When to close account

rc18

Hi, I have recently paid off two credit cards. I’m wanting to find out if it’s best to now close them, or should I keep them open?

The reason I ask is I’m wondering does it look better for your credit file if our credit utilisation is small, or if you have a number of settled accounts?

Hope this makes sense and thanks for any help in advance.

Ryan

A4445

To help you we need to know how many cards you have, what the credit limits are, balances and your annual income.

maxximus75

Personally.... I would keep them open. Set them up to pay in full each month if there is a balance. Put them in a drawer and use them every few months. This will keep an ongoing and positive account history and also helps your average account and also with your credit utilization.

The_Fat_Controller

I always keep two cards on the go, one Visa and one Mastercard.

As suggested above, no harm in keeping them, but if you do set up whole bill Direct Debit be careful you do not fall foul of the 13 month dormancy that some banks apply, I used my Tesco card after 15 months and the DD had gone dormant without the card provider or bank telling me which resulted in a late payment and minor mark on my credit report.

rc18

Thanks for the replies.
I’ve got 5 credit cards in total including the 2 with £0 balances on them. The other 3 equate to about £9000 altogether. Total combined credit limit is about £13500 on them. Annual income is now £31500 as I’ve just recently got a graduate job.

rc18

Sorry, combined credit limit of all cards are about £15000.

[Deleted User]

So £15k over 5 cars means the limits are relatively low.

Who are the providers, APR% and length of time opened?

rc18

Barclaycard : 19.9% - limit £5000 ish
Barclaycard : 10.9% - £4500 ish
Both been opened for approx 3-4 years
Tesco : BT interest free atm - £3500 ish
Been opened about 18 months
Aqua : 0 balance - £1500
Been opened about a year
MBNA : 0 balance - £800
Been opened about a year

Hope that helps.

jonesMUFCforever

Perhaps phone Barclaycard to say you want to close one of their cards - in the past they have bribed some people to stay with up to £50 - (I got £40) LOL

rc18

They are the highest balances though so can’t really close those ones unfortunately. Must bear that in mind for future though!

jonesMUFCforever

rc18 wrote: »

They are the highest balances though so can’t really close those ones unfortunately. Must bear that in mind for future though!

Have you logged into your MBNA account to see if they have any offers for you to pay off some of that debt?