Close Credit Card Accounts?

jonnyboyrgv

Due to some credit problems in the past I took out and used credit cards with Vanquis, Capital One, Aqua & Barclaycard Initial which are all really high interest rate wise. My credit scores are now much better and I took out a personal loan with Nat West and cleared all the credit card balances and am paying off the debt that way. I have 10k on the loan and will have that cleared in 3 years unless I can get a loan rate closer to 5% I could then do it quicker.

My questions are these.

Should I close all of the Credit Card Accounts show that they show as closed/settled?

Do lenders look at the 10k of available credit positively or negatively?

Do lenders look negatively at the fact that with the exception of Nat West loan all of my other available credit is from poor credit lenders?

Look forward to any advice :-)

chaz301975

i would close all but one card that will give you the best deal get this by calling them and say you wish to close accounts then with the best one keep for use on line ect as it give more protection and pay most of the ballance of right away but some time leave a little to hold ove you will get some intrest unless you get som intrest free deal as a unused card means no money to be made but a good payer with some balance means some money to be made but a safe bet

thebritishbloke

I'd close all but BarclayCard, and see if they might be willing to transfer you to a better product, i.e. Platinum, Freedom Rewards or Cashback.

Thrugelmir

Lenders will look at your previous credit card usage and balances owed. If the loan was recently taken out. Then the odds of getting a low interest rate on the new loan are fairly low. As it'll be obvious that the original loan was for debt consolidation.