Credit cards and mortgages

secla

I have recently cleared all my credit cards and plan to apply for a mortgage in the next couple of months.
Should I be looking at closing them all/leaving them open/keep using them and fully pay off at the end of each month ?

I have a history of carrying a balance on them so what looks best to a lender Bearing in mind it’s only going to be a few months until application

[Deleted User]

Use them and clear in full.

K_S

secla said:

I have recently cleared all my credit cards and plan to apply for a mortgage in the next couple of months.
Should I be looking at closing them all/leaving them open/keep using them and fully pay off at the end of each month ?

I have a history of carrying a balance on them so what looks best to a lender Bearing in mind it’s only going to be a few months until application

@secla It's unlikely to make any material difference to your chances. From my experience, it's rarely/never something that I take into consideration to inform my advice.

dimbo61

What you need to consider is how many credit cards you have and how much credit do you have on each card.
If you have 4/5 cards with £5,000 limit on each one that's £25,000 of credit even if they all have £Zero balance.
Maybe 1/2 cards is enough