Newbie Credit Score Question!

csa40

Hello! Sorry if this in the wrong place, I did have a good scour round the site to see if could find an answer first and then tried to find the right board - I'm pre-coffee though!
I've just looked at my credit report from Experian. I'm in the 'poor' category and it says this is because I have a lot of accounts open. Now most of those are online catalogue type accounts (I know, I know, they're expensive and ridiculous but I had cashflow problems one Christmas!). Some have never been used, others are settled entirely. Would it be a good idea to close these? They mount up to a few thousand in credit. I know it's sensible to get rid of credit cards that don't get used but I'm not sure how it works with these. My thinking was 'Well if companies can see that other people are willing to lend to me, that must look good', now I'm not so sure!
My total debt is around £800 which includes one catalogue hangover (MP3 player), my laptop, credit card and a store card that I use whenever they have storecard holder events. It's totally manageable and I haven't missed any repayments, paying over the minimum when I can. I'll begin paying off big chunks in the next couple of months, so I want my credit score to look nice and pretty once that's all paid off.
Thank you!

mgh

Hi. how do you know your category is poor? My report doesnt state a category? Thanks

csa40

It gave a sort of traffic light system with coloured tabs. There were four categories, I think they were 'Poor', 'Moderate', 'Good' and 'Excellent'. I used Experian and paid the £5.95 to see whatever else it didn't show me on the free part (got 800 Piggy Points though!).