Should I keep credit card accounts open

xxdaix

I’ve done numerous 0% balance transfers over the years but have always kept the accounts with zero balance open, I’ve got access to nearly £80k of credit but using just £13k. Is it better for my credit score to close the accounts with zero balance or leave them open?
what is the ideal balance (no pun intended 😉)of unused credit to available credit? 

Thanks D

impoverishedtraveller

You should search for the many thousands of topics with your exact same title.

[Deleted User]

Credit scores are a gimmick, there is a thread on the top of this forum - you can see it near the "create post" button you clicked on - which explains this all.

Having a lot of unused credit might spook a lender, it might not. Chances are if you never use them, the cards will be shut anyway (typically after 12 months). I would personally look over them all, keep the oldest couple, keep using it periodically and close a couple if they have no offers and no perks, you may be able to get new customer offers on them in 6-12 months anyway

If using 13k of credit, I would suggest keeping 3-4x credit limit open, there is some thinking that lenders look at credit utilisation when they look at your account so if you ended up suddenly with 13k of debt and 20k of credit it's a lot worse than 13/50 or whatever. It may be a myth but no reason to chance it if the cards are worth keeping

fergie_

They tend to prefer balances under 25% so closing too many too fast could look like you have had credit withdrawn.

The other factor I have found is some providers won't let you open a new account further down the line, if you haven't been 'profitable' for them.

MalMonroe

Hi,

After many years of making numerous mistakes with credit cards as well as overdrafts, I have now reconciled myself to the fact that NO balance on any credit facility anywhere is acceptable. For me, anyway.

I think it's dangerous to have a lot of credit available - it certainly was for me. And whilst I always thought I was on top of my finances in the past, I really wasn't. Of course I was when I was married and we had a double income and just one child but one divorce and single parenthood later, I could not repay debts and ended up with a DRO, which is all now thankfully in the past but I learned so much from that experience.

If you don't want to close your credit card accounts, you can ask credit card providers to freeze them temporarily - and you can unfreeze them immediately when or if you need to. That will give you some time to think about what to do with them, perhaps?

As others have said, credit scores are never seen by anyone but you. 

xxdaix

Thanks for the comments. 

I suppose there have been times when I’ve come to the end of a 0% balance transfer deal and have had offers available to me from the accounts I’ve left open but with zero balance. I did notice that on one of the unused cards they gradually reduced the credit limit over a 2 year period by about £6k. 

The cards I’ve ended up with don’t really have any benefits/rewards for using they are just left over from when I needed a balance transfer. Umm not an issue at the moment but as I chip further away at clearing the remaining debit I might look at closing one or two cards. 

Thanks for the input.