Which cards to bin

GlasweJen

I've recently got an MBNA card 0% spends for 24 months and now wish to bin some of my old sub prime cards. I have:

Vanquis - 8 year old card, 39.9% APR, £3500 credit limit
Aqua - 3 year old card, 49.9% APR, £4000 credit limit
Capital One - 1 year old card, 19.9% APR, £500 credit limit

All have no balance.

I also have a Next catalogue account with a £5000 limit (surprised at that, I thought the limit was lower but post here can be patchy) and balance is also £0.

Which cards would you bin?

I don't have any other credit, the only other things on my credit file is my phone contract and my current account (overdraft facility that I don't use).

Ideally I'd like to bin Vanquis due to an ongoing dispute with my name (got married 18 months ago and they won't change the name on my account even though they've had 2 copies of my marriage certificate) and some dodgy dealings with their insurance product but I'm also aware that this is my oldest financial product.

Thoughts? My salary is £19000

Willing2Learn

I would definitely ditch the CapitalOne card. I would definitely keep the Vanquis card as an aged credit account looks good on my credit file. As for the Aqua card, if it was a Reward card I would keep it, or if I needed a card for travelling abroad I would also keep it.

Edit: And make an official complaint to Vanquis about your official change of name following marriage.

[Deleted User]

Keep them as backups.

They also count towards aged accounts on your credit files, so it shows account stability

GlasweJen

Willing2Learn wrote: »

I would definitely ditch the CapitalOne card. I would definitely keep the Vanquis card as an aged credit account looks good on my credit file. As for the Aqua card, if it was a Reward card I would keep it, or if I needed a card for travelling abroad I would also keep it.

Edit: And make an official complaint to Vanquis about your official change of name following marriage.

Thanks, the Aqua is just a regular card - no rewards.

I was going to wait a few months then get a rewards card with Costco I'm due to finish a course in november which guarantees me a job regrading onto band 5 and a pay increase to £22440.

I have a complaint in with Vanquis, it's been a bit of a saga, first they "lost" my evidence of getting married and moving home but somehow managed to write to my new house to tell me this, then I resent them the marriage certificate and a new proof of address but they've rejected it as they said it's not current enough and now they're not happy as I'm married 18 months so want a marriage certificate dated within the last year - that's just not possible! I wrote back and told them that they had a month to fix my account or I was going to the ombudsman as it's getting ridiculous, got 3 letters from them this morning but all addressed to my maiden name so I've not worked up the will to open them yet. No doubt will be another saga and I'll need to get the FOS involved, I can't get remarried to keep that bunch of idiots happy, not my fault they lost my marriage certificate and I'm not printing them thousands of copies.

GlasweJen

!!! wrote: »

Keep them as backups.

They also count towards aged accounts on your credit files, so it shows account stability

Is it not bad to have too much credit? The limit on my Mbna is £3000 which I plan on using though I do have the funds aside so I could pay it off in full if needed

[Deleted User]

You wouldn't have gotten that limit if they thought you already had too much credit available to you

Willing2Learn

It's definitely not a bad thing to have aged accounts on your credit file. I would definitely get rid of the CapitalOne card though...the credit limit is so tiny and the account is only 1 year old...

System

Depends if you plan on using them much, Vanquish and Aqua cards are extremely high APRs so i would probably get rid of the AQUA card and Capital One

.....but if you plan on making a big purchase and plan to pay it back over a number of months or years then maybe applying for a new 0% CC near the time of the purchase

Craig1981

I would get rid of Capital one - only a year old. keep the older accounts

Craig1981

Willing2Learn wrote: »

As for the Aqua card, if it was a Reward card I would keep it, or if I needed a card for travelling abroad I would also keep it.

a few variations of the Aqua card - not all can be used abroad without incurring transaction charges

foxy-stoat

Cancel all three of them as they are sub prime anyway and you dont want to pay their interest rates.