Do i have too many credit cards?

Emmia

Also is there actually any point in having lots of cards you're not using? 

enthusiasticsaver

If you do not need that much credit then yes I would close down the one you do not use. 

HIA

I just got a good money transfer offer on a barclaycard I haven't used in many years and stoozed £10k into a savings account for 14 months, like the old days. It may be worth keeping your card open in case of decent offers.

Largs

My own thoughts are don't close them.  I have lots of unused cards, what I like is they write on and off with offers.  Vanquis said in December get 5% back on £200 spending (as I had not used the card in ages) Also ASDA Money card said spend £25 in the ASDA Supermarket and we will give you £5 back.  These were my 2 most recent offers.  If you hang around the credit card forum too much, you can become a bit fixated on credit reports and closing credit card accounts.

Nasqueron

CliveOfIndia said:

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.

Indeed and to add onto the last point, if the card has a promotional rate (sometimes recorded as a P) it is treated differently to someone holding a balance on an interest bearing card.

Nasqueron

Emmia said:

Also is there actually any point in having lots of cards you're not using? 

Depends really, there are a few schools of thought but no-one except the lenders know

One argument is that having lots of credit available shows lenders trust you with high limits which is good

Another counter argument is that having lots available is bad because lenders might worry you will run them all up and then make your lifestyle unaffordable which could affect borrowing on say a mortgage

A third is based on utilisation which the CRAs are always banging on about - if you had say a card with £5k limit for BT and one with £5k limit for spending and used the full BT, you would have 95% on one card and essentially 0% on the other card as it's going to be paid off in full every month, so your credit utilisation is 47.5%. If you had a third card of £5k, your total utilisation is now 33%. Whether lenders care about this is not known, they won't tell you what their criteria is.

Personally I have a few cards with good limits, 4 have running BT deals of various sizes, 1 is a travel specialist card and 1 is my main spending card with cashback. If I get an offer to increase I always accept and I have only ever had 1 application for a BT card rejected after manual review and got a new one soon after