What should I do with Old Credit cards?

acg12

HI,

I would like to know what the groups suggestion would be to do after you have transfered money from credit card to another to take advantage of low or 0% interest reates.

I'm someone that will tranfer money on a regular basis depending on the length of time a low rate offer.

At the end of this time should I instruct the company to close the account thus possibly prventing me applying for another card from the same company some time in the future

-or-

should I keep the card at the risk of loosing track of accounts I have acumulated over time?

I'm slightly concerned about the number of cards I seem to be accumulating (currently 7) and don't want to cause any potential furture problems related to credit scoring.

Andrew

SmartRRRR

I don't think there is a definitive answer to this question, as every issuer has differing rules.

I currently have 12 different cards through 9 issuers, the latest 3 have been applied for in the last 6 months, but I've had some of the cards for 10 years, with very little use.

I have also cancelled 4 within the last 6 months, with an overlap between opening and closing some of them.

I have not experienced any problem with any issuer, despite not having a large balance on more than one card at a time. It must be obvious to an issuer that I'm transferring balances, and I expect a credit check would show this. I assume they hope that at one point I will give up transferring and stick with one of them.

My credit history is good, and that would probably be a plus point. I also have a reasonable income, which helps.

I'm sure others will have different experiences to share.

Galstonian

Personally I close accounts unless there is a good reason to leave it open.

You should never lose track of accounts; if you are going to ensure that you never get bitten by interest you need to keep good records. You should probably keep them indefinitely.