Closing credit card and effect on rating?

QuietlyCautious

First post here so I hope this isn't a completely stupid question.

Currently I have two CCs one with Nationwide and one with Barclaycard - both of which are Visa. I was wondering about taking a new CC out with my bank ( Lloyds ) as that is Mastercard and so cover myself with the two systems for when I'm travelling in case there was ever an issue with Visa.

In that case I was then going to close the Barclaycard as I hardly ever use it, only an odd payment to keep it active. I don't want to have unnecessary cards to avoid problems should they get lost etc. However I've been told that closing a CC looks bad on your credit rating - is that true or just an urban myth?

Both cards are clear and I pay off anything that they are used for quickly, usually same month or following at worst. So, in my opinion, I'm not a risk and so should have a good rating with anyone that does any checks.

So would closing the Barclaycard cause me any problems going forward?
Thanks for any advice

Tixy

Welcome to the forum, not a stupid question at all, but not an easy one to answer. That is because different potential lenders will have different criteria. Some might place more emphasis on how much overall credit you have available to you, others might be more interested in how old your credit history goes back.

Closing that account is likely to have very little impact (positive or negative) on your ability to get accepted for credit.

The possible exception might be if you have very little credit history and have held the bc for a number of years and have only recently opened the nationwide account (and even then it might make no difference).

QuietlyCautious

Thanks Tixy
I've had the Barclaycard since '96 and the Nationwide one since '05 so I guess that would be considered a decent amount of time then.