Closing old credit cards! Got over £94K available

paulfoel

Just got a freebie experian credit search and results were that even though my credit score was good, available credit was a bit excessive.

Anyway, looking at it, I've got 9 credit cards with available credit of over £94K. Scary. Luckily, outstanding is very low indeed - just a few balance transfer at 1.9% or something. About 5 of these cards I aint used in years they're just sitting there with zero balance.

Had problems getting a loan a few years - looks like this is why. I guess theoretically, I could get a loan then hike cards up to their limit and be screwed. Scary though as to what the minimum payment on £94K would be. (2.5% of £94K = £2350 a month, interest at 1.6%/month approx = £1500 WOW!).

I think I better close a few. Only trouble is even though I can login to most online I cant even find the cards so I dont know the card no.

Its gotta be done but its reassuring to have it available. Its like I'll have the card there just in case I need it.....

sistafromanothermista

Can you call a few of the companies with the larger credit limits and close the accounts down?

I thought mine at 60k was bad enough!!!

paulfoel

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Can you call a few of the companies with the larger credit limits and close the accounts down?

I thought mine at 60k was bad enough!!!

Thats the plan. Like I said though I dont know the card numbers for some of them.

sistafromanothermista

I don't think that will matter.
As long as you verify who you are, they should be able to find all the info.

Good luck

sfax

Max them all out and go somewhere with no extradition treaty

SCO

Your credit report should have the account numbers i think, most credit card companies your account number is your card number.

BugsyBrowne

Be nice if the 94k was your money and not the banks.

sistafromanothermista

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

Be nice if the 94k was your money and not the banks.

Bugsy, Chillax.....:cool:

paulfoel

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

Be nice if the 94k was your money and not the banks.

Of course it would lol. But on the flipside, how scary it would be if you were maxed out on this???? :-(

JustinCredibleGillespie

Very scary! You could buy a small terraced house with that and the rent still wouldnt cover the interest lol.

JCG

xx

paulfoel

Turning out to be not so easy to do this. It seems some lenders are being purposely difficult to prevent me lowering my limit!

Got £1200 outstanding on an M&S card at a lifetime balance transfer of 2.9% - no rush to pay this one off! Wrote to them asking them to lower limit to £1500 - I never ever use the card.

They wrote back to tell me that because of interest and other charges I had to pay off £300 if I wanted the limit lowered to £1500 to provide some slack. Hmmm - interest is £4 a month.....

Phoned them and had a go and they did it now but this is just nuts...

Also, got two barclaycards - one visa and one mastercard. Phoned to close visa account and they tried all ways. They've now offered me £50 to keep the account open!!!!