To keep or not to keep

QuietOne

Hi all

I'm currently in the process of clearing my debts and I'm debating whether to keep the cards or get rid of some of them or all of them.

I have 3 credit cards, paypal credit and currys your plan.

Marbles £0/£900
Virgin £1,900/£3,000 (interest free until feb 24)
Barclaycard £329.69/£350
Paypal £0/£800
Yourplan £549/£1,000

People say it's good to have credit available just to use and pay in full each month. 

Just wondering if it's better to be debt free and have no line of credit.

Your thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.

Thank you.

CliveOfIndia

QuietOne said:

People say it's good to have credit available just to use and pay in full each month. 

Just wondering if it's better to be debt free and have no line of credit.

If you foresee the need for any type of further credit at some point in the future then yes, it's good to keep an existing line of credit open.  Keep one or two cards, put a small, essential, spend on them each month (food, petrol, etc.) and always repay the statement in full when it arrives, every month, without fail.  This is the easiest way to build/maintain a healthy credit history, which it what any future lender likes to see.

Of course, this requires some discipline - never spend more than you can afford, and don't use a credit card as an excuse to buy stuff you don't really need.  If you are worried that you may end up spending more than you can afford then yes, close the cards.  But if you can trust yourself to use the cards responsibly, then it's well worth doing.

cymruchris

Your overall credit availability there is ok, but in the grand scheme of many, is on the low side. I wouldn't close anything, as it's better to maintain positive history if you ever want to take further financial products in the future. As long as you're paying things off in full, and not incurring interest, it's not something I'd change for the moment.

QuietOne

CliveOfIndia and cymruchris - Thanks for replying. I am a lot more sensible with credit now so there is no temptation to use available credit. 

I will keep the two higher limit credit cards and ditch the barclaycard. I will keep PayPal as it may be useful and yourplan is quite useful for the bnpl and pay it off within the interest free period.

Funny thing is. About an hour after I posted. I had an email from Marbles saying there's a letter online about my credit limit.

My credit limit has increased to £1,650 now.

emperormessia

In case you haven’t I suggest you keep the Barclays it more better than all the credit accounts in this lists, just keep using it you will get a limit increase over time, I want you to keep Barclays because you can switch to other types without having to reapply and they are a bank they are likely to be around for a long time 

PowerSavingMode

QuietOne said:

Hi all

I'm currently in the process of clearing my debts and I'm debating whether to keep the cards or get rid of some of them or all of them.

I have 3 credit cards, paypal credit and currys your plan.

Marbles £0/£900
Virgin £1,900/£3,000 (interest free until feb 24)
Barclaycard £329.69/£350
Paypal £0/£800
Yourplan £549/£1,000

People say it's good to have credit available just to use and pay in full each month. 

Just wondering if it's better to be debt free and have no line of credit.

Your thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Bit late to this, but if it helps, I have an excellent credit score and quite a number of CCs — some with a balance (paid off in full), some on a 0% offer (minimum monthly payments), some not used. I regret closing about four others I had now. 

martinbainbridge1975

I would get rid of the marbles and barclaycard, then see if it improved eligibility for others, failing that then go back to barclaycard in 6 months as a new customer.

I tend to flip between barclaycard and mbna having had several cards from both over the years