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Canceling credit card - impact on credit rating

0 replies

Delphine31 · 03/05/2023 21:59

I've got credit card debt across three cards. I have a habit of putting food shopping and a small proportion of purchases on Card 1. I've cleared the balance in the past but it just builds back up. This is the only card I actually spend on; the other two I use for balance transfers at 0%

Card 1 (limit £2.5k) - held since 2005, 19.9% APR. £2000 debt

Card 2 - (limit £8k) held since 2015. £4500 debt, vast majority still on 0% deals

Card 3 (limit £2.5k) held since 2017 £1000 debt on a 0% deal

I am nowhere near well off enough to have credit card debt like this so I'm trying to get a handle on it. On my current salary and now with dependents, I wouldn't be able to open another good credit card which is one of the things putting me off closing one. However I'd like to close Card 1 because it's the one I have developed the habit of spending on. It'll force me to only spend what's in my current account. The other two cards I use only to manage my debt by swapping between them to 0% deals but if there was an emergency I could use Card 2 to make a purchase (interest rate 24% on purchases) but I'd be loathe to do this so really it would only be if there was no other option.

At some point in the next few years I may want to move so would be applying for mortgages so I'm just a bit cautious about closing a card if it might affect a mortgage application badly (but equally I can see that having this amount of CC debt doesn't look good on a mortgage application either...)

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