simcor:
Experian suggests closing any settled or unused accounts but again as I said it depends on how many and balances available.
What Experian would like to see above all, is lots of the population giving them £10 a month for access to their credit file.
And for the lender, the ideal borrower is one who spends a lot of money on high-interest borrowing (at least where this implies only inattention or lack of financial sophistication, not desperation or rank stupidity), doesn’t pose an administrative burden by routinely paying late (or defaulting), and has unliquidated assets which mitigate the risk of total non-recovery or bankruptcy.
Beyond that, I suspect it’s just like reading the tea leaves.
Different lenders have different models, and in some cases there may even be cross-subsidy. For example, if a bank has lent to a car producer who are struggling to shift their models of late, then the bank may also want to set up and capitalise a finance company offering preferential loans to consumers likely to buy that model, to ensure that the dealer forecourts are cleared.
Obviously it won’t usually be done so nakedly - the bank will go and talk to a finance company already on their books (who have no specific knowledge of the bank’s involvement in car production), and say “our market analysis shows there’s unmet demand for this car model, we’re willing to provide capital on preferential terms if you target your loans to this model”, and the management of the finance company simply say yes, because whatever they lose on the exposure to higher risk of consumer default, they gain on the terms offered by the lender of the capital.
The bank can maybe also then offload their exposure to that struggling car company, to a sucker who thinks the company is doing a roaring trade (and doesn’t know about the finance company set up to pump the market of late), or talk to the car plant management about their “forecasts for the market” and winding things down a bit to match the ‘natural’ (i.e. unsubsidised) level of consumers. Banks hire people to take advantage of possibilities like these, and as lenders they have preferential access to management and to intelligence from inside all kinds of businesses, whilst the public, the general class of businessmen, or even the state, has no such right of access.
So you might get a good deal on a loan not because your credit is great, but just because you’re considered for the time being to be part of some financial scheme which depends on you buying something or other in particular, the details of which you know not.
Responsible borrowers will always get loans on feasible terms, and trying to optimise your credit file is I suspect a fool’s errand.