Do I cancel a finished card?

anewstoozer

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help...

For the purpose of a little light stoozing, I have 4 credit cards and a store card.

One of the credit cards (Tesco M/C) has finished its 12 months free BT period, so I no longer use this and the balance is £0.00.

I also have a Store Card which I no longer use, as I get cashback on my main credit card that i use for purchases only.

My question is, as I will need to apply for new cards early next year, to take advantage of new free BT periods, is it better to cancel the unused Tesco card and send it back to them, and the same with the store card, or keep the credit open?

I wondered which would 'look better' come next year when I apply for new cards.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Ta.

Wyndham

It's better to cancel cards you no longer need. This reduces the overall amount of credit available to you, which is one of the factors that is looked at when considering you for the next deal. You may (I won't say should, but may) get a higher credit limit if you have lower overall available credit. It will also help with the 'yes/no' decision on the card in that if you have too much credit they may decide you are a bad risk.

BiggaThanBen

Just closed two "finished" credit cards, one senior customer service representative tried to persuade me that keeping an open card with zero balance is a good thing for credit rating ....

Peartree

Good luck on trying to cancel them if you do! I paid off and tried to cancel a couple of cards as far back as 2004. I telephoned and I wrote to the companies. No matter what I've done they keep sending me statements (of £0.00) and replacement cards. Recently I applied for a new Capital One card to take advantage of the O% on purchases to spread the cost of some work on the house - they tell me I've already got one despite many efforts I made to cancel it!

HamiltonL

Have you tried contacting the companies over the phone? They should have a retentions team?

Doomcow

i been thinking much about credit cards lately.

i've never had one and to be fair, dont relaly need one - but i'd like to have one just incase of emergencies, or to try my hand at "stooxing".

however, what happens if i get a card, loose my confidence and never use it? (not a question ive seen anywhere)

NickX

Doomcow wrote: »

what happens if i get a card, loose my confidence and never use it? (not a question ive seen anywhere)

Shouldn't be a problem really.

Provided there is no annual fee for holding the card, not using it will not cost you anything.

If they should introduce an annual fee at a later date, then just cancel it.

YorkshireBoy

The two biggest problems are fraud, and forgetting you have the card when you move house.

The two are very much linked. If you're not checking your account online, any fraudulent activity may go undetected for a month (inbetween statements).

Worse, if you forget you have the account (because they don't generally send zero balance statements each month) and change address without notifying the provider, then the first you'll know of any fraudulent activity is when the debt-collectors come knocking...and by then your credit rating will be shot to bits.