Keep credit cards or close accounts when remortgaging?

Question

ive just got enough money to clear my over the limit credit cards completely! (had to sell my car :() ... so is it better to keep my CCs with nothing on them but keeping the account active or close them down?

Answer 1

active with zero balance

Answer 2

you credit score is lower when you have so many cards that you COULD charge them up, even though you don't. the agencies probably have some magic number, but i don't know what that is.

something that improves your score is small charges that you pay off every month. so it can help to keep a couple of cards active, but use them. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU PAY THEM OFF. if you can't discipline yourself for that, close em.

Answer 3

Depends- obviously you shouldn't keep them if there is a chance of you spending on them again.  And do you have more "under the limit" cards?

However there is some thought that credit report damage could be done if you cancel them all at once or quickly.  That said your credit score is probably trashed a littleanyhow if you had "over the limit" cards so I would cancel them all especially if you still are paying off "under the limit" cards.

Other recommendations:

When all is said and done you should maybe have one card with maybe a $1000 limit to use to confirm (but NOT pay for) car rentals if you need to rent cars.  Problem with using debit cards is that the rental places "hold" a huge chunk of money - double the rental- until you return the car to them.

And then you should have maybe one more card with a limit of $250-400 for online purchases only.  This way you gain the ability to charge back a purchase if the company rips you off or the product is bad, etc.  You also limit your exposure to fraud this way too by having such a low limit.

No matter what you do you should only use the credit card if you have the money IN THE BANK to pay for the rental/purchase etc BEFORE you use the card.

Answer 4

To help your credit you want to keep them open.  It will create a longer credit history with the banks you have them with.  It will also show that you are a low risk in "maxing out" the credit cards.  If you are tempted to use them simply shred the cards.