Do i have too many credit cards?

T04Yola

My original credit card is now 11 years old. It's with capital one with a £2500 credit limit that I've not used in a very long time!

Second credit card is virgin Money that I only use for holidays abroad due to its 0% foreign transaction fees, the limit is £6000

My daily credit card is with MBNA with a £28,000 credit limit.


Should I close my capital one card? The advice I've seen online is to keep it open as its the longest credit line, but I literally never use it.

I have a mortgage and don't need to take out any credit in the future. 

kimwp

How long have you had the others open for?

retiredbanker1

If I were you I would be looking to change your spending on the MBNA card to one that rewards you, such as a cashback or points reward card.

T04Yola

kimwp said:

How long have you had the others open for?

MBNA about 2 years  and virgin maybe 5 

T04Yola

retiredbanker1 said:

If I were you I would be looking to change your spending on the MBNA card to one that rewards you, such as a cashback or points reward card.

Can you recommend one? 

JGB1955

I'd make sure that I have at least one 'Mastercard' and one 'Visa' card.  AIUI both MBNA and Virgin are Mastercard.  Capital One can be either.  I'd be looking at a Visa card with cashback.

mebu60

Be aware that if you don't use a credit card for 13 months any direct debit set up to clear the monthly balance is likely to have expired. 

My main two credit cards are both Mastercard, one used for cashback the other for points when cashback not applicable. My backup Visa credit card gets used for a minor purchase every six months or so to keep it ticking over. I also have another (Mastercard) credit card with a relatively low limit used for online purchases on one-off sites. 

Emmia

T04Yola said:

retiredbanker1 said:

If I were you I would be looking to change your spending on the MBNA card to one that rewards you, such as a cashback or points reward card.

Can you recommend one? 

I have a Barclaycard Rewards which offers cashback.

Martin_L_is_my_guru

I am pondering the same thing. Back when I was a credit noob, I thought the most sensible thing was to have 1-2 cards and pay them down regularly. Now I realise that what banks like to see is lots of firms willing to lend to you but that you barely use any of your lines of credit (i.e. below 25% utilisation). So no I don't think you have too many cards, you can keep opening cards and not use much credit, it may actually increase your credit score as a result, depends on your circumstances. Just don't make a lot of applications in a short space of time

Nasqueron

Martin_L_is_my_guru said:

I am pondering the same thing. Back when I was a credit noob, I thought the most sensible thing was to have 1-2 cards and pay them down regularly. Now I realise that what banks like to see is lots of firms willing to lend to you but that you barely use any of your lines of credit (i.e. below 25% utilisation). So no I don't think you have too many cards, you can keep opening cards and not use much credit, it may actually increase your credit score as a result, depends on your circumstances. Just don't make a lot of applications in a short space of time

Though of course the credit score is a meaningless gimmick that only you see

CliveOfIndia

Nasqueron said:

Though of course the credit score is a meaningless gimmick that only you see

This is of course correct, and is repeated ad nauseam on this forum - not that anyone seems to get the message.

But also

Martin_L_is_my_guru said:

but that you barely use any of your lines of credit (i.e. below 25% utilisation).

this is another common misunderstanding.  If you're always paying in full every month (as you should be doing) then your utilisation ratio is irrelevant.  It's only if you're carrying a balance from month to month that it becomes an issue.