Unused Credit Cards / Accounts on Credit check - a problem?

ramagel

I took advantage of the Free Experian Credit Check and Score offer (which I shall cancel tomorrow) and was very happy with my score of 999 - although how I blew that last point, I'll never know!

I have three 'accounts' showing on my report which I have not used for several years but all of which appear to be contributing to some kind of history. I would ,like to know if I should leave them where they are (they will never be used) or spend 50p or so on paper and envelope and a stamp to write to them and tell them to close the accounts. That'd be £1.50, folks! (And no, I don't remember ANY of the online passwords!)

These are

1. An Egg Credit Card almost never used and not since, oh, 2003 maybe, with a credit limit of £8k, a balance of 0, showing 12 "Os" for repqayment.

2. A Tesco Credit Card taken out and used once only to buy a car and get cashback on it! Shows a credit limit of £7k, £0 balance and 12 "Os".

3, A Barclays current account in which I left 10p in 2002 to punish them for changing their Ts&Cs on their Barclaycard to impose penalty charges etc in (what was then!) a very American way.

Any advice welcome: and the Experian offer seems to have no tricks at all; someone did post elsewhere that its more difficult to (find out how to) cancel the similar Equifax offer, but I can't comment on that, and I don't think I'll bother checking.

Thanks for any advice.

Experian_company_representative

Ramagel

No one is risk-free, so 999 is probably the best score you can get!

General advice I would give is to close any accounts you no longer use as they are a fraud risk and the large available credit limits can drag your score down. Lenders will look at this last issue differently, so even though your Experian National Credit Score is excellent, other scoring systems may be less generous.