Paying of debt and cancelling credit cards

GMH119

After being in debt all of my adult life, I am nearly debt free!!!!

I never Want to get back in this position but also, I want my improved position to be reflected in my credit score - which is good now but I think reflects that most of my credit cards have a £10k limit,
cancel the cards or not?

Socajam

No.
Not sure how many you have, but I would keep (2) - the ones with the largest limit.
Buy something every month, pay it off, problem solved

cymruchris

Do you intend to make any large financial purchases in the coming years? any more mortgage applications? If so, then it's worthwhile keeping your cards open, using them once a month to purchase a tank of petrol or a round of supermarket shopping, and then let the direct debit take the payment in full. This keeps the card active, keeps the credit file history positive, so that if you then want something like a mortgage you can demonstrate sound financial management, and a good degree of trust from your lenders.

If alternatively you have all you want, and will never apply for another mortgage again, then your credit score doesn't really matter as you're not going to apply for anything, (your score doesn't matter anyway as it's only you that sees it - it's a general indication of your creditworthiness seen only by you, but are often wildly inaccurate) then close down all your cards except two. one Visa, one Mastercard (Or one Visa/one Amex - basically two different systems) so that you are never without different options if at any time one of the systems goes down.

Closing accounts will drop your imaginary score - but that same imaginary score will drop for a host of other reasons too. Lenders are only interested in your history and financial management, not your magic number.