Usual disclaimer: I am not an expert; this is not financial advice; it is my opinion & you take it or leave it at your own risk.

1) The simple fact of having 3 credit cards does not preclude getting more; I currently have 5, of which 2 have ongoing balances. You do, however, need to limit your applications to providers which are not the same as the cards you already have. You won't be able to balance transfer from one MBNA card to another, for example, or one Crapital One card to another, even if they're under different brand names.

2) Based on the foregoing, cancelling card #1 shouldn't make a lot of difference. Some lenders might look better on 2 cards than 3, but I've had no problems getting 5. The account will stay on your file for 6 years after you close it, so the only difference it makes is to the amount of available credit you have now. My gut feeling is I wouldn't cancel it... it might come in handy for a future balance transfer.

3) I can't tell you how each individual company scores your history, but 6 late payments in 3 years doesn't sound too bad from a card company's point of view; they got their money in the end, and some late payment charges too. This does not constitute a default; if you'd defaulted, you'd have been given a notice of default, referred to a debt collection agency and the card stopped on you.

You didn't mention which card providers you use, but if you happen to have a Barclaycard in the pack, then you may wish to know that they usually offer a lifetime balance transfer rate of 6.9% for existing customers (ring and ask, if applicable). It may be that an 0% deal is better for you if you can pay it off within a year, but this may be another option.

Hi there, was just wanting a little advice on how to go about sorting out some debt.

I am currently in a bit of debt, and I am looking to sort it out. I have no personal loans 3 credit cards. CARD No.1: Has hardly anything on it (£10 at any one time), and I will be getting rid of it soon. CARD NO.2: had a 12 month purchase free offer on it, which comes to an end in April (I will have paid about 2/3 of the £1500 balance off it by the end of May), and finally CARD NO.3: I used this to store a balance transfer on. This was interest free for 15months, and I don't have the money to pay this off yet. This is the one I am querying about

Since this cards offer has come to an end, I would like to apply for a card that offers an interest free balance transfer (for around 12months if possible). Because I have 3 credit cards already, will this be a problem? The amount I am looking to transfer is £2000 so I can go on and cancel this card.

I am also wondering, is it worth cancelling CARD NO 1 before applying? Or does it look better if I keep that card on my credit report?

The other issue is I got CARD NO.1 when I was a student. Now I over the 6 years I have had it, I missed minimum payments a number of times (Being young, I thought it didn't matter if I missed a £5 payment once in a while, and without the facility of a direct debit, I forgot about it at times). This has been reduced to 6 missed payments in 3 years. I know this isn't great, but will this severly affect my chances of getting one of these cards? It wasn't a problem when getting my other 2 cards, and I had more missed payments at the time. I have not missed any payments for other cards, and have been prompt with all other payments (phones etc).

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm not in that much trouble, as I am taking careful steps to pay these debts off as quickly as possible.

One more quick question. When doing a credit card search on moneysupermarket, there is a field for "have you ever missed a payment on a credit account", and another saying "Have you ever defaulted on a credit account". What is the difference? As if you put anything for the default question, it vastly reduces the number of cards available to me. The payments I have missed have just been a late payment one month (2 or 3 days), and have never been in consecutive months. Which is this?

Thanks!