Should I close some of my 12 credit cards

MeadowsVale

I have amassed 12 credit cards over the years currently with a £51,600 combined limit, I did have 13 but I closed 1 last year (118118Money). A lot of them are sub-prime as they were applied for when I had a low credit rating (default and CCJ) however I do now have some good cards including Amex (£10k limit), Chase (£15k limit), and Ulster Bank (£8k limit) with high credit limits.

All my credit cards currently get paid off in full each month if used and this has been the case for 3 years now. Before then I used to carry balances on my sub-prime cards.

I have a Barclaycard Forward card with a £3,500 limit but they won't allow me to change to a different Barclaycard so I'm thinking of closing this.

I also have a JAJA card with £2000 limit which I'm thinking about closing too.

Also possibly close my Fluid card which has a £2,150 limit.

I have Marbles (which I know is same company as Fluid) and Capital One but they are my oldest cards which I've had for over 10 years so would like to keep those)

My "score" on Experian is now 1250 and on TransUnion it is 634. Will my rating reduce if I start closing credit card accounts?

Emmia

MeadowsVale said:

I have amassed 12 credit cards over the years currently with a £51,600 combined limit, I did have 13 but I closed 1 last year (118118Money). A lot of them are sub-prime as they were applied for when I had a low credit rating (default and CCJ) however I do now have some good cards including Amex (£10k limit), Chase (£15k limit), and Ulster Bank (£8k limit) with high credit limits.

All my credit cards currently get paid off in full each month if used and this has been the case for 3 years now. Before then I used to carry balances on my sub-prime cards.

I have a Barclaycard Forward card with a £3,500 limit but they won't allow me to change to a different Barclaycard so I'm thinking of closing this.

I also have a JAJA card with £2000 limit which I'm thinking about closing too.

Also possibly close my Fluid card which has a £2,150 limit.

I have Marbles (which I know is same company as Fluid) and Capital One but they are my oldest cards which I've had for over 10 years so would like to keep those)

My "score" on Experian is now 1250 and on TransUnion it is 634. Will my rating reduce if I start closing credit card accounts?

Your score is a made up fairy number only you see, what lenders see is the contents of your file, e.g. payment history, defaults, time at address etc. 

Personally I'd close accounts you're not using / don't need (some providers will close them automatically if they've not been used for a while). I would have thought that the Amex, Chase and Ulster cards would be enough. I'd close the rest. 

When you close, you may see your score drop, but this will recover quickly... And is made up in any case.

martinbainbridge1975

Ignore the score its a made up number, lenders will have their own internal scoring process and criteria.

If you default is expired and your history is ok I would get rid of some of the sub prime cards then see if you can get a card from a mainstream lender.

I tend the flit between 3-4 lenders when the deals expire close the card and go back as a new customer a few months later.

Also look at top cashback as you can get cashbacks through that site, just opened a tesco card after closing another and got £25 cashback.

Tesco / Barclaycard and Virgin Money are the 3 I tend to find deals from, even though you are clearing in full monthly look at all round cards with 0% on spending too just in case you have that one really expensive month were you cant quite clear the full balance.

Hope this helps

mta999

I expect you know this but to change some Barclaycards (eg Amazon, Forward) you would have to close your existing card and then wait six months before opening another one

Once you are 'mainstream" Barclaycard there is an option in the app to change Barclaycard type instantly

IOWJJBTM2025

My only question is if you are considering getting a loan or mortgage in the very near future it may be beneficial to hold fire until afterwards.
Agree that the score is meaningless. I used to have a mortgage and no savings. After I paid off the mortgage and built up savings my score went down. I am not looking for a loan so it does not matter.

Emmia

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

My only question is if you are considering getting a loan or mortgage in the very near future it may be beneficial to hold fire until afterwards.
Agree that the score is meaningless. I used to have a mortgage and no savings. After I paid off the mortgage and built up savings my score went down. I am not looking for a loan so it does not matter.

I'm not sure why that would be the case? The bank might consider lots of open (but unused) cards a risk as the OP could run up a large debt on them. The OP can demonstrate well managed credit on the three higher limit cards... 

But banks will all have their own criteria - some may not like someone who has a sub prime card. Some may have issues with more than X cards being held. 

