Which card account to close

MacWeeble

I've just transferred a balance from a Virgin card to a new card to keep 0% on my balance. My question is which (if any) card accounts should I close? I think I've read that keeping hold of accounts which you've had for a long time can help keep your credit rating high, but having too much available credit can work against you.

I have the following cards which I use day to day:
Barclaycard (4,500 limit), cleared every month
Amex Platinum Cashback (2000 limit), cleared every month

Plus the following:
Lloyds Classic Mastercard (1000 limit, 0 balance, have had for 12 years)
Virgin Mastercard (6500 limit, 0 balance, have had for 15 months)
Natwest Platinum (6000 limit, 5000 balance, new card for 0% BT offer)

Which of the Lloyds or Virgin Card should I close to have the best effect on my credit rating? Or should I be closing both?

Thanks in advance
MW

BackOnTrack

Close both probably. A common experience at the moment seems to be getting refused because you have to much credit available to you.

[Deleted User]

Good point above. Although Virgin are probably most likely to give you another decent offer in the future, so may be worth hanging on to for a while.

But the Lloyds one looks to be a dead duck.

What's the Barclaycard giving you? Do you need to keep that or could you get by on the Amex and maybe the Virgin? I'd keep Virgin in preference to Barclaycard.

paulmcerlean

Probably the Lloyds one, do you bank with them or Natwest as your primary account?

Any

Good question - what is the Barclaycard giving you? Any rewards?

I personally would hold on to Virgin and close NatWest and Lloyds.

Virgin can offer you good 0% purchase rate or low cost loan quite often..

js78

Keep the Lloyds account open 12yrs of history will show stability close the other accounts rather than that one is best advice. My friend is an underwriter in Bank of America that is exactly what he suggested I did.

paulmcerlean

js78 wrote: »

Keep the Lloyds account open 12yrs of history will show stability close the other accounts rather than that one is best advice. My friend is an underwriter in Bank of America that is exactly what he suggested I did.

But with a £1000 limit on the Lloyds card, by closing the others, he would be limiting his spending power dramatically.

May or may not be a good thing, but £1000 on a card after 12 years is not a lot - and not a lot in general.

Any

js78 wrote: »

Keep the Lloyds account open 12yrs of history will show stability close the other accounts rather than that one is best advice. My friend is an underwriter in Bank of America that is exactly what he suggested I did.

I doubt you need to show THAT level of stability...

Exactly what paulmcerlean said.

Degenerate

Deleted_User wrote: »

What's the Barclaycard giving you? Do you need to keep that or could you get by on the Amex and maybe the Virgin? I'd keep Virgin in preference to Barclaycard.

Barclaycard have been making some pretty spectacular existing customer offers of late, sometimes better even than MBNA.

I'd ditch LLoyds definitely. As for the others, that would depend on the income ratio.

MacWeeble

Thanks everyone who has replied. Just to be clear, the NatWest card is a new one which I am just using for the 0% balance transfer, I won't be spending on it, it will just be locked in a drawer until I've paid off the balance.

I use the Barclaycard and the Amex for my day-to-day spending and clear the balances every month - rewards are the cashback on the Amex and the (frankly poor) Barclaycard freedom rewards on the Barclaycard. I don't incur any interest on either of these cards.

The Lloyds card has no rewards and the Virgin card doesn't have any that I'm interested in.

I'm mostly interested in your advice as to which account I should close (from the Lloyds and Virgin) to maintain the best credit rating. I'm not planning on spending on whichever card I keep, although it might be nice to have one empty card available for emergencies. However, I'm willing to consider closing both if there's a compelling reason.

Thanks
MW

poormaria

No one keeps 12 years account history so I don't see the point in keeping for that long. Your score with the majority of lenders is based on:
How much credit available
How much used
Missed payments

and the new one....

Do you only make the minimum payment?

Personally I'd close the LLoyds, the virgin one may in handy for when you have to balance transfer again.

There is a maximum points score you can have with regards to credit score so as long as you keep it clean you will be fine. Always best not to have too much available though...more chance of fraudsters getting hold of something