Advice needed on unused credit card

barnishroader

Hi

I have 2 cards, one with a large balance and one that has zero balance but a large limit.

Ideally i would have wanted to transfer the balance from one (MBNA) to the other (Barclaycard) but the Barclaycard is saying i have no open offers to make a transfer.

The BC has been sitting with a zero balance for the best part of a year and hasn't been used at all.

I am aware that having a long term card helps my credit score (currently 996/999 with Experian) but it is of no other use than that.

Should i close it and hope to get another long term 0% balance transfer card that i can use to move the balance on my MBNA card?

There are no current offers on it and i am am paying quite a bit of interest each month.

I've tried the Eligibility Calculator and have quite a few results giving a 90% approval, however, i wouldn't know what limit they would offer to be sure that my intention to transfer the whole balance would work.

Any advise will be much appreciated.

bengalknights

Are there any offers on your MBNA?

If you are happy paying a small amount of interest you could BT to barclays then back to MBNA if its cost effective and saves interest

barnishroader

bengalknights wrote: »

Are there any offers on your MBNA?

If you are happy paying a small amount of interest you could BT to barclays then back to MBNA if its cost effective and saves interest

Unfortunately the Barclaycard wont let me do a transfer of any sort.

When you click to go to the section for transfers, it says "No offers available".

So you need to have them give you an offer of a rate for the transfer to be possible as there is nothing else to click.

Unless i am mistaken!

JReacher1

Phone up Barclaycard to cancel the card. When you get transferred to their retention team say you are leaving as you want a card with a 0% balance transfer deal. They'll probably offer you a deal then

Nebulous2

Is there any need to close it?

My dormant Barclaycard gets offers every month, so I would be inclined to start using yours for a modest amount every month and repay in full, to see if that prods it into life. Depending on your level of spend that would defer paying for food / petrol etc for a month and you could bung the few hundred pounds liberated by that at the interest bearing one.

You can still apply for a card from someone else as well.

barnishroader

JReacher1 wrote: »

Phone up Barclaycard to cancel the card. When you get transferred to their retention team say you are leaving as you want a card with a 0% balance transfer deal. They'll probably offer you a deal then

I sent a message through their secure system before you suggested this but i had added at the end i might as well close it if i couldn't use it for transfers.
I'll see if this proposal leads to them offering another card instead.

Nebulous2 wrote: »

Is there any need to close it?

My dormant Barclaycard gets offers every month, so I would be inclined to start using yours for a modest amount every month and repay in full, to see if that prods it into life. Depending on your level of spend that would defer paying for food / petrol etc for a month and you could bung the few hundred pounds liberated by that at the interest bearing one.

You can still apply for a card from someone else as well.

Good idea!

It has been dormant for so long that might be why they don't offer anything.

Ill use it to pay for my fuel and set direct debit to pay balance in full and see how that works.

I might still apply but i thought the fact i have access to this large amount of credit, even though i'm not using it, may have an adverse affect on any application or credit limit i may be offered elsewhere.

barnishroader

JReacher1 wrote: »

Phone up Barclaycard to cancel the card. When you get transferred to their retention team say you are leaving as you want a card with a 0% balance transfer deal. They'll probably offer you a deal then

UPDATE:
Ok so i sent a secure message to Barclaycard asking could they offer a BT deal otherwise i would just close the account.
They sent me a message to call them back within 48 hours......but unfortunately i missed the deadline!
So when i did call them, they had already closed the account.
I was wondering, and rather than raising a new thread to ask i thought it best to post here, how long will it take for the closed account to show up on my Credit Report?
My thinking is when it is closed, it will show that i don't have that amount of credit available to me and it would be easier getting a large credit limit for another BT card that i can now apply for.
Essentially my 18k limit with Barclaycard is no longer available to me so i'm hoping another company can offer me that sort of a limit for a BT but i would need to make sure i don't apply before the BC account is removed from my report otherwise it will show that limit being available to me.