MeadowsVale

Thanks all,

The plan is to basically move away from the sub-prime cards and maybe replace with some more mainstream cards e.g. MBNA, Lloyds Ultra, etc and keep along side my AMEX, Chase, Ulster.

Another 2 of my sub-prime cards are Tesco Foundation and Virgin Money.

On the checkers I'm basically 100% approved for most mainstream cards now.

I do have a mortgage and my fixed rate deal ends next year. No immediate plans for loans but I would like to keep my credit file healthy in case I plan a loan for something in the near future.

Emmia

MeadowsVale said:

Thanks all,

The plan is to basically move away from the sub-prime cards and maybe replace with some more mainstream cards e.g. MBNA, Lloyds Ultra, etc and keep along side my AMEX, Chase, Ulster.

Another 2 of my sub-prime cards are Tesco Foundation and Virgin Money.

On the checkers I'm basically 100% approved for most mainstream cards now.

I do have a mortgage and my fixed rate deal ends next year. No immediate plans for loans but I would like to keep my credit file healthy in case I plan a loan for something in the near future.

Why do you feel the need to have lots of cards?

I have an Amex, a Barclaycard rewards (as Amex isn't accepted everywhere) and a Lloyds card that I got for the zero percent offer to spread the payment of an OU module I'm doing (Lloyd's will be closed when that's done). 

I just see it as more life admin to monitor to make sure things are not going awry.

vacheron

I have about 11 credit cards, but all but two... (everyday spending, overseas purchases) are on 0% promotional deals.

I see no benefit in holding so many cards if they are not offering you any kind of promotion, all they are doing is signalling to anyone who reads your credit report that you own a lot of sub-prime cards, and their cumulative credit limits may be preventing you from getting a good limit from a mainstream lender (who usually offer promotions etc.)

As soon as one of my cards ends its promotional rate, it is paid off and closed so that other offers will be avaiable to me in a few months time when they fall off my credit report. I would not be able to begin the cycle of aquiring new 0% cards if the expired cards weren't paid down and closed first.

Also, I'm not sure that lots of credit cards being owned for a long time would be nearly as beneficial to a credit search as, say, a bank account which you have held for a long time.

Ignore yourcredit "score", it is a made up opinion and is not derived or used by the people who will actually extend you any credit.

Just my opinion based on my experiences. Yours may vary. 

WillPS

I close cards I don't really have a use for. I currently have 

2 balance transfer 0%s, which will live as long as the promotional rate lasts and then be cancelled
Vitality Amex [1.5-2%] as a default spend option, up to £1000
Nectar Amex [1% effective] as an option if more than £1000 is spent in a month (as that's the limit of Vitality's bonus)
Santander Edge CC [0.8% effective] (the legacy 1% version with a £3 a month fee) for non-Amex situations
Natwest Reward [1% +] as it tends to offer decent 'on card cashback' deals, and a way to get cash back at supermarkets not offering vouchers.
Avios Barclaycard [0.5% effective] as a fallback option when Edge CC is exhausted and Natwest Reward has nothing to offer. Pretty rare this one gets used now but it did see some in the run up to Christmas

The one card I have which doesn't get used at all save for an occasional transaction to keep it alive is a Tesco credit card - which I keep partially to get extra club card points on fuel (normally paying with something else) and partially as a punt, expecting Barclays will one day merge these in to Barclaycard allowing me to have more than one with them which has been a bit of a pain point a couple of times.

Not a credit card, but I also have a Pluxee prepaid card which often gets used for payment at merchants offering cashback through them. Even my current account debit cards occasionally see real use if they have a useful cashback offer on them - most recently the 10% on card offer at Asda. 

I appreciate this is a bit of a power user setup, in truth 80% of the benefit can be had with the classic 'Amex + cashback earning Visa/Mastercard' combo.

And before someone jumps in to say 'this is all far less lucrative than just getting a 0% purchase card and saving the payments until the end of the term' - I recognise this but I am at the limit of credit card debt I'm willing to appear to have; even though I could settle it at any time if I choose. Perhaps I'll feel differently when I eventually get a mortgage...

MeadowsVale

Thanks all,

I'm going to cancel my Barclaycard Forward, JAJA, Fluid, and Marbles cards.

When I say I want to replace them with mainstream cards I don't mean straight away, just if I ever want another one in the near future.