Should I decrease my credit limit on a card I rarely use?

Stephen_C.

My current card portfolio looks like this:

• Amex - £unlimited/charge card - used for 80% of purchases
• Cap1 - £1250 - used for overseas spend
• Tesco - £250 - Used for purchases over £4 and as a Clubcard for petrol, etc.
• Lloyds - £1000 - No benefits other than occasional Lloyds cashback offers - rarely/never used

For the Lloyds card, I frequently carry a balance of £0. For the benefit of my credit report appearing desirable to future lenders, should I reduce the limit on this card?

I've read conflicting advice regarding credit utilisation ratios (in which case, a high limit and low spend looks good) and a high amount of available credit looking bad.

Tixy

I suspect it wouldn't make much difference to most lenders as it is a small limit anyway.

One of the reasons there is conflicting advice in terms of utilisation ratios/credit to income ratios is because different lenders have different preferences.
Assuming you repay the cards in full then I wouldn't think any of those accounts would be likely to put off the majority of lenders.

Out of interest - has your tesco card always been that limit? or did you ask to reduce it? I've never seen a tesco card with such a low limit.

Stephen_C.

Tixy wrote: »

I suspect it wouldn't make much difference to most lenders as it is a small limit anyway.

One of the reasons there is conflicting advice in terms of utilisation ratios/credit to income ratios is because different lenders have different preferences.
Assuming you repay the cards in full then I wouldn't think any of those accounts would be likely to put off the majority of lenders.

Out of interest - has your tesco card always been that limit? or did you ask to reduce it? I've never seen a tesco card with such a low limit.

I recently applied for the card and this is the limit they gave me. It's laughably low, but their loss I suppose as I'll just put my spend elsewhere!

After 6 months, I'll contact them and ask for an increase.

antonymp

Stephen_C. wrote: »

I recently applied for the card and this is the limit they gave me. It's laughably low, but their loss I suppose as I'll just put my spend elsewhere!

After 6 months, I'll contact them and ask for an increase.

Unfortunately Tesco will not consider you for credit limit increase until the account has been open and run satisfactorily for a minimum of 12 months

Stephen_C.

antonymp wrote: »

Unfortunately Tesco will not consider you for credit limit increase until the account has been open and run satisfactorily for a minimum of 12 months

Thanks, I will do it after 12 months if there is no better MasterCard for earning Avios at that point in time.