Using credit cards as a loan —all at once?

EssentialParadox

Thinking about it more, would it look better to be:

£36k income / £8.5k total credit with 17% (£1400) utilized
or:
£36k income / £8.5k total credit with 0% utilized
or:
£36k income / £3k total credit with 0% utilized

Because I worry the last scenario looks worrying to a lender, whereas the top one actually seems somewhat realistic. But I honestly don't know much about what they look for and maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Consumerist

I would add the opinion that cancelling a card is preferable to reducing the credit limit. A prospective lender will not know whether the customer has requested the reduced credit limit or whether the card provider has perceived its customer as an increased risk.

I agree with izools that this sort of assessment is not an exact science and I think the banks deliberately engineer the uncertainty. Unfortunately, this leaves customers such as the OP having to play a game of cat and mouse with the banks to organise finances.