Balance transfer/credit rating advice.

johno86_4

Hi, can I have a little bit of advice here.

I have two credit cards, one with £1500 on and one with £2500 on. I have come into some money and want to pay off the £1500 and get a balance transfer to transfer the £2500 one off.

Is it better for my credit rating, if I want to get a balance transfer card, to leave the £1500 card open after I've paid it off or to close it?

If I leave it open I will have more available credit and also have an account open that I have had for 10 years, but if i close it I will have less cards so that might count for me.

Thanks for any advice.

[Deleted User]

Your income is the key missing variable here.

If it's £10k, then close one. If it's £50k, then leave them open.

Anything inbetween will need further scrutiny.

johno86_4

Income is around £16k

[Deleted User]

What are the limits on the two cards?

johno86_4

£1500 and around £4k .
We also have a 6k loan.

StuC75

What are the Interest Rates on the 2 Cards?? pay the £1,500 off which ever balance has the higher rate first..

[Deleted User]

johno86_4 wrote: »

£1500 and around £4k .
We also have a 6k loan.

You're definitely going to need to close at least one of them. But even with that, you may struggle to be offered anything with more than a minimal limit.

johno86_4

Deleted_User wrote: »

You're definitely going to need to close at least one of them. But even with that, you may struggle to be offered anything with more than a minimal limit.

Sorry some of the info was wrong there. income is £20000, loan is £4000 the £1500 credit card limit is £1500 but was £4000 but i reduced it last month. The £2500 credit card limit is £6000.

Have about £5000 in the bank but would rather get a balance transfer card than pay the it off straight away if possible.

According to experion my credit rating is 967 but their numbers seem to be just arbitrary numbers.

Paully232000

I would say that it is not always necessary to close the card you have open when you do a BT from them to get a good deal on a new card.
I can only say this from my personal experience.

I had 133% of my salary in available credit and recently applied for a barclaycard and they gave me an extra 50% of my salary in available credit.

I don't use anything near the limits (in fact most have a balance of £0) I have never got round to closing them even though I know I should, and will. Just saying that it is possible to get over (well over) 50% of salary in available credit.