ditching credit cards

funkyBase

Hi all,

Just some general questions.

When I first got credit cards when I was a poor undergrad, I got low limits, something like £200 which was fine by me. As I started use them more and always pay the balance in full, the limits slowly increased. I paid my bills on time etc so I started to get a real credit rating.

I ran up some small debts on a couple of cards recently, then applied for the 9 months HSBC card which gave me a limit of £3k which considering I'm still a student is great and was more than enough to transfer all my balances to 0% and will be paid off within the 9 months.

As I had no credit history to begin with I went for barclaycard and capital one (they do cards for people like that with high interest). These cards still have small limits and high interest due to their nature. I don't really use them and if I do, it's paid in full each month. I was thinking I maybe should cancel them and now that I have a credit rating if I ever needed it I could take advantage of their great offers maybe 9-12 months down the line if I wanted and do some serious stoozing.

I have other cards too, but I would like to keep them as I like using credit cards to buy things on the net and then pay the balance in full each month so I don't want to get rid of these.

What's the deal with canceling a card with a company only to try and get a better on 9 months or so down the line.

Any suggestions what to do?

Does it hurt your credit rating to have about 6 cards? Especially if I'm not using some of them.

Any suggestions what I should for the best of my credit rating to keep it good and considering I may want to stooze at some stage (I know applying too many cards can hurt yoru rating so I'll be careful to time them well apart).

Thanks

The_Boss

Take a read of this.

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

6 is probably one too many though. Which cards do you have?

funkyBase

The cards I have are
Egg
Capital One
Barclaycard
Amazon
HSBC
One with my bank

Capital One and Barclaycard and the ones I was thinking of closing as they have the lowest limits (350 and 800) and highest percentage but I've been with them the longest.

The rest have limits over 1K and lower rates. HSBC is the only one with any debt on it, about £1000 which should be paid within the 9 months 0% interest.

I have no other debts (students loans don't count yet :rotfl: )

I don't know what to do. I buy most of my things online and pay via credit cards so I rack up a bit but pay that off in full each month (apart from that HSBC 0% one).

Basically I'm thinking long term as mortgage time is coming up, and I want to make sure I'm in the best possible position.


I checked out those links and like everything it seems to be a balance. Maybe I should just carry on as it seems to be working so far. Would it be worthwhile actually getting a credit score?

Thanks

The_Boss

Egg is worth keeping. Barclaycard will offer you a decent deal if you close (a low rate for life on balance transfers). That could be of use in future.

I'd close Amazon and Capital One personally, but no more than two. I've already been stung by closing too many cards and reducing limits!

funkyBase

Thanks, I might do that. I only really want to close one or two. I'll let you know how it goes.

Catseyez

The_Boss wrote:

Egg is worth keeping. Barclaycard will offer you a decent deal if you close (a low rate for life on balance transfers). That could be of use in future.

I'd close Amazon and Capital One personally, but no more than two. I've already been stung by closing too many cards and reducing limits!

Boss,

How did you get caught out? Would they not let you re-apply?

lisyloo

Egg is worth keeping.

Boss - can you explain why you think Egg is worth keeping (I presume you mean egg card and not egg money).

I have closed mine today because there are now fees on balance transfers.
I can't see that it's much use.

Am I missing something?

The_Boss

lisyloo wrote:

Boss - can you explain why you think Egg is worth keeping (I presume you mean egg card and not egg money).

I have closed mine today because there are now fees on balance transfers.
I can't see that it's much use.

Am I missing something?

Because its useful to keep a card that lets you balance transfer into your bank account. I believe outside of any promotional period, there is no fee. So you can transfer from one card at a promo rate onto the Egg card and then into your bank account.

The_Boss

Catseyez wrote:

Boss,

How did you get caught out? Would they not let you re-apply?

Take a look at the link to the thread I posted above. Its not that I got caught, just that I have suffered.

lisyloo

Because its useful to keep a card that lets you balance transfer into your bank account. I believe outside of any promotional period, there is no fee. So you can transfer from one card at a promo rate onto the Egg card and then into your bank account.

I don't need this facility so I'm closing, but thanks anyway for the info :-)