How many credit cards is too many?

kezzygirl

Hi there,I have a few credit cards with various balances, all paid and up to date. My husband has a couple with zero balances,(Halifax, Lloyds), Santander with a couple hundred pounds on, nationwide and he has recently opened a virgin credit ,card with the aim of using this on our upcoming holiday (we will transfer funds to it straight away-the money is there).

It got me wondering, how many credit cards are too many? We have spoke about closing the Lloyds and Halifax as the interest rates are shocking and we only used it for the promotional periods. Wanted to keep nationwide as this is who we mortgage with. Any advice?

Candyapple

kezzygirl wrote: »

It got me wondering, how many credit cards are too many?

The answer is: it depends on your own personal situation.

If you/your husband are not using cards then it can be beneficial to close them because:

1. It means you become a new customer again to said lender so are eligible for any new offers/cards they release

2. If you wanted to apply to a different lender, even though you have empty cards, the limits are what are taking into account when assessing your application and if your total available credit is too high, you may be declined with the new lender for that reason

I wouldn’t keep a card just because I have a mortgage with the lender. You should regularly assess whether your cards are working for you and see whether you might benefit from other perks:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/cashback-credit-cards/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/best-credit-card-rewards/

System

Candyapple wrote: »

2. If you wanted to apply to a different lender, even though you have empty cards, the limits are what are taking into account when assessing your application and if your total available credit is too high, you may be declined with the new lender for that reason

This doesn't happen.
Unused limits are in no way negative. In fact, the more credit available to you that you aren't relying on, the better.

[Deleted User]

kezzygirl wrote: »

Hi there,I have a few credit cards with various balances, all paid and up to date. My husband has a couple with zero balances,(Halifax, Lloyds), Santander with a couple hundred pounds on, nationwide and he has recently opened a virgin credit ,card with the aim of using this on our upcoming holiday (we will transfer funds to it straight away-the money is there).

It got me wondering, how many credit cards are too many? We have spoke about closing the Lloyds and Halifax as the interest rates are shocking and we only used it for the promotional periods. Wanted to keep nationwide as this is who we mortgage with. Any advice?

#

What do you mean transfer funds to it straight away?
Do you mean pay the balance off or pre-load the credit card with additional funds?

You can have "too much available credit" to you as it's worked out on your salary and affordability.

If you are paying the card balances back in full each month then the interest rate is irrelevant.

System

!!! wrote: »

You can have "too much available credit" to you as it's worked out on your salary and affordability.

Wrong info again
Again a simple google provides all you need.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/credit-card-available-cancel-open-accounts/

"Can you have so much credit available that it would be dangerous to offer you more?
The short answer is: no.
The long answer is: no, as long as you practice good credit habits."

Willing2Learn

beany_bot wrote: »

Wrong info again
Again a simple google provides all you need.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/credit-card-available-cancel-open-accounts/

"Can you have so much credit available that it would be dangerous to offer you more?
The short answer is: no.
The long answer is: no, as long as you practice good credit habits."

You are looking at a site from the USA. The way you are scored is different over there. If you are going to quote something, then it needs to be from a UK site for it to be relevant.

[Deleted User]

beany_bot wrote: »

Wrong info again
Again a simple google provides all you need.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/credit-card-available-cancel-open-accounts/

"Can you have so much credit available that it would be dangerous to offer you more?
The short answer is: no.
The long answer is: no, as long as you practice good credit habits."

No - you're posting info from American sites - again.

Looking on UK sites, i.e. here, you will see it can indeed become an issue:
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1680&bih=939&ei=nGcoXaW7Lb-AhbIP5LKfqAg&q=too+much+available+credit+uk+site%3Aforums.moneysavingexpert.com&oq=too+much+available+credit+uk+site%3Aforums.moneysavingexpert.com&gs_l=psy-ab.3...5554.5955..6378...0.0..0.59.111.2......0....1..gws-wiz.zbHfpPtCFyU

molerat

It all depends on how big your wallet is.


I would say 7 ...........






........ as that seems to be the trigger point for setting off the loop alarms in shops

kezzygirl

!!! wrote: »

#

What do you mean transfer funds to it straight away?
Do you mean pay the balance off or pre-load the credit card with additional funds?

You can have "too much available credit" to you as it's worked out on your salary and affordability.

If you are paying the card balances back in full each month then the interest rate is irrelevant.

The interest rate on foreign spending for the virgin card is something ridiculous like 20% apr, we are hiring a car so didn't want to use our prepaid caxton card nor cash, as we wanted the protection of a credit card. We plan on paying for it and transferring the money to pay it off straight away. We currently aren't paying interest on any of the cards as they are all 0%, we are paying enough monthly to ensure they are cleared by the time the promotional rate expires. Unfortunately this has meant we have various cards which have balances but no current usage. As some are cleared I didn't know if it would be best to close them

System

American site - UK Site. Only matters to an extent.

Yes we don't have a score etc. Doesn't change the way lenders view people as a whole. Makes no difference. The meat is still the same. An american bank is the same as a UK bank in terms of credit history is low risk and which is high risk.

You cant have too much available credit if your utilisation is low. end of.

DigitalDevil

beany_bot wrote: »

American site - UK Site. Only matters to an extent.

Yes we don't have a score etc. Doesn't change the way lenders view people as a whole. Makes no difference. The meat is still the same. An american bank is the same as a UK bank in terms of credit history is low risk and which is high risk.

You cant have too much available credit if your utilisation is low. end of.

I was always under the impression that it was based on total amount of available issued credit.

So if I’ve got £50k available across 4 cards it doesn’t matter if they are maxed out or not when I apply for new credit as they would need to take into consideration the total affordability of my total available credit as I could very much go out the day after securing the new credit and spend that existing £50k I already had available....

Guess I’ve had it wrong all these years.