if I have paid off the CC in full, and then decide to cancel the card, will it adversely affect my credit rating?

I have three cards to cancel at last

Feels good!

Credit rating is more to do with your payment history rather than the amount of credit you have access to.

dont cancel it then, just chop the buggers up. simple

but then they still leech you for at least £5 a month for doing nowt.
(this happened on my EGG card- they wouldn't give me the money back, so I had to spend it by using the card )

I'm not planning on using them again full stop.

Although it did cross my mind to keep one with very low limit for emergencies that will be cut up, but not cancelled. (to stop wife induced impulse retail therapy )

first time I have been in this position with all my CC's.. and it like a heavy weight just got lifted off my shoulders..

yeah i tried to cancel my barclay card but they told me if you leave the credit on zero every month your credit rating goes up, the deal was with me that if i dont spend money i wont hear from them

Hows that work then? they dont charge me owt on my egg card when its on £0

thought you had to pay minimum payment even if balance is at £0?
(ie: x% of your balance or £5 minimum?)

Go to the Egg website and you can change the payments from minimum to one off. Pay off the last payment and then leave it at £0.00. That's how mine's set up.

nice one.

I know for certain my other card providers do the x% of your balance or £5 minimum.
Cheers.

Then you are getting butt fu*ked. I have 7 or 8 credit cards (got online points for signing up, but never used them once I got them).

Most have payment protection and a charge is made if, and only if there is a balance. If you have no balance you should not be paying anything unless you have one of the cards that makes an annual charge - and TBH there are enough about not making that charge to not need to go with one that does.

as above. You only make a payment if you have an o/s balance.

I too have an egg card set to minimum payment, they've never taken money if there is no balance.

yep ditto, i have 6 cards and when they are empty you dont pay anything on them...

just keep the cards with no annual fee and you'll be sorted, watch out for some too like amex blue which will charge a 15 quid annual fee if you dont spend over £500 in a year

cheers fellas.

Also be aware if you've used the card to buy anything with an annual renewal. If the the account is live the renewal will go through without people realising sometimes....

I've heard somewhere that having too many unused credit cards is actually bad for your credit rating. No idea if this is true or not though.

Having asked for mine from Experian a while back, your credit rating isn't so much a score out of 10, more a report showing your spending habits (and those at the same address), what credit limits you have, how much you have outstanding etc. I suspect it is then down to the interpretation of the given lender. Some may suspect you are just a card collector and not issue, others may not be bothered.

Back when I had only a couple of CC's I was turned down by Halifax (hence asking for the credit report). Odly enough there was nothing wrong, everything paid off evry mont, nothing outstanding. 2 loans, car and mortagage and no defaults etc etc. I suspect they realised they wouldn't make a penny out of me and decided to decline me. It may work against you in that manner.

(Note: I'm not a FA, this is just my take from my experience - so Tiggs, before you accuse me of spouting cr@p )

Makes sense - not necessarily fair, but I suppose you can see where they're coming from

I wasn't too bothered, was only after the free CD walkman, they make nice birthday presents