Credit card withdrawn due to lack of use.

chattychappy

molerat wrote: »

They can close the card to further use but, unless you are in breach of the T&Cs, they cannot force you to pay more than you have contractually agreed to ie the minimum payments in those T&Cs.

A few years ago, MBNA increased the minimum payments on existing balances. Although I considered at the time that this could have been successfully challenged, to my knowledge nobody did - and a number of sanctimonious people on here seemed to agree with MBNA that this would "help" people clear their balances quicker and pay less interest. (Never mind the fact that some were on 0% deals so this amounted to a retrospective devaluation of a deal for which they had paid a BT fee.)

I believe the legal position is that if an account is closed (eg following an interest rise rejection), then the CC can insist that the balance is paid down "in a reasonable time". Co-op used this to require cardholders to pay the balance on closed accounts down more quickly than minimums only, but dropped the policy. So as you say, people are generally allowed to continue paying minimums, but perhaps they can be "forced" to pay more.

demonted

I guess like CLAPTON suggested; to be on the safe side, making small transactions/purchases every few months wont disrupt my repayment strategy and will eliminate any risk of my 2nd card being withdrawn for lack of use.

Although in the past I've had large outstanding balances on one CC or the other, I do tend to use a CC as an emergency payment method, thus one card, such as the one that's been withdrawn, not being used for ages, yet this is the first time a card has been withdrawn.

abby1234519

demonted wrote: »

I guess like CLAPTON suggested; to be on the safe side, making small transactions/purchases every few months wont disrupt my repayment strategy and will eliminate any risk of my 2nd card being withdrawn for lack of use.

Although in the past I've had large outstanding balances on one CC or the other, I do tend to use a CC as an emergency payment method, thus one card, such as the one that's been withdrawn, not being used for ages, yet this is the first time a card has been withdrawn.

Do you drive? You could use it just for fuel and have a DD set up to pay it off in full each month

demonted

Yeah, I do drive and if I do manage to keep the CC that's being withdrawn; to keep it active I will purchase fuel or weekly food shopping on it.

But as for my 2nd CC with an outstanding balance @
0% ; I've set a fixed monthly repayment amount which should clear the balance within 30 months, so ideally I don't want to complicate this payment plan by adding large regular transactions, as any additional spending will incur interest and my fixed monthly amount will go to clear the most expensive debt first, thus the transactions that are incurring interest.

Unless I've misunderstood; my 2nd CC provider stated that due to my current 0% outstanding balance, any additional spending will incur interest immediately and not qualify for the 56 days interest free period.

abby1234519

demonted wrote: »

Yeah, I do drive and if I do manage to keep the CC that's being withdrawn; to keep it active I will purchase fuel or weekly food shopping on it.

But as for my 2nd CC with an outstanding balance @
0% ; I've set a fixed monthly repayment amount which should clear the balance within 30 months, so ideally I don't want to complicate this payment plan by adding large regular transactions, as any additional spending will incur interest and my fixed monthly amount will go to clear the most expensive debt first, thus the transactions that are incurring interest.

Unless I've misunderstood; my 2nd CC provider stated that due to my current 0% outstanding balance, any additional spending will incur interest immediately and not qualify for the 56 days interest free period.

Yeah I meant use the 1st one for fuel, and then the 2nd one you don't touch. You shouldn't ever spend on the card that has the balance transfer anyway as it makes interest complicated (and they start charging interest on the whole lot as I found out basically)

The 2nd card, you won't have any problems with. Just leave it getting smaller you don't need to use it.

Look at it this way, the card provider is hoping that once you've paid off the 0% you'll start using it to spend on and make them money

demonted

Abby, yeah I knew what you meant but thanks for your thourough explination, much appreciated.

I'll enquire with my 2nd card provider in regard to incuring interest on small card purchases and the implications it will have on my current 0% deal.

I don't want to jeopardise my interest free deal or lose the 2nd CC due to inactivity and be told to clear the outstanding balance much sooner than I planned.

System

Why would your second provider care what you do with the other card?

demonted wrote: »

I'll enquire with my 2nd card provider in regard to incuring interest on small card purchases and the implications it will have on my current 0% deal.

demonted

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Why would your second provider care what you do with the other card?

I don't know, why ?

abby1234519

demonted wrote: »

Abby, yeah I knew what you meant but thanks for your thourough explination, much appreciated.

I'll enquire with my 2nd card provider in regard to incuring interest on small card purchases and the implications it will have on my current 0% deal.

I don't want to jeopardise my interest free deal or lose the 2nd CC due to inactivity and be told to clear the outstanding balance much sooner than I planned.

Do you mean enquire with 2nd card provider about what would happen to your 0% deal if you use a different card??

No implication - they care about their own card.

demonted

CLAPTON wrote: »

really easy to spend say £5 every 6 months or so and still manage ones financial strategy

No abby; enquire with my 2nd CC, the card with the current 0% oustanding balance and how or whether any small additional spending every couple of months, just to keep the card regarded as active, will affect my current 0% offer.

I'm aware that in normal circumstances; spending on one CC has no bearing in regard to spending on the other CC.

abby, thanks for elaborating.