Should I close my old bank account?

grego

I won't go into the details, but suffice to say that after around 10 years with Lloyds TSB as a current account customer (and credit card, mortgage, insurances etc...) I fell out with them big style. I switched to Abbey about 2.5/3 years ago and gradually transferred all my payments from Lloyds to Abbey.

Almost a year ago, I was wooed by the offer of free cash - planning to take the financial incentive and run, I signed up to First Direct. I've been so chuffed, that despite all original intentions I ended up staying!

So the point of this post - I currently have 3 accounts in now:
1) First Direct (my main account)
2) Abbey National (now hardly used - have transferred small credit card balance and am paying it off using my 0% overdraft allowance)
3) Lloyds TSB (hate hate hate - small nominal balance of about a fiver)

My question is:
In terms of credit rating etc, does it help or hinder me to have an (unused) bank account? The thinking was that I can say, when asked, that I've been with my bank "for over 10 years"...

Any thoughts? :-)

Mark7799

Turn the question around - is there any reason for keeping the Lloyds a/c open? AFAIK, an unused account has no effect on your credit score, positive or negative. There's also the, admittedly slight, risk of fraud or a forgotten payment from out of the blue causing a surprise overdraft and all the associated fun of charges.

grego

I guess my thinking was simply that having a bank account for longer would go in my favour (positive I've answered the question "how long have you held your bank account")...

I'll give this thread a few days to se eif anything else crops up but in the meantime, thanks Mark

Mark7799

I think that question can have two different answers - if you are applying to Abbey or First Direct for finance then they may expect precise details as they could check it. If it was to a different lender, would it be incorrect to say you have had A bank account for XX years?