Better to Close old cards or Reduce limit

maximise

In your experience is it better to close old credit cards or reduce credit limit, in order to move forward with eligibility for new offers?

I've worked through offers and limits, getting close to 150% of income as total available credit;

however I've utilised less than 50% of credit. I'm not eligible for any new cards after trying a few soft searches.

Think I'll close a couple of cards I don't use, unless it's best to keep them and request limit decreases? Thanks

Brie

Close anything you know you don't use or doesn't give you a benefit in some way.

A small concern though is that you admit that you have 75% value of your income on your cards. That seems like a lot. Potentially you've got a lot of that on 0% deals but you might want to consider running down some of this debt to ensure you don't have to pay silly interest rates.

If you don't have the cards on 0% closing some might allow deals to be offered again to help you save on what you are paying out.

Jami74

I reduced the limit on an MBNA card a couple of years back (to £500) thinking I'd keep it open for future offers. When I then wanted to use it for a 0% offer they wouldn't increase my limit again so it was useless and I closed it.

I tend to close cards I'm not using.

kempiejon

I have not actively closed a card in years, I get regular repeats and have been increasing credit limits as I reload.

I think I'm at a dozen cards. I have let one or two lapse when, due to lack of use the card issuer tells me they'll close it for me, lower limits without a repeat and I'll let them slide.

maximise

Thanks all, I'd pay off any card that wasn't 0%. On the whole I've found the subsequent offers, with existing cards paid off, are lacklustre compared to new customer offers, with the transfer fee % usually higher. I think I've got less than 10, I'll close a few cards that I'm not using. Guess it's best to wait a few days, a month or longer, before trying eligibility again.

dumpster_fire2025

I always close cards used for promotions and just leave open the other 3-4 that cover the 3 main card schemes.

That way, if I do need a promotional offer it's almost always going to be available to me, and the promotional offers for "new" customers are typically a lot better than those for existing customers.

webmasterpolo

Yes I agree with the above. I usually have hefty balances at 0% on several cards, and always close them once deal ends. I have found new client offers better, but also I have found my credit limit offers on new cards very low when I had a large number of high limit cards running even though most were nil balance. once I'd closed them and waited 6mths, I got much higher limits at 0% again, so now I always do this.

I often return to the same companies (like Virgin and Barclaycard) for repeat long 0% deals with high limits for things like car purchases, deal ends in 3 years, close it and maybe a year later start it again.

surreysaver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82000991#Comment_82000991

You're in the Stoozing sub-forum. It is perfectly normal to have a large percentage, or indeed a percentage over, your annual income.

People undertaking Stoozing are well aware of what happens after 0% deals expire...

where_are_we

The important part of stoozing is to have available cash savings to pay off the debt just before the 0% deal ends.