Paid off credit card negatively affected credit rating

Lauren8605

I'm in the process of saving for a house deposit with my boyfriend. As a result I've been trying to keep my credit score as healthy as possible. This time last year I had never taken out a credit card so took one out to take my rating from Good to Excellent. I could only get 3 months interest free on my first which I then cancelled and moved to my second once the interest free period ended. When this subsequent period on the Capital One card ended I had a small balance on there of about £500 which I transferred to an MBNA card. I then was going to close the Capital One card down. By complete accident (pulled the wrong card out of my wallet) I ended up setting a direct debit up on the Capital One card for my interest free holiday payments. I realised my mistake quite quickly and always intended to changed the D/D but I stupidly put it off and the payments continued to come of this card. It was paid off in full every month. Last week I made the final holiday payment and closed down the Capital One card. This morning I've gone to check my credit rating since closing down the card and it's suddenly dropped from Excellent to the lower end of Good. So I'm now at 892. The negative on Experian is that the average age of my credit cards has been 8 months. Have I been switching them around too much? I have a balance of £1,600 on the MBNA card which I make regular payments on. Is there a way I can get this back into excellent? Should I just leave it alone, keep making the payments and see if it improves?

Willing2Learn

Ignore your credit scores as lenders neither see nor use them. Just make sure your credit file is accurate and full of data that shows you manage credit successfully.

Edit: Welcome to the forum Lauren8605

[Deleted User]

Lauren8605 wrote: »

Is there a way I can get this back into excellent?

Yes. Just write 'my score is excellent' on a post it note.

It carries exactly the same weight as the Experian score, though you will need to provide your own pen and post it note.

Nebulous2

Closing cards regularly can be an issue, as all your accounts are very new. It is a good idea to have more than one credit card. Just use it occasionally and pay in full to keep it live.