Cancel credit cards/close accounts?

Jen214565

I currently have 9 credit cards with available credit of around £9000. They are mostly all cleared, currently owe £520 between 2 cards that I use and clear each month. 

My question is, will it impact my credit report negatively if I close the cards I don’t use as I’ll be reducing the credit available to me? 

Thanks 

MorningcoffeeIV

It's up to each lender to decide if they think it's a negative.

Leave yourself enough credit to look trustworthy and not so much that you could end up having to bankrupt in a week.

CliveOfIndia

As above, each lender will make their own assessment.  For what it's worth, though, a total credit limit of £9000 is not particularly high, so as far as it goes I don't think there's be much to be gained from closing them.

Having said that, if you're not using them and have no plans to do so, then you may as well close them.  After an extended period of non-use, most banks will close the account anyway.

In terms of your credit report/history, the best thing is to use the cards regularly for planned, essential spending, and always repay in full every month without fail - it sounds like you're doing that on two of the cards.

It's always a good idea to have at least a couple of cards (ideally one Visa and one Mastercard), just in case of an issue with either the issuing bank or the Visa/Mastercard network themselves.

Do any of the cards give you rewards or any kind (cashback, points, that kind of thing)?  If so it would be good idea to keep that one, probably use it as your primary "day-to-day spending" card and keep another one as a backup - using it every so often just to keep it active.