Higher or lower credit limit?

Tyrone_Black

I've been making steady progress and am almost ready to lose another card entirely, so I have a question:

Is it better for credit scoring to have access to a lot of credit and not be using it, or to have less available? Basically it'll come down to having a card with a £10k limit or one with a £5k limit. The balance will be a maximum of £1,000 but hopefully £0, with around £3,000 on another card at 0% for several years.

northerner999

I've read things saying available credit limit is seen as good, but I tend to shut cards I don't need and reject attempts to increase my credit limits.

LolStevo

If the credit is there are you likely to use it? If you know you wont use it then its good to have access to credit, maybe use it for say petrol but clear it at the end of the month.

Tyrone_Black

I have way more than I need. The only reason I keep it is in case there's an emergency abroad but I don't need £10k for that.

I think I'm closing the £10k card, but frustratingly I owe £2.25 on it and they've already requested the direct debit so I can't pay it up and close it until that's gone through.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Tyrone_Black wrote: »

Is it better for credit scoring to have access to a lot of credit and not be using it, or to have less available?

Seems to be a bit of both, and depends on the creditor's in-house scoring. When moving home improvement costs around with a view to putting them on a 0% card, the fact that the existing card had a £15k limit, even though it was less than half used, was viewed negatively by the new creditor, as they calculated the affordability of the new debt on the basis of my having to service both debts fully maxed-out. I had reduce the original card credit limit first before the new creditor would accept the full debt.

Conversely, having had access to excess credit was a prerequisite for getting the card in the first place. Amazing what you can learn from bored call centre workers

HappyMJ

Tyrone_Black wrote: »

I've been making steady progress and am almost ready to lose another card entirely, so I have a question:

Is it better for credit scoring to have access to a lot of credit and not be using it, or to have less available? Basically it'll come down to having a card with a £10k limit or one with a £5k limit. The balance will be a maximum of £1,000 but hopefully £0, with around £3,000 on another card at 0% for several years.

Stupidly it's better to have access to credit and not use all of it. What the percentage is I don't know. I have access to £27,000 of credit card limit and use £8,000. My credit reports says that is a positive factor.

• Your largest credit card limit is relatively high
• You have stayed within your credit card limit in the past year
• Your total credit card % utilisation is relatively low

My partner has access to £200 of credit limit and uses £198 and the credit report highlights that as a negative factor.

• Your oldest active credit agreement is not very old
• Your largest credit card limit is low
• Your total credit card % utilisation is relatively high