Should I cancel this credit card?

docknow

Hoping someone can give me some advice on this, as I've read a lot of conflicting things on the internet.

I got my first credit card (Santander Zero) with £500 credit limit in March 2011, think I have a good repayment history with it as I have only one late payment fee which I think was Santander's fault as I'd thought I set up a direct debit from my other account I hold with Santander but this didn't go through on time and I paid off the whole balance when I was asked for the late payment fee also.

More recently I've pretty much reached the limit with the credit card but have still kept up paying the minimum balance and a bit more here and there.

So I decided to balance transfer to Barclays low BT fee card, so I can start making regular payments of about 50 a month without paying interest. The credit limit given to me on the Barclays is £2500. So now the Santander Zero card is not being used and is paid off.

Other than credit cards I've had a mobile phone contract for over 5 years which I've never missed a payment on.

So just wondering in terms of its impact on my credit score, whether I should close the Santander account or not. I've heard that having so much available credit unused makes me a riskier prospect and so has a negative impact, but then again I've heard closing a credit card would negatively impact my score.

I'm not planning on utilising any more credit, just paying off the balance transfer on the Barclays.

Does anyone have any advise on this?

CLAPTON

first thing is to pay off the debt asap; having the debt at 0% is a great help here

otherwise, using a CC regularly (for things you buy anyway) and paying in full will enhance your credit rating

so as long as you always pay in full then keeping and using the card is a good for your credit rating