Help with lowering available credit

AngelaUK

I want to apply for another card in the next few months to do a BT from my Virgin card but am worried I have too much available credit, at the moment I have:

£ 0 as paid off in full monthly - Tesco (5k limit)
£1,538 Barclaycard (6.9% LOB no fee) (6k limit)
£1,450 Post Office (0% to Mar 13) (5.1k limit)
£4,300 Virgin (0% to Oct 12) (11.5k limit)

I will be paying the Virgin down to £2k in September and want to BT for a further 15+ months at 0% on a new card the remainder. I was wondering if now I should reduce the limit on the Virgin card as they put my limit up by about 5k with no request from me the other month. Is this worth doing or will it go against me? If I should what would be a reasonable new limit?

Though I would be adding another card, the Post Office will be paid off in full in by March and then cancelled, I should be able to pay off the Barclaycard too then but I didn't want to cancel it as I have a long history with them for many years, I have never missed a payment on any card and always pay over the minimum.

jo-bo

How long have you had your cards for?
Have you done a soft search with Nationwide?
When was your last application for credit?

AngelaUK

Tesco and Barclaycard for over 5 years, PO and Virgin for around a year.
Yes I have done a few and everytime get a different result, the limit shown was under 2k each time on the soft search.
A mortgage that was declined by HSBC around 3 months ago, they actually said the main reason was too much available credit, I was already previously accepted with Halifax but the mortgage hasn't completed yet. The last cards I applied for were the Virgin and Post Office last year.
Apart from the HSBC mortgage I have never had a problem getting credit, I am just worried about my current limits.

CLAPTON

AngelaUK wrote: »

Tesco and Barclaycard for over 5 years, PO and Virgin for around a year.
Yes I have done a few and everytime get a different result, the limit shown was under 2k each time on the soft search.
A mortgage that was declined by HSBC around 3 months ago, they actually said the main reason was too much available credit, I was already previously accepted with Halifax but the mortgage hasn't completed yet. The last cards I applied for were the Virgin and Post Office last year.
Apart from the HSBC mortgage I have never had a problem getting credit, I am just worried about my current limits.

if you are in the middle of getting a mortgage I would strongly suggest that you make no credit applications until after completion.

AngelaUK

I won't be, I should be completing in the next month but not moving in until later in the year. Can anyone help with my original question on limits?

fracturedsun

Maybe.... I probably would in your position, even at the reduced credit limit you still have a reasonable percentage of unused credit. It's a balancing act you don't want too much available credit but also you don't want your debt/credit to be too high either. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules for this though as each provider has their own way of calculating out what to give you.

MrGreen

My thoughts are that you can close the Tesco card and look at re-applying after 6 months, could be just in time for when your P/O balance needs transferring. If you use it for spending then use your debit card instead.

As for the Virgin I suggest you wait till you've completed on your home and then apply for an Mbna card with a view to closing your Virgin account, you may be able to move your existing limit from your Virgin to the Mbna and do a transfer to your account to move over the balance as well.

I do remember reading someone talking about your available credit limits being a certain percentage of your salary though I can't remember what it was.

I was in a similar situation as yourself a few years ago and was trying to pay as little interest as possible and concentrating on paying off the cards as quickly as possible and then closing the accounts so reducing the balances and the available credit.