Have I got too much credit availability?

danlightbulb

I have four credit cards.

Card 1 - limit £8k, balance £5.3k on a promotional offer.

Card 2 - limit £6.6k, balance £2.7k on a promotional offer.

Card 3 - limit £7k, balance zero.

Card 4 - limit £3.8k, balance zero.


Total limit £25.4k, total balance £8k, 31% utilisation.


Do you think I have too much available credit, and do you think I'd benefit from closing one of these cards?

Or, as I soon need to do another balance transfer, I could open another card and increase my credit availability (but not use it).

Any golden rule?

Thanks.

Arleen

No golden rule and nobody knows as the rules for giving out credit are secret.

danlightbulb

Arleen wrote: »

No golden rule and nobody knows as the rules for giving out credit are secret.

Is this still the case though? Tools like the MSE credit card eligibility checker should mean that lenders' rules are more known these days?

Arleen

danlightbulb wrote: »

Is this still the case though? Tools like the MSE credit card eligibility checker should mean that lenders' rules are more known these days?

Nope, it means that people at mse came up with their own secret rules that they also do not share with us. And this will never change, as if those rules were known, they would be exploited by all sort of scammers.

danlightbulb

Ok so no golden rule then. Any rules of thumb instead? There must be some information out there that gives clues as to how credit availability and utilisation affects things, at a high level?

Arleen

Google and let us know if you will find anything conclusive, other than "some lending history, but not too much utilization".

Ben8282

You do not have too much available credit.

Superscrooge

danlightbulb wrote: »

I have four credit cards.

Card 1 - limit £8k, balance £5.3k on a promotional offer.

Card 2 - limit £6.6k, balance £2.7k on a promotional offer.

Card 3 - limit £7k, balance zero.

Card 4 - limit £3.8k, balance zero.


Total limit £25.4k, total balance £8k, 31% utilisation.


Do you think I have too much available credit, and do you think I'd benefit from closing one of these cards?

Or, as I soon need to do another balance transfer, I could open another card and increase my credit availability (but not use it).

Any golden rule?

Thanks.

Your income would be a major factor in whether you have too much credit
.
If your annual income is less than £10k. £25K available credit looks quite high.
But if your annual income is £100k. £25k available credit is low.

danlightbulb

Superscrooge wrote: »

Your income would be a major factor in whether you have too much credit
.
If your annual income is less than £10k. £25K available credit looks quite high.
But if your annual income is £100k. £25k available credit is low.

What sort of multiple would you consider a cut off point or to aim for? In your first example the person would have 2.5x salary in credit availability. In your second, only 0.25x.

redux

danlightbulb wrote: »

Is this still the case though? Tools like the MSE credit card eligibility checker should mean that lenders' rules are more known these days?

The MSE eligibility checker needs some checks itself. It produces 0% and 95% probability results for the same card, depending on which category heading you search under. Also some brands seem to be completely missing from its results.

danlightbulb

redux wrote: »

The MSE eligibility checker needs some checks itself. It produces 0% and 95% probability results for the same card, depending on which category heading you search under. Also some brands seem to be completely missing from its results.

Interesting. Can the 100% assessment be trusted then?