To keep credit or not to keep... that is my question!

hannibanani

Hey guys!

Recently, I have kicked my debt's !!!!!! From being £8,000 in debt in August 2011 to now down to £3586.53 (notice I know to the pence!)
Sold my car...Sold furniture... now back at parents (at 25, urgh) paying only £200 rent! Saved so much for not having a car (£85 a month insurance, plus petrol etc!!) and have managed to put majority of my wages towards the debt, whilst still having enough money to have fun!

Well... here's my thing...I hope to be debt free by March 2012! (which is sooo doable as my only outgoings is my rent and mobile phone!) What do I do with my credit cards? I will have over £10,000 available credit...Do I fold them or keep them? Is it better to have credit cards to not?!

x

OllyM

I'd never be without a few credit cards - they are very useful if you need to hire a car for example.

YorkshireBoy

hannibanani wrote: »

...now down to £3586.53 (notice I know to the pence!)

Unless the debt is on 0% that figure isn't accurate anyway.

Do I fold them or keep them?

Which are they and what's your income?

hannibanani

Thanks OllyM - I guess you're right!...

Yorkshire - yes, you're right, it's probably not 100% accurate with the interest (damn that interest!)

The credit I have available after being debt free:-

Virgin (24.9%) (£1800 Limit)
Halifax (29.9%) (£5,250 Limit) (had this card since i was 18, birthday pressie from my bank, thanks, not!)
Barclaycard (24.9%) (£2,500)
Santander (0%) (£500)
Overdraft (£750)
Next (£1995)

lobbyludd

they are mostly horrible interest rates, so I'd close all down except one, to use for useful things (like car hire and ordering goods on the internet, where you have some protection) until your credit is decent enough to get a cash-back credit card for those things. One of the problems with holding tons of cards is that when a great deal for new customers comes along - you can't access it (or it's more difficult to) because you are not a new customer. The other one is it can just be so tempting to put something on there with all good intentions of paying it off on payday, and sooner or later, you are back where you started (if you are anything like me )

ChopperST

Good practice would to be clear the overdraft and never use it again. Close a couple of the cards but keep a couple open and pay for a weekly shop on each per month and pay it off in full at the end of the month (DD so you dont forget) to show you can use credit responsibly for any future borrowings e.g. mortgage. Dont keep loads of unused credit open as this can have a negative impact if you have too much avaliable credit in a potential future lenders eyes.

Sounds like you have made a good plan and sticking to it. Well done.

hannibanani

Thank you for all of your help!!!

I'm going to cancel the Halifax one card for sure! (A company I've never got on well with in the past and would hate to contribute any more money to them!!)

Wish me luck with the last chunk of debt...a debt free life is on the horizon!! **Jumps up in the air in excitement** xxx

YorkshireBoy

hannibanani wrote: »

Virgin (24.9%) (£1800 Limit)
Halifax (29.9%) (£5,250 Limit) (had this card since i was 18, birthday pressie from my bank, thanks, not!)
Barclaycard (24.9%) (£2,500)
Santander (0%) (£500)
Overdraft (£750)
Next (£1995)

Close all the cards except Virgin.
Manage your (Halifax?) current account well and you'll get a card with a better rate from them in due course.
Close the Next account.
Keep the (Halifax?) overdraft facility, but don't use it unless it's an emergency due to the £1 per day cost.

blitzboy

clydebank29 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack this thread. I've just joined and want to start a new topic but cant work out how to. Can anyone help?

Click on 'new thread' at the top left of the section you want to post in, just above the first 'sticky' thread