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Card with 7p Balance

I have an old card with Barclays which has a balance of 7p on it due to an overpayment. Despite the card now being inactive and the account technically being closed I still get a statement about this every quarter.
Is this likely to affect my credit rating in any way

Comments

  • Candyapple
    Candyapple Posts: 3,384 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    If you are still receiving a statement then the account isn't closed and will still be showing on your credit files.

    It will affect your credit rating in that say the card had a credit limit of £5k, this £5k although unused, will affect your credit utilisation so in the event you wanted to apply for a new card, they will take this £5k into consideration along with your other cards/loans etc and may decline your application as you have too much available credit.

    If you want to close the account, phone or write to the company and ask them to close the account, send you a cheque of the overpayment and to also put it in writing that they have contacted all 3 agencies to close the account. The in a few months time obtain your copies of your credit files from the agencies and if the account is still showing as active, you have the letter to send to them as proof the account should be in the settled/closed section of your files.
    I'm a Board Guide on the Credit Cards, Loans, Credit Files & Ratings boards. I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly, and I can move and merge threads there. Any views are mine and not the official line of moneysavingexpert.com
  • planteria
    planteria Posts: 5,322 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    do you mean it has a positive balance of 7p?
    if so, call them on a freephone number and ask them to send it to your current account..and then close the account. or decide to use the account afterall :)
  • I had a 1p credit balance on my halifax clarity card for about a year until i closed it.
    Halifax sent me a cheque for 1p.
    I wasn't going to bank it, due to the embarrassment, but thought what the hell lol
  • Last month I tried to close an old store card that had not been used since 2009, only to be told there was 46p credit on it! I've had to give bank account details for them to transfer the 46p, then the store card can be closed.

    So far this 'simple' exercise of closing down the card has taken four weeks and cost me two stamps (I wrote in rather than ringing 0845 numbers.)

    All seems a bit mad. :rotfl:
    “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”




  • Ring them and see if they offer you a cashback card or 0% deal.
  • planteria
    planteria Posts: 5,322 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Ring them and see if they offer you a cashback card or 0% deal.

    agreed. see if there is anything they can offer you rather than just closing your card. good luck. and push them for more.:)
  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,503 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I had an old account which had 63p or so credit. When I phoned to close it I got an option to donate it to charity, which seemed sensible.
  • Nebulous2 wrote: »
    I had an old account which had 63p or so credit. When I phoned to close it I got an option to donate it to charity, which seemed sensible.

    I cannot remember which card provider it was now, but many years ago when I had an old account with a credit balance of less than a pound on it I requested that they donated it to charity but they said they were not allowed to do that, and so was sent a cheque. Perhaps they have got more sensible now!
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