Which Cards to send back?

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

Have 'stoozed' this past year using Egg, Virgin, Halifax One, Unison, Marks & Spencer '& More' and Capital One Credit Cards.

Halifax One, Unison, Virgin and Egg have come to the end of their free BT period. Proposing to cut-up the Halifax One, Unison & Virgin cards and return them with a covering letter asking that the Credit Cards be cancelled.

Going to hold on to Egg, initial 9 months ended Sept. '05, because I still have their 'Happy Anniversary' 0% BT offer to come where I get another 5 months.

Marks & Spencer still have another month I can squeeze out of them, after that I'll cut-up the card and return it to them.

Capital One card still has 10 of its 18 months to run :whistle:

Any reason why I shouldn't cut-up the proposed cards, particularly the Virgin one? Egg & Virgin being the 'conduits' to my Current Account!!!

david78

You might be better cancelling one card a month, so as not to draw attention on your files at the CRAs.

Instead of writing, you could telephone and see if they will offer you another deal, though I think that this is unlikely these days.

grumbler

Don't waste money on sending and time on writing. Just phone them to close acconts and ask to send you a letter with confirmation.

Zebra

grumbler wrote:

Don't waste money on sending and time on writing.

In my experience it wastes more time phoning, as invariably you are kept on hold before speaking to anyone, then transferred to someone else who tries to persuade you not to cancel etc etc

I use a standard letter instead.

grumbler

Zebra wrote:

...then transferred to someone else who tries to persuade you not to cancel ...

Yes, and sometime this someone can offer you another 0% deal ...

Zebra

grumbler wrote:

Yes, and sometime this someone can offer you another 0% deal ...

Which banks are likely to do this?

The only one I know of is MBNA.

grumbler

Zebra wrote:

Which banks are likely to do this?

The only one I know of is MBNA.

Yes, MBNA. My last experience was with Amex blue. A lot of examples here: Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers ...

P.S. We make a nice zoo here ... :snow_laug

bbruce

Yes MBNA do it regularly after you've transferred a balance from them. They ask you what rate you got, giving you a chance to "adjust" the truth (less than 0% could be a bit suspicious!).
I agree re Egg because of their anniversary offer. Also John Lewis, Morgan Stanley & M&S make repeat offers so are worth retaining.
I'm dumping Barclaycard as they've ditched Nectar plus Mint & RBS because they've offered nowt for yonks.

teksat2k

bbruce,

Just spoke to Barclaycard (Platinum) and was offered 6.9% L.O.B - no fee. They advised that there was also a 0% offer but as this only runs until next month, they suggested I could call them back in a few weeks to check on any new BT offers.

Also was offered 6.9% by Halifax One but have decided to cancel this one in the hope that I'll be in a better position to apply for Mint/Sky in a couple of months time.

Tee-Es

I paid off my 0%/9 months Virgin credit card last month, and yesterday I received a phone call "whether I was interested in another offer?". Stoozed £3.6K from another card (which runs out end of this month) for another six months, now on 0.9% p.a. plus £30 balance transfer fee.

£30 for six months equates about 2% p.a., plus 0.9% p.a. seems a good deal.

Hm. Maybe it wasn't quite worth the hassle but at least I can stick the money into a 5% ISA in April and then try and move the debt on again.

*edit: poor maths
*edit 2: seems I have misunderstood on the phone. My online account now shows 3.9% p.a. Guess I rather pay it off more quickly than planned.

Mr_Pink_3

david78 wrote:

You might be better cancelling one card a month, so as not to draw attention on your files at the CRAs.

Is this really a consideration?

I never apply for more than one card a month but surely cancelling a load at once is no big deal?