Too Many Cards?

matt4504

Hey everyone,

I have three credit cards. I ended up with three from previously having debt and shifting it around to 0% to clear it which I did and now I'm in the black.

The cards are -

Virgin Atlantic (MBNA) Amex/Visa - £2600 limit - 16.9%
Barclaycard - £7700 limit - 18.9%
HSBC Visa - £6000 limit - 18.9%

Total credit - £16300

I pretty much only use the Amex card as I want the air miles although the other two do get randomly used. I always pay the cards off in full each month so there's no issues with that.

I'm more just curious if having that much credit available is considered a negative thing? I've been thinking that having all three paid off in full each month is helping my credit rating?

Should I get rid of two and just focus on the one?

Thanks,

Matt

Thrugelmir

No harm in doing house keeping. Keep what you actually need and use. Lenders will always have in their minds how much credit you have access to when you apply elsewhere.

RBS_Sucks

I believe it depends on various factors of which your income against your outgoings would be the biggest factor. If you have a sizeable income then great however any lenders will take into consideration the possibility that you could suddenly go out and use all these credit cards and instantly have increased outgoings. Every lender will assess the risk differently but most will have a consideration that you have credit readily available even though it's not being used.

The best advice depends on if you use all cards or not. If not then try and cut off at least one if not 2 and it might be best keeping the higher limit one as this demonstrates you can manage a higher limit without going wild.

Ben8282

Considered negative by who and in respect of an application for what?
Suggest you keep all cards for the moment. IF at some time in the future you have good reason to believe this situation has had a negative effect on an application, then perhaps cancel one of them.
Unless you are a low income individual the amount of available credit is not excessive.

planteria

no harm being done, but it all depends what you want to do.
fwiw i would keep the Amex card for spending, and retain the Barclaycard and build up a history with them.. potentially bagging a repeat Balance Transfer deal. and as, ime, HSBC never offer repeat deals i would close that account.
but that is me.. i like generating cashback/points when spending and i like borrowing money on balance transfers for stoozing.
it all depends what suits you & your circumstances.

System

Do you actually have a use for the Virgin points and will you collect enough to make it worthwhile?

Otherwise, you might be able to convert the Barclaycard into their Visa/Amex combo.

Do you bank with HSBC?

Thrugelmir

Ben8282 wrote: »

Unless you are a low income individual the amount of available credit is not excessive.

Who needs £16,300 of facility available on credit cards?

msallen

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Who needs £16,300 of facility available on credit cards?

Plenty of people. Just not you obviously.

SLZ

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Who needs £16,300 of facility available on credit cards?

It may not be a case of need but enjoy the flexibility, I have £12,000 (£6,000 0%) across Barclaycard and MBNA in the UK and 40.000€ across HHonors and Lufthansa in Germany. I could buy a card with the German cards and pay it off at 8.75%pa :rotfl:

I don't intend to increase my UK limits as I'm happy with £12,000 and I see it as a good figure for general spending.

jamesd

matt4504 wrote: »

I've been thinking that having all three paid off in full each month is helping my credit rating?

You're probably right about that. The first two or three credit lines of various types do tend to help. Maybe more but there are limits where it ceases to make much difference and the available credit issue matters more.

If your income is twice the credit limits you should be fine. If not but close it's probably fine also. If the credit is above your income then it's not a big deal while you have the cards but it's more likely to have a negative effect on future credit applications. Just more likely, it'd probably be disregarded entirely for say a mortgage application.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Who needs £16,300 of facility available on credit cards?

I don't "need" it but I do find uses for way more than that in card limits. Lots of investment stoozing. It's a source of cheap money for me and quite profitable. I expect to make a profit of more than £5k from it this year. Multiple cards with significant limits makes it more practical to use repeat customer balance transfer offers to keep the money at low rates.

Someone with a higher income or less frugal spending could actually want to spend 16k worth on cards and perhaps pay it off with a bonus or just have that much in monthly transactions.

Ben8282

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Who needs £16,300 of facility available on credit cards?

Anybody who spends a reasonable amount each month on purchases and maybe sometimes takes advantage of a 0% offer or two .... to keep utilisation ratio down for one reason. We both have total combined credit limits in excess of £16,300 ....