Credit cards and mortgage application

shockmeshockme

Hello there,

I'm not sure if I should be posting this here or in the mortgages board.
My husband and I have recently moved in with my parents so we can save up for a house deposit and clear our credit cards. Only a few more months to go for the CC's to end :-).
My question is, when applying for a mortgage are we better to completly clear our credit cards and cancel them, clear them and leave them with nothing on them or put a small amount on both and pay off each month? What would be more favourable when applying for a mortgage?

Thanks for any advice
Laura

molerat

You need not too high available credit and a history of regular and on time payments. Using the CC for your normal spending and paying off in full is the best way.

grumbler

If the credit limits are high, making them smaller is better than cancelling.
Then just keep using the card(s) for day-to-day spending an pay the balance in full every month.

dl5543

I'd leave a small amount on and pay off on time every month. That way you;ve got some credit history.

Paully232000

I think there is a lot more to a mortgage application than just having a balance or not. For instance I had to pay off my CC debt to get the mortgage we wanted recently but nothing said about how high our limits were or how many CC accounts we had. Nobody asked. We have more than our salary in available credit and wasn't a problem. I had a BT card I had to pay off thats all.