Closing credit cards

xnemesis

Hi all

I've been reading martin's recent post about closing credit cards and can't decide the best course of action!

I've just opened an mbna card with a limit of £5600 and transfer balances totalling about £4000. I have a barclaycard with a limit of £4000 which now has no outstanding balance and a lloyds with a limit of £2000 with no outstanding balance. The lloyds card I've had for about 4 years and the barclaycard for about 8 years. Would my credit rating benefit from closing one or both of these?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

If your income is not very high, then you may want to close one.

However, longer standing accounts will imply stability and you don't want your debt to limit ratio to get too high. It's already over 50%. I would keep them open.

xnemesis

Deleted_User wrote: »

If your income is not very high, then you may want to close one.

However, longer standing accounts will imply stability and you don't want your debt to limit ratio to get too high. It's already over 50%. I would keep them open.

Thanks for the reply.

It's actually 35% of available credit (£4000 of £11,600). What's the ideal ratio? I just know they can sometimes get itchy about too much available credit!

[Deleted User]

I'd personally be looking to keep it around 30%. But there's no single figure as every lender will take a different view.