Paid off my cards but now what?

Mrs_Ponkinton

Hello everyone!

So... after years of nosing around anonymously it's finally time for my first post...

After a good few years battling our debt me and the Mr & I have finally paid off our credit cards - all 5 of them! Woo hoo!

But... now what?

We want to ensure the we've the best credit rating we can (house buying is our next big goal) so do we keep all the cards open and use them but pay off the balances every month or does the total amount of available credit not matter so much and can we close them all but one??

In short now we have a bunch of credit cards with zero balances, what the best plan to get (and keep) our credit rating nice and healthy before we start approaching the mortgage lenders?

Thanks in advance.

Mrs P xx

bengalknights

Congratulations on clearing the debt

I would recommend keeping 2 accounts open (one for general use one for emergencys) and having them setup with direct debit to pay in full this was your credit rating will look healthy and active without overisking you in terms of credit available in the future.

Mrs_Ponkinton

Wow thanks for the speedy reply bengalknights! That sounds sensible to me. So the actual amount of available credit is irrelevant? My credit rating will be just as good (provided I use the cards properly!) whether I have £20,000 or £5,000 in available credit? Thanks again!

drewwhonumba2

If you are going for a mortgage then the application will look at how much credit you have available, so you basically do not want to have so much credit that if you went on a shopping spree after getting the mortagge you couldnt handle the repayments. as above keep 2 open, make sure they are the oldest 2 as credit applications tend to like older accounts.

Mrs_Ponkinton

Ahh thanks drewwhonumba2 that's very useful to know!