Cancel credit cards?

markhp · 14 December 2019 at 11:47PM

Hello,

My wife and I will be applying for a mortgage in roughly 6 months, I am looking for some advice on the best course of action regarding some old unused credit cards (we had them at a point when we're could only get high interest credit)

Current situation is we are totally debt free, currently using 1 card each to pay for fuel and petrol and then paying off in full each month, we are unsure if to cancel old cards as we've had then for a long time an understand this potentially could harm credit file

Current cards and status

Mine:
Barclaycard - limit = £2k - used for fuel each month
Tesco - limit = £3200 - not used
Vanquis - limit = £2k - not used

Wife:
Barclaycard - limit = £200 - not used
Tesco - limit = £2400 - used for food
Vanquis - limit = £2k - not used
Capital One - limit £2k - not used

We really only need of these cards each and I feel we need to make the change now before it gets any closer to us applying for a mortgage

Ant help and advice is greatly appreciated

YorkshireBoy · 14 December 2019 at 11:56PM

You:
Close Vanquis

Wife:
Close Barclaycard
Close the 'newest' of Vanquis and Capital One

Then both of you start using, and repaying each month in full, both remaining cards.

[Deleted User] · 15 December 2019 at 1:01AM

There’s no real “need” to close any of them unless you’re mortgage advisor/broker suggests so.

How long have you had them for?

boo_star · 15 December 2019 at 2:33AM

There's no real need to close the cards if they're not used but if it were me I'd close the Vanquis and Capital One cards for both of you.

markhp · 15 December 2019 at 9:37AM

We've had both the vanquis and capital one for around 5 years, both are also under different surnames from before we got married so we either need to change names or cancel them

[Deleted User] · 15 December 2019 at 10:05AM

Names should have been changed ASAP after marriage not 5 years later!

For 5 years worth of stability I would still keep them open

boo_star · 15 December 2019 at 10:34AM

!!! wrote: »

Names should have been changed ASAP after marriage not 5 years later!

For 5 years worth of stability I would still keep them open

CRAs care about that though. Lenders not so much.

And they'll probably have relatively low limits.

Cancel credit cards?

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