,

I have 5 credit cards, with a total of £17,800 credit available.

I currently have £3250 on a Natwest Gold CC, at 0% interest, a promotional rate which runs out next year.

I don't use any of the other cards anymore.

I know that I should really close them, especially as none of them have promotional rates anymore, but my question is this:

should I cancel the cards I no longer use now, or after I apply for another card in order to do a balance transfer?

I don't know how long it takes for your credit score to be affected by cancelling a card.

Clariman

Why would you wait until you apply for a new card before cancelling them ? I would cancel them now. The (good ?) payment history will still be seen by other lenders when they do a search, so that will have no effect. However, the amount of available credit that you have will be reduced which should have a positive effect on your credit rating. Another reason to close cards is that the card issuer will normally treat you as a new customer 6 to 8 months later and you can get another 0% deal from them.

Clariman

JollyNolly

You might want to consider hanging on to the cards until you actually need to do a BT, as you may find your existing card companies want to keep your business by offering favourable deals. Then, if you've worked through the set of cards and no-one has offered you anything decent, apply for a new one.

jackbremer

So it sounds like tomorrow I should call my existing cards' banks and ask them for their best offer, choose one and close the rest... If none offer me zero percent then close all but the best and apply for another new one that does offer zero... hmmm

cheers.

PLEASE CLOSE

The_Boss

Take a look at this before you close any accounts and then make a decision.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=175234

Also, bear in mind that any accounts that are closed may not show up on your credit files for up to 3 months. Therefore, any new searches will not show these accounts as closed.