Timing for closing one credit card and opening another... what's the best way to get the best deals?

TimTEnchanter

I keep good track of my credit file through the MSE Credit club and I have quite a lot of credit available to me now, most of which I don't use.  However, i have maximised the use of credit available to me within what I can afford.  Included in my credit availability is my current 0% credit card with Sainsbury's.  The 0% ends in April so I want to close it and get a new card.  However, my limit on my Sainsbury's card is now £10k... Should I close it, wait a month then apply for a new one to get the best 0% deals, or should I just apply for a new 0% deal anyway then close my Sainsbury's card after?  I never know which way round to do it, but I don't want a £10k limit on my current card to go against me getting a good deal on a new card... but my current card has evidence of good behaviour etc... aaargh!! Tricky! ... and not much advice around for the right way to do this.  Any help gratefully received..

[Deleted User]

Closing cards shows disruption and there is no real reason to close them provided you are doing the usual good stuff of paying off in full every month. My total available credit (including some used for BTs) is more than my salary and M&S just gave me another 4k on their BT card with the £25 cashback offer

Superhoopza

If you have five cards and two of them are low limit, newish account subprime cards, would you recommend to close them? Especially if you're looking to open a good limit prime card? I may keep one of the sub primes as it offers free cash withdrawals and no FX fee but I can't see a point in keeping the other. Or would the advice be to keep as many as you have?

[Deleted User]

There is no particular reason to close them. Lenders work in mysterious ways and it's possible having a lot of open cards with lots of credit might result in less credit being made available but closing a small limit, recently opened card isn't going to mean they give a huge limit one way or the other. You can't guarantee what limit you will get, some are more generous than others. I just have my cards and accept increases when they offer them

Superhoopza

Good advice thank you

Alex9384

TimTEnchanter said:

I never know which way round to do it, but I don't want a £10k limit on my current card to go against me getting a good deal on a new card... but my current card has evidence of good behaviour etc... aaargh!! Tricky!

Closed account is still visible on your credit files for 6 years so if it was a well managed account I guess it still has some positive impact.

Alex9384

Deleted_User said:

My total available credit (including some used for BTs) is more than my salary and M&S just gave me another 4k on their BT card with the £25 cashback offer

My combined credit limit is twice as much as my annual income. 7 credit cards and 1 charge card.
I was still eligible for some other cards until I made a money transfer on one card and then bought a car with another card. Both cards have over 90% utilisation while the remaining 5 cards have around 1-5% utilisation.

Interesting thing is, I was able to manually increase my credit limit on the card (Lloyds) where I made the car purchase, just 3 months after account opening rather than typical 6 months. At the same time, they took away the offer for a second credit card with them. I'm not eligible for a second card anymore.

CRAs are still showing me offers for new credit cards but also moaning about my high utilisation. My affordability "score" dropped significantly too.

anotheruser

I don't think it matters whether you apply for the new card, then close the old one or close then apply.
People will say "keep them open" and "no point in closing them" but if you're not going to use it again, is there any point in it being open?

I have tended to close CC accounts when I have had my usage out of them (IE, 0% on purchases, paid off before the 0% term ends).  My current one will remain open for the 30 months or whatever it was as I need it for purchasing a long subscription (£500 a year but gets billed every year).
When the 0% has finished, I see no need to keep it open or worry about having to inform the bank if I move house so a new card can be sent to that address.

Your credit rating (which some people think doesn't matter, but it does really), will go all weird for a while as you'll be adding credit available to you, but upon closing a CC, you'll reduce it again but after a few months, it'll settle down again.

[Deleted User]

anotheruser said:

I don't think it matters whether you apply for the new card, then close the old one or close then apply.
People will say "keep them open" and "no point in closing them" but if you're not going to use it again, is there any point in it being open?

I have tended to close CC accounts when I have had my usage out of them (IE, 0% on purchases, paid off before the 0% term ends).  My current one will remain open for the 30 months or whatever it was as I need it for purchasing a long subscription (£500 a year but gets billed every year).
When the 0% has finished, I see no need to keep it open or worry about having to inform the bank if I move house so a new card can be sent to that address.

Your credit rating (which some people think doesn't matter, but it does really), will go all weird for a while as you'll be adding credit available to you, but upon closing a CC, you'll reduce it again but after a few months, it'll settle down again.

No-one thinks your credit history / the information on your file isn't important, but the gimmick credit "score" doesn't matter as it's never seen by anyone but you. Lenders score you based on their own systems that you will never see, not the horoscope style nonsense the CRAs generate