Nationwide moaning because I haven't used my card

retiredin2011

I got a Nationwide Select credit card to use when on holiday, going to Italy in June :j

Just had a letter from them that they noticed I haven't used my card yet.

Considering I have a Capital One card that pays 1% against their .5% cash back, I only got it for using abroad.

I suppose I could buy my £1 bottle of milk from Lidl with it on Monday to keep them happy instead of paying cash.:D

All other shopping my wife pays for on her Tesco credit card.

I'm still trying to figure out whether to use my Capital One credit card for everything.

Just that my wife likes getting Tesco points for shopping in Asda.:rotfl:

Maestro.

Just keep it ticking over. If they see you not using it they may close it and give the credit to someone else.

Coveredinbees!!!!

They shut mine as I wasn't using it, they do that for some reason where as I had the devil of a job cancelling by Barclaycard.

eastanglian1

I just keep unused cards open on the sole purpose for repeat offers.

rb10

Coveredinbees!!!! wrote: »

They shut mine as I wasn't using it, they do that for some reason where as I had the devil of a job cancelling by Barclaycard.

I don't know why Barclaycard are so happy for people to have high credit limits on dormant accounts. When banks have to hold capital and liquidity for every £1 of credit limit that's available (even if not used), closing unused limits seems a better use of money.

eastanglian1 wrote: »

I just keep unused cards open on the sole purpose for repeat offers.

I don't think Nationwide are particularly good at repeat offers. They certainly used to explicitly say that you couldn't have a repeat offer; although I think they've softened on this a little now.

molerat

I have an MBNA with a £7.5K limit which I have hardly used for the past 6 years, maybe 2-3 times a year for a very small transaction of a couple of pounds, the highest statement balance according to my Noddle report was £18 in April 2010 and a total of 18 monthly balances in the past 6 years. I have just received a new card valid until 2017 and they keep sending me e-mails offering 0% transfers.

bengal-stripe

retiredin2011 wrote: »

I suppose I could buy my £1 bottle of milk from Lidl with it on Monday to keep them happy instead of paying cash.:D

No, you can't! - Lidl does not take Credit Cards!

Maestro.

Cheap gits

Hominu

retiredin2011 wrote: »

Just that my wife likes getting Tesco points for shopping in Asda.:rotfl:

Seems a bit daft getting the equivalent of 0.25% in points, when the Asda credit card will give you 1% back in cash.

chattychappy

retiredin2011 wrote: »

Considering I have a Capital One card that pays 1% against their .5% cash back, I only got it for using abroad.

That might be so, but I can imagine from their point of view that they could decide that somebody who rarely uses a card except for foreign stuff (which probably loses them money if you pay off in full) is not worth having.

rb10 wrote: »

I don't know why Barclaycard are so happy for people to have high credit limits on dormant accounts. When banks have to hold capital and liquidity for every £1 of credit limit that's available (even if not used), closing unused limits seems a better use of money.

I don't believe that, or at least it's not that simple. They must all have an idea of their own % utilisation and what they need to support that. Afterall, it's not like suddenly all the Barclaycard users could roll up at the same time demanding to max out their cards. I've had high limits from Natwest, Barclaycard and MBNA underutilised for a long time. (Eg 19K limit on MBNA, not been over £500 for a few years). If you were right, it would be more common for CCs to reduce limits in the case of underutilisation. This never seems to happen, except when they seem to perceive a risk and reduce the limit to just about what people currently have outstanding. Generally they seem to either leave dormant accounts open, or close them completely. I think the reason for this is more to do with AML, fraud risk and admin issues rather than releasing capital.

bengal-stripe wrote: »

No, you can't! - Lidl does not take Credit Cards!

Ha ha ha wasn't there some tedious thread a while back on Lidl not taking CCs, and then somebody said they did, and then it wobbled around for a while. Vaguely remember the conclusion being that they don't but there are exceptions. I've never seen a Lidl in the UK that takes one but pretty sure I've used them in Lidls in Germany. Or was that Aldi... Oh I don't know!

bengal-stripe

chattychappy wrote: »

Oh wasn't there some tedious thread a while back on Lidl not taking CCs, and then somebody said they did, and then it wobbled around for a while. Vaguely remember the conclusion being that they don't but there are exceptions. I've never seen a Lidl in the UK that takes one.

That thread was about Lidl not taking CC in England, but they do take them in Scotland. The exception is Berwick-upon-Tweed (England, but close to the Scottish border), where, apparently, they do take CC.

For all we know, OP might buy his pint of milk in Scotland or in Berwick-upon-Tweed. :rotfl: