How many credit cards is it safe to have?

kellyp

I currently have 3 credit cards - Nationwide, barclaycard and Sainsburys. I havnt used Nationwide or barclaycard for years (literally!), but just havnt gotten around to closing them. I have just bought a very expensive holiday on my Sainsburys one, which is to be paid off with some inheritance money that I am getting - however, there has been a delay in this (tax man sadly wants to take lots of it!), and dont want to pay high interest on it whilst I am waiting. LloydsTSB have an offer for current customers, allowing 0% charge on balance transfer followed by 9 months at 0%, but dont want to upset my credit rating by getting another one. Is it safe to have 4 credit cards?

Also, what the easiest way to close credit cards - writing/phoning? Barclaycard actually sent me a letter saying they would close the account if I did not use it - so I didnt, but they still sent me a new credit card when the other one expired! Doh!

Thanks in advance!!

johnofhertford

kellyp wrote:

I currently have 3 credit cards - Nationwide, barclaycard and Sainsburys. I havnt used Nationwide or barclaycard for years (literally!), but just havnt gotten around to closing them. I have just bought a very expensive holiday on my Sainsburys one, which is to be paid off with some inheritance money that I am getting - however, there has been a delay in this (tax man sadly wants to take lots of it!), and dont want to pay high interest on it whilst I am waiting. LloydsTSB have an offer for current customers, allowing 0% charge on balance transfer followed by 9 months at 0%, but dont want to upset my credit rating by getting another one. Is it safe to have 4 credit cards?

Also, what the easiest way to close credit cards - writing/phoning? Barclaycard actually sent me a letter saying they would close the account if I did not use it - so I didnt, but they still sent me a new credit card when the other one expired! Doh!

Thanks in advance!!

If you're not using the card, even infrequently, and you're not keeping in reserve in case you lose the main card you use, then you might as well get rid. Having a second card is no bad thing even if just for backup. There's probably not much sense to having more than two cards unless you have a specific purpose for the extra card, e.g. business expenses, balance transfers etc.

As for how to cancel it depends on how you manage your card. I cancelled a card recently online - just sent an electronic message from within the system confirming that I'd destroyed the card. If there's no online system then you'll probably need to write to ask for account to be cancelled and either return the card or confirm that you've destroyed it.

Bisoy

It doesn't matter how many cards do you keep as long as you're very organised and discipline then you should not encounter any problems.

I have 5 at present and I used to have an average of 6-8 cards when 0% cards were still abundant in the market but 0% now become very rare.:mad:

When closing cards I ring them up and ask if they require formal letter and if they said no then that's fine just ask for confirmation letter that your card has been closed and also ask them to inform the CRA.

If you go abroad more frequently, I would suggest you keep nationwide.

tidy_sum

I currently have 5 cards, which I consider to be "live" - however 2 of them have a zero balance. Whether or not the providers consider them "live" I don't know, sorry, but I do still receive mail encouraging spending or balance transfers on them - including blank cheques. All are promptly shredded.

Of my 3 live cards, one is a low life-time interest rate in order to clear the balance (cheaper than a loan) - one 0% card, again being used to clear a mid-term range balance and the last one is a cashback card, which is the one I use when making purchases.

My credit rating appears to be absolutely fine as I've had no problem in the past 6 months when I've applied for one store card and a loan.

CLAPTON

my music teacher loved to ask ask the question 'how much breath do you need to sing'
the answer was of course was 'enough' ..so enough

lisyloo

I havnt used Nationwide

Bear in mind that Nationwide are very good for using abroad.
They charge 0% commission on foreign purchases.
Other cards charge up to 2.75% but it's done via the exchange rate so many people are not aware that it's even there.
It's worth keeping if you travel abroad more than say once a year.

Personally I prefer to have as few cards as possible for a number of reasons.
Bear in mind that even if you are not using them they could be stolen or used fraudulently so there is some risk (even if small) in having them.
Personally I would get rid of any that you are not likely to use.

I have had up to 6 before now (back in stoozing days) but currently have Egg Money for cashback and Nationwide for aborad. This gives me both Mastercard and VISA (although I don't think I've been anywhere that doesn't accept both).
Two is good because it gives you an alternative if there are any problems (like it won't swipe, you forget the PIN or it gets refused - all of which can happen).