Should I cancel my CC?

omas

Hi, I've got 4 credit cards - 2 old ones and 2 new ones. I wanted to keep Capital One and Barclaycard until Nov/Dec and then apply for one of prime cards, but as I've been told by Lloyds I've been pre approved i though why not. Yesterday I've been reading about Avios points and realised I missed 18k points offer. I've been a little pis*** off and applied for BMI card to get 20k points and to my suprised I've accepted. Now my whole credit limit on all cards is almost £7000. I think that's too high and anyway I'm not gonna be using all credit cards. Should I cancel C1 and BC or just one of them? I'm not gonna use them anymore. I'll be using mostly bmi card to collect points and Lloyds for petrol. Some time ago I've been reading I should keep cc at least a year before canceling it as banks seeing it better and that's improve credit score. From another side too high limit on credit cards isn't good as well, I'm soo confused.

Capital One £1000 (increased from £500 March) since 11/2011
Barclaycard Initial £1400 (increased from £400 yesterday) since 11/2011
Lloyds TSB Duo Avios £2500 approved last Thursday
BMI £1800 approved yesterday

omas

Any advise?

*Scarlett

Your correct that too much available credit as opposed to your income can affect your ability to obtain a new card.

If you are not using a card and don't intend to then there is no reason not to cancel it.

I have both a Barclaycard which I use occassionally and a Capital One card which is rarely used.

I do find that Barclaycard do tend to offer promotions to existing customers if you have had a zero balance for a while - 0% or low interest offers for purchases and balance transfers so it might be worthwhile keeping this one.

I can't remember having any such offers from Capital One and their interest rate is generally higher.

To improve your credit rating you must make payments in time, if not in full then maybe for an amount slightly above the minimum. Consider setting up a direct debit for your payments.

I don't know anything about whether not keeping a card for less than a year will affect your credit rating but if you keep at least one of the cards this would show that you can pay long term.

If you are not thinking of applying for any other cards before the year is up in November, just hold off until then and make you decision based on what each card is offering you.