Question about Balance Transfers

Darkhawk

Good evening MSErs!

If one does go ahead with a Balance Transfer what will happen to the existing card the balance was in? If I manage to get approved to transfer the entire balance of the card is it then a good idea to call up the bank and cancel my old card or should I stay with it?

I do not intend to use the new card for purchases, it will strictly be used to pay off credit card debt.

grumbler

• Old Credit Cards

Ben8282

Keep the old card and use it for interest free purchases if you pay in full every month.

jamesd

The length of your longest financial relationships matters in credit scoring so if that old card is your only one and you've had it for a while, keep it around. Some card brands routinely offer interesting existing customer offers but we don't know which brand it is so can't comment on whether it might be one of those. You could instead ask for the credit limit on the old card to be reduced, though this would increase the utilisation of your existing credit as a percentage of amount owed to available credit limits and be somewhat negative for that, so not worth doing if you're say well below half of your income in total card limits.