Cancel, or not to cancel?

planteria

i would close the Vanquis card and keep the HSBC card and Barclaycard for now.
i wouldn't worry too much re. keeping the HSBC card in prep for a mortgage application though...if the Barclaycard does what you want, offers you the limit you need, and just having that would make your life easier, i would close the HSBC card and just use the Barclaycard.

fwiw i would be using a Cashback card rather than Freedom for spending. i have a Freedom card, but have just used it for a long-term balance transfer.

iAMaLONDONER

thebritishbloke wrote: »

I took out a Vanquis (Aquis) card on my 18th birthday, and got the beautifulness that is a £250 credit limit and 59.9% APR.

Fast forward almost two years, they've upped my limit to £1,250. I've also got a £500 student credit card with HSBC. I've now also got a £15k hire purchase agreement, so I know that I should be able to get a better card.

I applied for a BarclayCard Freedom Rewards and got accepted with a £3,500 credit limit, woohoo! Now the age old question, what should I do with my Vanquis card? I want to keep my HSBC card so I build a better internal score with them for when the day comes that I want to get a mortgage etc.

I've heard that leaving the card open and not spending anything on it, could be good or bad. Putting a small charge on it each month (i.e. Netflix subscription) could be good or bad. Is it worth having the extra credit line open, or will my score look better once my new BarclayCard has been open a bit longer?

I'm also curious about my student overdraft, it's got a £1,500 limit. I'm currently -£1,000 in it (put it in to my ISA). Do you think this could affect me badly in the future?

I stopped using my student OD in Feburary and in April I was approved for 3 Credit cards (as well as 3 current accounts!)

I'd say apply to Capital One - use their pre-application tool to check your chances of acceptance

phona

thebritishbloke wrote: »

I'm also curious about my student overdraft, it's got a £1,500 limit. I'm currently -£1,000 in it (put it in to my ISA). Do you think this could affect me badly in the future?

I graduated nearly a year ago and am still using my £2k overdraft. Like you, I keep the cash in a savings account and my balance only briefly heads up towards 0 on pay day. Looking like I'm consistently overdrawn doesn't seem to have affected my ability to get credit though - I've been approved for 2 cards and 2 (high interest) current accounts while I've been overdrawn like this.
I noticed that the balance reported to the CRAs is the opening balance on the 1st of the month; in which case it should be possible to make it look like the account is consistently in credit simply by having a positive balance on the date they report.

My own £500 limit student card is lying around gathering dust. I haven't got around to closing it... Out of interest, does anyone know roughly how long before a card company closes an unused card?

onerickylambert

Mr_Goodkat wrote: »

This is incorrect...


Card Issuer is not shown on the version of credit files that banks etc see only type of credit e.g Credit Card, Bank Account, Loan, Mortgage, Pay Day loan etc so there is no stain of sub prime cards.


Lenders can guess at a sub prime card if the limit is very low e.g £1000 or under.

It's not actually incorrect though is it, as I said it might change. Man United might win the Premier League next year, even if they don't, the statement that they might is not incorrect. Good courtesy to read someones post accurately before commenting.

Sub-prime cards might in future become a stain, or they might not. I wouldn't risk it if I didn't have to.

iAMaLONDONER

Mr_Goodkat wrote: »

This is incorrect...


Card Issuer is not shown on the version of credit files that banks etc see only type of credit e.g Credit Card, Bank Account, Loan, Mortgage, Pay Day loan etc so there is no stain of sub prime cards.


Lenders can guess at a sub prime card if the limit is very low e.g £1000 or under.

Someone complained that Santander only gave them a £500 limit!

Mr_Goodkat

onerickylambert wrote: »

It's not actually incorrect though is it, as I said it might change. Man United might win the Premier League next year, even if they don't, the statement that they might is not incorrect. Good courtesy to read someones post accurately before commenting.

Sub-prime cards might in future become a stain, or they might not. I wouldn't risk it if I didn't have to.

You said - You know how it's coming to light that people who took payday loans can't get mortgages, well who's to say things don't change and mainstream lenders start viewing Aqua and Vanquis in this way.


The point I was making was that mainstream lenders have no idea who is providing you with credit when they view your credit file and there is little prospect of that changing in the future.


The card issuer has no relevance to credit scoring it is the conduct on the account that counts.


I would advocate that the OP ditches vanquis because there are no benefits to having the card and they have cheaper credit facilities elsewhere, they also have a lot of credit for a student to the point where it could impact on future applications so trimming Vanquis makes sense. Getting rid of Vanquis just because it is a sub prime card is a nonsense.

thebritishbloke

Thanks everyone for your replies! Sorry I for not replying, I completely forgot that I made this thread.

I've since cancelled my Vanquis card, and I'm just going to keep my HSBC and BarclayCard. Now that I've got a larger limit on this BarclayCard, I'm literally just using my HSBC card to pay for Netflix. The BarclayCard is for day-to-day purchases such as groceries and petrol etc.

Can't wait for the day when I can apply for an Amex and actually get decent cashback offers! To be honest I could possibly get approved. I always get confused as to what I should put on my applications as I'm a student, but I also earn £20k p.a. So technically I should be eligible for an Amex card, but I don't think they'd believe me (or want to approve me) because I'm a student.

As for my overdraft, HSBC offer a graduate account where £1,500 is interest free for the first year, and £1,000 in the second. I'm planning to pay it off by the time I'm out of uni though.