Do Unused bank accounts affect credit rating??

okie363

I have a unused santander and barclays accounts with no overdraft with a zero balance, will these being unused affect my credit score? if so how?

i also recently closed a llyods account, will this affect my score, it was at zero balance and i just changed banks to natwest


thanks!

olly300

I had unused RBS accounts and it made no difference to my credit rating when I wanted credit.

However personally you are better off closing accounts you don't use as there is less opportunity for fraud against you. Zero balance if you have a card or cheque book doesn't mean zero balance to a thief.

MoneySaverLog

I would imagine closing an account would not necessarily affect your credit score, good or bad. It may actually improve it if there is a overdaft on the account cause it closes off an available line of credit and decreases the amount of credit available to you to use.

Personally I've recently closed down a number of current accounts that have been dormant and not used for sometime, e.g. barclays, halifax, citibank and a few savings accounts that have not been used at these banks and others. Just to streamline everything.

I'm left with Lloyds x3 (1 is my main account where salary is paid and now going to be used for savings and saving standing orders) NatWest (used for my monthly bills by direct debits, one payment in from Lloyds to cover all) Nationwide is a back up account which is laying dormant, First Direct and HSBC are just there because you have to have their current account for their regular savers to be paid from which pay a higher rate of interest.

If you believe Experian, who don't actually offer credit themselves, having successfully settled accounts on your file improves your credit score.

innovate

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

If you believe Experian, who don't actually offer credit themselves, having successfully settled accounts on your file improves your credit score.

Experian will definitely give you a good score if they have plenty of evidence that you can consistently manage your accounts well.

Whether banks take any notice of Experian's view is another matter. It's more likely that banks will draw their own conclusions from the data they can find on Experian, Equifax, Callcredit, and - crucially - their own records they have, about you.

In some circumstances, having several accounts might work in your favour. In others, it might work against you - - - e.g. I know of people with immaculate credit scores who got turned down for a credit card, mainly because they did not look like people the Credit Card company could make money of. Conversely, I know of people with 5 active current accounts (no arrears ever) who got a large mortgage approved without questions. Makes sense when you think about it - - a mortgage makes money for a bank if it gets paid back as expected, and someone who has handled several current accounts well for x years is likely to be a lower risk than someone who has just one current account. Though there will be many other factors involved in deciding over a mortgage.

There's a good general guide to credit scoring on the main site.