empty credit cards: cancel or keep?

Tondella

Hi guys

I'll be paying off my first credit card balance in March, it;s a barclaycard, and I had an existing customer LOB BT at 6.9%APR on it. I'm also coming to the end of my BT offers with Virgin and HSBC, I have lined up an Amex card to transfer them onto at 4.9% LOB. To be honest, I haven't considered tarting around at 0% because the balances are pretty hefty and I'm not the best at scheduling new cards, organising DDs etc etc. I do have an Egg card with anniversary coming up in March, I had decreased the credit limit on that down to £1.5k cos it used to be my spending card.

So, what cards should i get rid of and what should i keep in case of future BT offers? After March everything will be sitting around at 4.9-5.9% LOB, except the "wedding" credit card which is 0% purchases until Dec 06. My impulse is to cancel Barclaycard, HSBC, EGG and Virgin and apply for a decent LOB card in December to transfer the wedding balance onto. This will halve my available credit on my credit record too. Are there any reasons I should keep a card (for example, wedding credit balance is likely to be £6k and I'm not sure i'll be able to apply for a credit card and get that limit to transfer it in a oner?) and which one should i keep?
Thanks!

Conor_3

NEVER EVER BUY ANYTHING ON A CREDIT CARD YOU DO A LIFE OF BALANCE TRANSFER To. What happens if you do is that the monthly repayments pay off the balance transfer at the low APR, but the stuff you bought doesn't get paid off and accrues interest at the higher APR.

If you can afford to live on your monthly income without having to resort to putting stuff on credit, cut the lot up. Cancel the paid off ones. Don't cancel the ones with outstanding balance on but them but cut them up, removing the temptation to spend on them. If it comes to an emergency, you can always get a replacement. Get a VISA Delta/Switch card for your current account and use that as virtually everywhere accepts them and you can only spend what you have.

Tondella

Thanks Conor, I'm not talking about keeping them so i can spend on them, I wanted to weigh up the advantages of being able to quickly access existing customer BT offers versus the advantages of having lower available credit on my credit report and therefore being able to apply for a new customer BT offer. I just don't want to find myself unable to transfer all of my 0% balance come Dec 06. And I never spend on any of my credit cards (except the wedding one, which was applied for as a cheap alternative to a personal loan)

angelica

Would not it be a good idea to use your Egg card with the anniversary offer 0% coming in March for 5 month to reduce the interest payments? Personally I would not decrease but increase as much as possible its credit limit to take the full advantage. But might be it's because I am a different type I am happy to tart, set up DDs etc, I do not see it as a hassle or hard work as it is MY money working for ME.

I do not have Virgin card, but I've noticed that Barclays has very good offers for the existing customers all the time, e.g. last week I received an offer for 0% BT for 9 months. I will definitely use it.

HSBC has not offered me anything so far, at the moment I have about £100 balance there which I'll pay in full this month. If they will not offer me anything decent, I'll close the card.

Tondella

Thanks angelica, I guess the egg card would give me a bit of breathing space, Barclaycard have only offered me 6.9% BT in the past, I think i might have told them not to send me any offers in the post (doh!). I agree about HSBC, I had to really fight to get 3.9% for six months, originally they offered me 14.9% (cheers!) and only budged when i cancelled AND complained!

Kevicho

Id keep the egg, get rid of the rest

angelica

I agree it is difficult to get good deals from the banks nowadays if you are existing customer.

Barclays kept sending me offers such as 6.9% LOB or 0% for 1 month/3 months for ages, I have not use them, and now at last they send me a proper one.

They also have almost constant offer of 6.9% LOB on their website, current one ends on 31 January 2006
http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/Products/Apply/Card_Benefits/Balance_Transfer/