Too much credit?

Matt666

Hi guys, just a quickie - I currently have 4 credit cards, 2 of which have £0 & £15 balance and the other 2 are on 0% to be cleared, totalling about £3500 between the 2 of them.

The 2 that are clear have limits of £4200 and £3500 - I just wanted to know if having these will affect me getting a mortgage in the near future if I keep them because I have too much credit, or would I better just closing them? If it would affect it, and I were to close them both today, how long would I expect to have to wait before they no longer posed a problem...if they do? :D

I hope that all makes sense!

:beer:

lisyloo

How much total available credit do you have? (add up all the limits - I can only see 2 mentioned).
What is your income?

If you have a decent income then it's unlikely to be a problem, but I close unused cards because

1) they are all a small fraud risk
2) stops you getting newcustomer deals
3) could involve a dormancy fee at some point
4) may affect credit rating

If you close them you need to allow 3 months for internal procedures plus updateing of credit reference agencies.

In the scale of a mortgage I feel this credit is unlikely to be an issue.
You income and length of employment and LTV (loan to value) are more significant factors.

Matt666

Thanks for the reply - total credit available is £12,200 - income is around 30k. I think i'll go ahead and close them, I certainly don't intend to use the cards - and once they're all clear i'll be using just 1 to stay in good credit (paying for petrol etc or large purchases and paying off the balance every month).

:beer:

lisyloo

I don't think that level of credit would be a problem on your income in relation to the mortagage.
I'd close 2 on the basis of the other reasons I mentioned.
I would keep 2 because there may be occassions when you have a problem with one card.
One of my cards has recently stopped working at the supermarket and I think it's just a few years of wear and tear on the magnetic strip. So it can happen for varuious reasons.
Also if you ever suffered from fraud you'd have to wait whilst another card came through in the post.
Always worth having a back up and don't forget that in this credit crunch it might be ahrd to open up those lines of credit again.

Matt666

True, some good advice there, thanks!