Old Credit Cards: Should I cancel them Discussion Area

planteria

madein83 wrote: »

Note: I have 9 credit accounts already, 3 of which are existing credit cards that were previously on repayment plans, which I'm now paying off at normal interest rates... so it's not like this is my own credit card account.

on that basis i would be even more sure to close & get your deposit back. choose the account/accounts with the best benefits (cashback and points) or prospects (in terms of building up a history with the provider of good cards) and focus all spending on it/them. meanwhile, pay off the others as soon as you can to tidy up your credit file.

madein83

planteria wrote: »

on that basis i would be even more sure to close & get your deposit back. choose the account/accounts with the best benefits (cashback and points) or prospects (in terms of building up a history with the provider of good cards) and focus all spending on it/them. meanwhile, pay off the others as soon as you can to tidy up your credit file.

Great, thanks - closing it down right now!

Annie-bananie

I'm planning to apply for mortgage in the near future, I'm not interested in applying for credit cards at the moment.

I'm wondering whether to close an unused credit card with credit limit £2,000.

Other than that card I also have another credit card £2,400 limit which I use every month and repay in full. I also have 3 current accounts with total overdraft facility of £1,000 which I never use. So in total I usually use not more than 5% of credit available to me.

From mortgage lenders point of view having too much credit available to me is a good thing or a bad thing?
Do you recommend keeping the £2,400 credit card or closing it? I couldn't find that information anywhere.

If that's relevant at all I also had a loan in the past which I paid off a year ago so that's showing on my credit profile. Other than that, I don't have much history going on.
My Experian score until recently was 846 but once I opened Santander current account. which came with £700 ovedraft, my rating's gone down to 822 (hopefully temporarily until they built some history for me).

I'm registered on electorals roll.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

bigadaj

Probably wont make much difference either way, reducing available credit can help but you don't want to be utilising too high a percentage of your available credit.

I'd keep the card but might close down some of the overdrafts.

Keep using the card regularly for normal spend and repay in full.

Your experian number is of course useless, just get copies of your report periodically, and ensure that all is right and in order.

firsttimerbuyer1

I've got a 999 Experian rating and never missed a payment in 6 years and recently we have been offered a reduced amount mortgage.

I'm thinking it may be because I've got 5 unused credit cards at '0' balance amounting to £40,000 unused credit though, although the broker doesn't think so. The reason we were given was 'credit'.

I've been told I wont be able to close them down in time though even though I have made it clear I don't need them and will do so as soon as possible. Problem is by the time that hits my credit report the vendors of the house we have placed an offer on will prob want to put it back on the market

Any ideas?

gems1584

Hi
does anyone know how long you have to wait before trying to open a new tesco credit card? I can see a page on mse that lists lots of other providers but not tescos.
thanks

amandadada

I was advised by credit expert to close down my available credit apart from a £1500 overdraft which i never use as it would increase my already good credit score of 890 to the excellent range in preparation for a mortgage applicaction, I did as they suggested and my credit score has now dropped to 'fair.' upon speaking to them again over this they said I was wrongly advised, and that is the worst thing I could have done :mad: needless to say im fuming!! apparently some unused credit looks attractive to some lenders and I went and closed it all down.

Tixy

amandadada wrote: »

I was advised by credit expert to close down my available credit apart from a £1500 overdraft which i never use as it would increase my already good credit score of 890 to the excellent range in preparation for a mortgage applicaction, I did as they suggested and my credit score has now dropped to 'fair.' upon speaking to them again over this they said I was wrongly advised, and that is the worst thing I could have done :mad: needless to say im fuming!! apparently some unused credit looks attractive to some lenders and I went and closed it all down.

For the purposes of a mortgage application (assuming it will be soon) then it is unlikely to make much difference at all whether you have a couple of open unused credit cards or a couple of recently closed credit cards.

Credit expert/experian's suggestions either way should be taken as only a very vague indicator as to how a general potential lender may see you.

Potential lenders do not see the score or the rating of fair/good/excellent at all. They make their own decision based on the raw data on your credit file and the other information on your application.

Scampi

Hi all,

So - I used to be terrible with money and ran up a lot of debt in my 20s. I'm now a fair bit older than that, am mostly debt-free, certainly to a level I'm comfortable with, earn a good salary and have savings etc.

I have two credit cards, one with Capital One, one with a high street bank.

The Capital One card was a 'credit builder' card. I've had it for about 12 years or more now, and the other card is probably 4 years+ old and is a much more regular credit card.

I tend to use both cards equally for occasional purchases, given that I always pay my statement balance in full, so APR is not something I need to worry about.

My understanding is that the Capital One card is good to keep for my credit score because I've had it a very long time. However, as it is aimed at Credit Builders, which is not really my life stage anymore, I'm concerned that this looks bad to future lenders in my report.

Can anyone let me know if I'm right to be concerned?

Thanks!

nourishment

I've got a number of cards with zero balances and have pondered whether to close or keep open.

I know this is an American site but it makes logical sense.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit/closing-credit-card-good-or-bad.aspx

I've decided to keep cards rather than close them once paid off (I take advantage of 0% spending deals) and have seen my credit socre gradually increase to now given me 5/5 and 600+ score on the Noddle site (which is free by the way).