Open one — Close one?

CEON44

I recently did a balance transfer from a Sainsburys account to an account with 0 interest. Sainsburys account is now empty so is it better for my credit score to keep it open empty or should I close it? 

Largs

I very rarely close them.  They say it improves your score to have low utilisation of an account and have accounts open a long time.  They being Equifax and the others.  Someone else will possibly come along with different advice but that is how I work and I don't get knock backs for new accounts.

Largs

Forgot to add, the mantra here is "forget your score, it's meaningless" instead of score I am meaning creditworthiness.

CliveOfIndia

It'll be bad for your score if you close it - your score drops in response to any change in your credit circumstances, whether good, bad or indifferent.

But since your score plays no part whatsoever in lending decisions, and is not used - nor even seen - by any lender, a drop in your score matters not one jot.

It's always a bit of a balancing act.  On the one hand, long-running, well-managed lines of credit are generally viewed positively by lenders.  On the other hand, having too much available credit in relation to your income can be viewed negatively.

It depends to some extent on the credit limit on that card.  If it's fairly low, you may as well keep it open.  However, if you have no intention of using the card again then you may as well close it.  Lenders will close the account anyway after an extended period if inactivity.

The only other thing you may want to consider is what will happen when NatWest complete their purchase of Sainsbury's ?  I've no idea on that score, I'm afraid.  Probably there will be little or no impact to customers, maybe they'll get issued a NatWest card as a replacement?  Don't know.

But that's actually probably irrelevant.  Bottom line - keep it open if you want to use it again, close it if not.  Does it offer any rewards (points, cashback, whatever) that would be of value to you if you kept on using it?

WillPS

There's no objectively correct way to do this.

My strategy is to keep your longest held and keep any with ongoing rewards you use. I generally close all my 'vanilla' Balance Transfer cards once they've done their job. I might keep the Tesco Bank one I have currently that said, in case it becomes more competitive for spend once Barclays takeover.