Do you close credit cards when you've paid them off?

Sarahpuggy

Hi all,

I just paid off my egg card, £500 i had from uni on it, so thats good, im pleased.

I originally transfered the £500 from my halifax one to 0%. So at the moment i have the egg credit card and my halifax one.

is closing it generally the best thing to do now? I am confident i will not be spending on credit ever again, but how many credit cards should i keep for emergencies?

I have just got £1000 on my halifax one, which i am in the process of swapping to 0%, so after that, i will have:

Halifax credit card: credit limit £1050. No Balance.
Egg Credit Card: credit limit £500. NO Balance.
HSBC Credit Card: £1000 balance 0% for 14 months.

So, should i keep all of them open, or close the egg one? Whats best for your credit score as i will be getting a mortgage soon.

Thanks all x

homealone_2

Sarahpuggy wrote:

Hi all,

I just paid off my egg card, £500 i had from uni on it, so thats good, im pleased.

I originally transfered the £500 from my halifax one to 0%. So at the moment i have the egg credit card and my halifax one.

is closing it generally the best thing to do now? I am confident i will not be spending on credit ever again, but how many credit cards should i keep for emergencies?

I have just got £1000 on my halifax one, which i am in the process of swapping to 0%, so after that, i will have:

Halifax credit card: credit limit £1050. No Balance.
Egg Credit Card: credit limit £500. NO Balance.
HSBC Credit Card: £1000 balance 0% for 14 months.

So, should i keep all of them open, or close the egg one? Whats best for your credit score as i will be getting a mortgage soon.

Thanks all x

sorry, hope you dont mind me tagging along for this one as i am in the same position and have about 6 cards with nil balances that i dont use. i have tried applying for some good 0% deals and always get turned down and am now wondering if it is because of these cards i have floating about???

YorkshireBoy

Personally, I'd close Halifax down and then order your credit report a couple of months later to make sure they've marked the account as settled. My reasons are...

• You have one less source of credit (and less available credit) on your file when you're searched for your mortgage.
• Egg is far more flexible than Halifax, it allows SBT's for example.
• Because you have BT'd to the HSBC card, you should NOT make purchases on it. Therefore, having a second card (rather than closing both empty ones down) gives you a little flexibility for short term borrowing for purchases.

Sarahpuggy

Thanks..

Sorry, whats SBT's?

YorkshireBoy

homealone wrote:

sorry, hope you dont mind me tagging along for this one as i am in the same position and have about 6 cards with nil balances that i dont use. i have tried applying for some good 0% deals and always get turned down and am now wondering if it is because of these cards i have floating about???

Improving your credit score (answer towards the bottom of the article)

YorkshireBoy

Sarahpuggy wrote:

Thanks..

Sorry, whats SBT's?

Super Balance Transfer. A term coined for the transfer of debt (whether real or ficticious) from a current account/loan to a credit card - something that's not possible with most cards.

black-saturn

I closed all my cards except one when I paid my debts off. For credit scoring purposes it's good to have one which is either at 0 or paid off in full and on time as it helps up your credit scoring. I never use it though.

My boyfriend overpaid his by 11p so now he gets a statement from them every month to say that they owe him 11p!! It costs them more than 11p to post it so it's his way of having the last laugh :A

W1zz

Sarahpuggy wrote:

Hi all,
Halifax credit card: credit limit £1050. No Balance.
Egg Credit Card: credit limit £500. NO Balance.
HSBC Credit Card: £1000 balance 0% for 14 months.

I'd close the Halifax and give it 6 month to re-apply for another 0% deal (Thats what I did last time).

Egg (which I don't have) I believe have anniversary offers and are good for SBT's so you'd probably be best to keep this.

I've got:

Cahoot : £0 balance (Standard rate APR)
Mint: £0 balance (Standard rate APR)
Capital One : £2.5K balance (3.9% LOB)
HSBC: £8k balance @ 0% until Jan 2008
Haliax One: Finishing 0% promo offer this month and will clear/close
BarclayCard: Was due to end current 0% deal in March but they Keep sending me 0% cheques, current offer is until Oct 2007 with 2% BTF. About to clear this balance and then take another £3K to stooge.
GE Money : Use for 3% Cashback on food/petol and 1% all other purchases. Use for all purchases and clear each month.

I should really close my Cahoot and Mint cards - The Halifax One will be closed next month. I was going to close the Barclaycard one but as I say, they just keep re-offering me 0% with 2% fee for 10 months.

As for applying for new cards, I'm done now until Jan 2008. The HSBC one I recently obtained was pre-approved

Hoping to reduce my CC blaances by about £4K this year :A

immoral_angeluk

I had a capital one card which I closed after paying it off. Now I have
Citicard - 24.9%
Mothercare Store card - 22.9%
Dorothy Perkin Store card - 23.9%
Barclaycard - 16.9%

(For balances see sig)

The only one I won't be closing when it's paid off is the barclaycard UNLESS I can get a better interest rate elsewhere in which case barclaycard would be closed and the lower rate card would be the 'strictly emergencies' card.
I think personally if you keep too many open after paying them off it creates too much temptation and the debt could quickly get run up again.

Phoenix79_2

I close down the ones that i don't need. I keep a few open which are clear as they may be useful (MBNA for example with SBTs) but generally if they are of no use to me then they are culled.