Old Credit Cards: Should I cancel them Discussion Area

aristote33

Hello,

I have eventually the answer to my own message about closing a Littlewoods finance account.

When the account has really been closed by Littlewoods Finance, it shows on one's credit report as "settled".

I hope that's helpful.

William

beanyy

Hi, I've been trying to clean up my credit file and found a few old store cards hanging around on my credit file. Most of them say they were last updated and settled in 2006 which is when they were last used, however one is £3 in credit and is still being updated up to this month. Its with CREATION FINANCIAL SERVICES LTD, USC or some other store like it. I have called them before and they've told me this card is closed but its obviously not, any advice on what i should do?? And does anyone know their email address by anychance? Thanks in advance for any insight

beanyy

Lottie's_Mum wrote: »

Having paid off the balance of my credit card with Halifax in early 2008 I wrote to them saying the card was no longer needed and I wanted it closed, which they did.Nothing further received until a couple of months ago when I had a statement from them stating I owed them a sum of money for a payment (not a DD) paid from my card without my knowledge. I had made a similar payment to the recipient company a year earlier for a membership which I had not renewed. Now Halifax are chasing me for the money saying they were obliged by law to let this payment go out, even though it was without my authorisation AND after Halifax had written to me stating my account had been closed. I have also received phone call after phone call from Halifax wanting to know when this will be paid, then they will close my account (again?!) Had I emigrated by now they surely wouldn't be able to try and claim this from me, and I am mystified as to how they can try and claim this money from me under the circumstances! Any advice? I am tempted to call Halifax's bluff and say take me to court over it.

I used to work for Egg and we had many people in the same situation, my limited advice would be firstly go directly to the company who you had the subscription to and see why they have renewed this subscription without your consent. It may be that somewhere in their small print you would have to tell them not to renew the agreement. If this is the case its not Halifax's fault that the money was taken so they wouldn't necessarily be much help to you, as in their eyes, they are doing their job. However if you asked for the account to be closed, I would have thought they'd honor that....

VoucherMan

I've had an MBNA credit card which I haven't used for several years, I just keep it 'in case of emergency'. They quite often offer me 0% transfers, subject to a fee, and occasionally 0% on purchases.

The question is - am I likely to benefit in the credit scoring/rating area if I cancel it?

I have one other cash-back card paid off in full every month.

Any views?

NickX

VoucherMan wrote: »

I've had an MBNA credit card which I haven't used for several years, I just keep it 'in case of emergency'. They quite often offer me 0% transfers, subject to a fee, and occasionally 0% on purchases.

The question is - am I likely to benefit in the credit scoring/rating area if I cancel it?

No benefit in cancelling IMO

Why not take them up on one of their generous offers ?

MBNA are excellent for existing customer offers and I would not advise closing an MBNA card for this reason alone.

melissa740

Hello

I have recently got a 12.9% loan from Alliance and Leicester (as recommended on here!) to pay off my credit cards. I have three cards: virgin (0% until next month) 16% £1800, HSBC 21% £1400 and capital one 34% £700.

I want to keep one or two cards (they all have roughly the same limit of £1500-£2000) and am definitely going to cancel HSBC - Out of principle after HSBC cancelled my Student Account before the time promised to me!!!

I have only had the Capital One card for a few months just to get some quick cash for a holiday, and always pay it off in full. They have also increased my limit after 4 months which I presume looks good on my credit history. Would it look bad to cancel it after having it for only a short time? I wondered is it would it be a good idea to keep this account open as well as Virgin despite the high interest? And if yes for how long? Are they likely to swap me to a lower interest rate if I ask to close the account?

Thanks - and sorry for the long post!

Melissa

anna42hmr

i personally would hold on to it for a few more months just in case

the average number of cards held is apparently 4 to 5 so your not over the average, so holding on for a while longer should affect you negativly

also they can take a while to be shown as cancelled on the credit reports, i cancelled some in november and they still are not shown as cancelled/closed

milo28

Hi I have been refused credit and on checking my credit report i have credit cards listed which i have never used with credit on them but i do not have the cards. How do i go about cancelling these without account numbers and will cancelling these improve my credit score.

CannyJock

milo28 wrote: »

Hi I have been refused credit and on checking my credit report i have credit cards listed which i have never used with credit on them but i do not have the cards. How do i go about cancelling these without account numbers and will cancelling these improve my credit score.

Your credit report should also list contact addresses for the companies. If not then you'll need to check their websites.

You basically write to them telling them that you were under the impression these accounts had been closed previously, you no longer have your account number, but you can confirm your name, DOB, address and signature.

Ask them to close the account and confirm back in writing when this has been done.

It will improve your score if you're closing down available credit that you no longer required.

An alternative may be to ask them to send you replacement cards and just start using them if you're needing credit and you have some available that you weren't aware of?

onlypaddy

ok so just called up to cancel my barclaycard (they do like to try and sell you more stuff dont they!) and the lady said to me they didnt want to lose my custom as 'I had a good credit score and they didnt want to see me lose it'

A) Will she have actually done a credit search to know my score or is this just a standard line?

Surely I can't 'lose it' until 6 years after the date of closure?