Close Card or Keep?

Alarae

Was a bit bored today and decided just for fun to apply for the American Express Platinum Cashback. Was pretty gobsmacked to say the least that I was accepted, considering I only got my first credit card last July.

I have these cards:

Lloyds Credit Card - 19.9 (£1000)
Aqua Reward (3% cashback) - 34.9 (250)
Capital One Classic Extra (0.5% cashback, £10 each year) - 29.9 (500)

Lloyds/Aqua are MasterCard, Capital One is Visa.

Am I right in my reasoning that I should close the Lloyds down, and keep the other two, even though they are sub-prime? I would close the Capital One but it gives me cashback it's my only Visa credit card.

Or... Should I just keep them all open? I don't know my limit on the Amex yet, so that may be a spanner in the works.

I put all my spend on the Capital One at the moment as I've already maxed cashback on the Aqua (doesn't reset until January) then just a small transaction on the other two to keep the green ticks going.

I pay off in full every month to avoid interest.

[Deleted User]

Wait till you get your Amex. Then maybe cancel the Lloyds. Their cards generally offer nothing of particular benefit, but it does have the lowest APR, if you ever needed to revolve a balance.

The limits are all low, so you don't need to close them on that basis. The Amex card may change that though. They not likely to be handing out a £250 credit limit.

Alarae

Hm, is it worth it just to keep them all and put small balances on Cap1/Lloyds just to keep them ticking over each month?

If I just got a £1000-1500 limit on the Amex I'll be happy. Don't really need much more.

andy.1987

id be tempted to close the aqua card it has the highest cash back but the lowest limit and a high apr. To get the most cash back you would have to run close to the credit limit which can end up harming yor credit file i believe.

System

I don't think that having lots of cards with low limits is overtly helpful.

Once you've got the AMEX, I'd be inclined to ditch 2 of the other cards.

The Aqua has 3% cash back facility and no forex loading so that would probably be the one to keep.

Alarae wrote: »

Hm, is it worth it just to keep them all and put small balances on Cap1/Lloyds just to keep them ticking over each month?

If I just got a £1000-1500 limit on the Amex I'll be happy. Don't really need much more.

Alarae

andy.1987 wrote: »

id be tempted to close the aqua card it has the highest cash back but the lowest limit and a high apr. To get the most cash back you would have to run close to the credit limit which can end up harming yor credit file i believe.

When I was putting my spend through this card I paid it off mid-month if I was getting close to the limit. Never gone over limit or paid interest on this card

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I don't think that having lots of cards with low limits is overtly helpful.

Once you've got the AMEX, I'd be inclined to ditch 2 of the other cards.

The Aqua has 3% cash back facility and no forex loading so that would probably be the one to keep.

Does it matter this day and age to have one Visa/one MasterCard credit card? That was my only thought about keeping the Cap1 open, otherwise it sounds like a good idea to close that one and the Lloyds card down.