should i close down some of my Credit cards

older_wiser

over the past 18 months i've tried to improve my credit status from a person having no credit whatsoever to now having multiple forms of credit which i think with recent results i've achieved.

I've afew credit cards with small limits but recently i've noticed that the limits when i apply for the cards are increasing. I've just applied for barclaycard intial and got a decent limit should i now consider closing lets say my capital one account which is only 200 limit ? does the number of credit cards affect your credit status or is it just the credit limits. compared to my income my available credit is still very small. I'm wondering if the next card i apply for perhaps in early months of 2013 should be a prime credit card currently all my cards are sub prime other than with my bank natwest.

all my cards are payed in full except for my natwest card which has 18 months interest free to run.

any advice

CLAPTON

if you have a main stream card with a 0% deal why have you applied for sub prime cards?

older_wiser

compared to my income all my limits are very low so i couldn't just rely on one card the first card i ever got was a capital one with a limit of 200 which its stayed at. yes i do have a card with natwest but rather than paying it off in full i've added the money i would use to my savings. i'm taking advantage of the interest free period. This is the question should i now consider closing my older cards giving me less credit available or should i leave them open.

all cards except the natwest are payed in full every month. I see people on here with similar income to myself getting credit limits of 4 or 5K when they apply obviously its going to take me sometime to get to that stage.

edit sorry clapton i didn't answer your question. with natwest i had to appeal to actually get the card accepted which was a long process i had to send in 3 months bank statments which is suprising as i actual bank with natwest too. so i assumed at the time i wasn't ready for prime cards and it was only the fact i banked with natwest that they gave it me.

Homeagain

Good question. I have done exactly the same thing and would also like to know whether or not its a good idea to close the high interest cards I have. They have been paid in full anyway. Let's hope the kind people on this forum will have the answers!

sfax

I have 6 credit cards and use 1 for purchases and pay it off in full each month, and the others to shuffle around 0% balance transfer rates as a cheap finance alternative to a loan.

Some sit at £0 for a while, others have reducing balances (by more than the min amount each month). I don't think it's an issue having a low limit card open that you don't use but if you have unused cards with higher limits it might be worth closing them to reduce the total amount of credit amount you have available before applying for a new card. Bear in mind there is a supposed optimum debt to credit limit ratio of about 30%-40%.

Also, if you close a card, you can re-apply again after a year or so and get the new customer 20 month+ 0% BT rate

older_wiser

The next card i'll apply for in feb/march of next year will be a prime card but as i'm getting decent limits with sub prime cards this does indicate i'm doing something right. eventually i'd like to get rid of my sub prime cards entirely which hopefully will be within a year or so.

CLAPTON

probably worth checking your credit files to make sure all is in order but yes, try a main stream CC next.

older_wiser

CLAPTON wrote: »

probably worth checking your credit files to make sure all is in order but yes, try a main stream CC next.

natwest was over 6 months ago so my situation has probably improved quite abit since then. My intial problem was that i didn't have any credit history now everything i apply for i get. With each new card i get higher credit limits i understand that banks like stability so i won't be applying for any others for at least 6 months and then it will be main stream cards. At that point i'll know if i've passed from sub prime to prime. At that stage i'll look to close some of the smaller credit cards like capital one.

SusieT

Don't forget that a lender will take vailable credit into consideration when they offer you a card so it may be worth closing some of the smaller cards earlier to reduce it to a lower level.