Which credit cards shall I cancel?

gax23

Hi all,

Have recently been accepted for the Egg 15 month 0% balance transfer card, so I'm going to stick my £1,150 worth of credit card debt on that and pay it off over the 15 months by standing order.

When the card arrives, that'll be five credit cards to my name. I'm now dead set on clearing my debts and saving in order to build as strong a credit rating as I can. I realise that with this much debt now available to me, it can negatively impact my credit score. Here's the cards I currently have:-

New Egg 0% balance transfer card - £3,500 limit - £1,150 on it at 0%
Aqua MasterCard - 32.94% - £1,150 limit - £0 on it
CapitalOne Visa - 30.09% - £200 limit - £0 on it
Barclaycard Visa - 24.9% - £260 limit - £0 on it
Vanquis Visa - 44.9% - £1,000 limit - £0 on it

I also have a £3,000 overdraft which I don't use, and I'm 22 years old if that has any bearing on the strategy! Which cards should I keep, and which should I cancel?

cifpower

I would cancel the Vanquis, CapOne and Aqua cards.

jd87

Cancel all of the ones with nothing on. You don't need them. Even cancel the Barclaycard. If you have been approved for this Egg 0% card, then your credit rating must be fairly decent now. So if you do need to get your hands on some more credit in the future you can apply for a better card than all 4 of those.

gax23

jd87 wrote: »

Cancel all of the ones with nothing on. You don't need them. Even cancel the Barclaycard. If you have been approved for this Egg 0% card, then your credit rating must be fairly decent now. So if you do need to get your hands on some more credit in the future you can apply for a better card than all 4 of those.

Thanks jd87 - That's the answer I was after, but afraid to convince myself of! At the end of the day, if this is the end of my time in debt, why do I need anything but one emergency credit card?

simongregson

Perhaps consider applying for a cashback card a few months after closing the other accounts. If you are disciplined and pay it off, you could get a bit extra for your day-to-day spending.

mintymoneysaver

If the new card is 0% on balance transfers only, not purchases then I would keep one of the others as an ' emergency' purchase card. If you had to make apurchase and stuck it on the balance transfer one, you would end up paying interest because purchases get paid off first.

dhassen

jd87 wrote: »

Cancel all of the ones with nothing on. You don't need them. Even cancel the Barclaycard. If you have been approved for this Egg 0% card, then your credit rating must be fairly decent now. So if you do need to get your hands on some more credit in the future you can apply for a better card than all 4 of those.

that's what I'd do

NickX

I agree with mintmoneysaver.

I wouldn't cancel them all - its always handy to have an emergency Credit Card just in case you hire a car or stay in a hotel, and you don't want to use the Balance Transfer card for purchases otherwise you will get stung for interest.