Not using credit cards, shall i cancel ?

cceg

Hi there,

I have got 4 credit cards that i no longer use.
I have paid off all debt on them and they have not been in use for about 3 years.

My Barclaycard has recently renewed and i would like to keep this as it has a good limit on it IF there is ever a need in an emergancy ( hopefully not )

The other 3 shall i just phone up an cancel ? Will it look better on my credit scoring if i had less credit cards?

Thanks for the help in advance.

CannyJock

Standard advice is to keep 2:

• 1 for normal day-to-day use and make sure that you clear the balance in full each month
• 1 for a backup just incase

The other 2 you can close if you won't need them. Assuming you have only 4?

Obviously keeping the ones that reward your spending in some way would be one option, or keeping the 2 with the highest credit limit.

Cancelling cards will reduce the "amount of available credit" which is one part of the credit scoring. It'll potentially mean that your "% of credit used" statistic is higher, but I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Not using your card for extended periods of time can mean that the credit card reports U's to the CRA's instead of 0's so you might not be helping your credit rating if they're completely inactive. Standard advice is to spend a little on them and clear in full each month.

There's another thread elsewhere that reminds people that if they haven't used a card for over 13 months then the DD is automatically cancelled, so if you do start using the cards again, be sure you don't get caught out by this.

NickX

cceg wrote: »

The other 3 shall i just phone up an cancel ? Will it look better on my credit scoring if i had less credit cards?

Personally I don't think so. The national average is 5 Credit Cards, so your 4 should not present any problem on your Credit History.

I would keep them, you really need more than one for emergency incase the first one is not accepted or there is a problem on the account (remember these days Card Providers are known to cancel accounts that are seldom used). In addition, it is possible that they may offer you an attractive existing customer deal.

Wolfgang_Lake

Hi CCeg,

Your Credit Score is built up by using your cards and maintaining the repayments. As you’re not using them I would definitely cancel the cards, Just to prevent you ever letting them get out of hand. This should keep your credit ratings balanced, so if you ever do need money fast you should be entitled to a small loan or overdraft, if not then another card again… with or with out the Barclaycard.

Regards