Old empty cards
waveydavey0
Posts: 10 Forumite
I find I have a number of old credit cards, with a total credit of over 27k (unused) on them. Which is best for my credit rating - cancelling them, reducing credit limit, or leaving them be ?
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Comments
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You don't have a credit rating.
The answer to what is best depends on what cards you have, your limits, debts, income and future credit plans.0 -
My dad has 4 cards with over 100K Limit - all empty he's done this for years and has a top score - does not affect him at all.0
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The question is why you are asking - what's your end goal. If it's to simply improve a score because you want to get it high as possible, then can't say.
Cancelling cards may improve your credit rating, or not
Cancelling cards may lower your credit rating, or not
reducing limits may lower your credit rating, or not
reducing limits may improve your credit rating, or not
Leaving them be might not change it, but who knows, it might!
You need to look at other factors.
Some people keep cards open for offers, some people close cards to be able to get "new customer" offers. etc0 -
Keep them. It makes your average credit utilisation lower. Here is an example. Person A has one credit card with a limit of £1000 on. He owes £900 quid. He is seen as high risk because he has a 90% debt ratio. Person B also has one card, and owes 1800. Ie Double that of Person A. However person B has a 10K limit, so he is only utilising 18% of his credit. He is seen as lower risk, and potentially is scored higher. Another thing to note, the longer the average card age, the more stable you are considered to be, and therefore that helps with the scoring.
The only time I personally would close a close, would be if they introduced a new annual fee, or if I wanted another type of card from the same lender, and they had a policy on allowing only one card. For example, it may have changed, but Halifax used to let you have only one credit card at any one time.0 -
Ok then, credit score.0
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Keep the cards!0
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Ok, consensus says keep them, so I'm doing that.0
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Are they for free? If yes keep them0
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yeah, all zero balance, zero fee.0
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Just so you are aware. Depending on which cards, if they are not used, most lenders will normally close them after a certain time period. Ie 1 or 2 years. So just make one small transaction on each card once or twice per year.0
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