Debenhams credit card

scottmartin

I’ve had a Debenhams credit card for years, that I only ever used to use in Debenhams. Obviously with how that’s gone, anyone got any ideas as to whether it’s worth keeping the card or not? I won’t use it anywhere else. 

Thanks

[Deleted User]

It depends on your current cards, limits, debts and income.

If you have several other cards, it won't do any long term damage, but neither will keeping it open.

blue.peter

scottmartin said:

I’ve had a Debenhams credit card for years, that I only ever used to use in Debenhams. Obviously with how that’s gone, anyone got any ideas as to whether it’s worth keeping the card or not? I won’t use it anywhere else.

As I understand it, it's a MasterCard. As such, it might have value as a backup to whatever other credit card you have - something you can use in an emergency. If it was me, I'd probably keep it going for that reason alone. I know that you've said that you wouldn't use it anywhere else, but you haven't said why not. Also, you haven't said what other card(s) you have. Maybe you don't need it for emergency backup.

And then there's the question of your total credit utilisation. Closing a credit card will increase this and, depending on the actual numbers involved, this might not look good on your credit record. OTOH, if you've got a lot of available credit elsewhere, this might not be significant.

Thrugelmir

scottmartin said:

I’ve had a Debenhams credit card for years, that I only ever used to use in Debenhams. Obviously with how that’s gone, anyone got any ideas as to whether it’s worth keeping the card or not? I won’t use it anywhere else. 

Thanks

Probably not. Over time the card most likely will be withdrawn and eventually closed down. 

blue.peter

Thrugelmir said:

Over time the card most likely will be withdrawn and eventually closed down. 

Whilst the NewDay/Debenhams affinity relationship is likely to end (if it hasn't already) and Debenhams branding will disappear, that doesn't necessarily mean that the OP will be left without a perfectly good credit card. Some years ago, I had an affinity card issued by MBNA. That affinity relationship ended, but MBNA simply issued me with one of their own cards, so that my account with them continued. Is it not likely that NewDay will follow suit in this case?

WillPS

blue.peter said:

Thrugelmir said:

Over time the card most likely will be withdrawn and eventually closed down. 

Whilst the NewDay/Debenhams affinity relationship is likely to end (if it hasn't already) and Debenhams branding will disappear, that doesn't necessarily mean that the OP will be left without a perfectly good credit card. Some years ago, I had an affinity card issued by MBNA. That affinity relationship ended, but MBNA simply issued me with one of their own cards, so that my account with them continued. Is it not likely that NewDay will follow suit in this case?

Probably depends how profitable those customers are for NewDay. Another option is that the account is closed but customers are sent invitations to transition to a new card before the closure date (as happened recently in the case of Asda/Creation).

blue.peter

WillPS said:

Probably depends how profitable those customers are for NewDay.

You'll get no argument from me about this.

Accordig to Wikipedia, "The [affinity] venture is funded by the interchange income from the card scheme", with money passing from the card issuer (NewDay in this case) to the brand owner (Debenhams). Assuming that this is accurate*:

1. the card issuer is, in effect, paying the brand owner for the customers' business brought in;
2. that cost will presumably end when the affinity deal ends;
3. the card issuer won't have entered into an affinity deal in the first place unless it expects the arrangement to be profitable.

So once the affinity deal has ended, costs to the card issuer will reduce. This implies that profitability of the tranche of customers brought in by the deal should increase with its end. Logically, then, NewDay would have no financial reason to dump Debenhams card customers altogether at the end of the affinity deal. Of course, some individual customers might be unprofitable and get dropped, but I wouldn't expect this to happen to the great majority.

*(I make no representations as to the accuracy of the Wikipedia article cited, since I'm no expert on the subject. But the description there certainly fits with my expectations, and I therefore think it plausible.)

KxMx

I closed mine because like you I only ever used it in Debenhams (1k limit).
I have a Visa and another Mastercard which is my primary card, both 1k limits, so even if my credit utilisation goes up and I look worse on paper I'm not planning on applying for any other form of credit anyway. 

cymruchris

The same scenario will apply to the Newday cards that cover the ex-Arcadia group such as Topman and Topshop - no word yet in terms of what might happen next with those - but I'm sure it's all being worked on behind the scenes - I know Newday operate all of their branded cards independently from their own in-house labels - as I asked some time ago whether I could close the Topshop card and move the limit to the Amazon card, but they said it wasn't possible. It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do next. 

blue.peter

cymruchris said:

I know Newday operate all of their branded cards independently from their own in-house labels - as I asked some time ago whether I could close the Topshop card and move the limit to the Amazon card, but they said it wasn't possible.

That makes sense, because of the branding and the issues that it would raise regarding payments to Topshop and/or Amazon. However, I think that the termination of an affinity arrangement is a bit different. I certainly wouldn't expect NewDay to want to transfer customers from Debenhams cards to (say) Amazon cards, because that'd imply a need to pay Amazon for Debenhams customers. However, switching to one of NewDay's own brands (Fluid, say) would be a different kettle of fish entirely. That wouldn't require NewDay to pay anyone else. That's what I'd expect.

As you say, it'll be interesting to watch - if only because it'll give an indication of what I should expect to happen in relation to my Amazon card at some point in the future.

Incidentally, I see from NewDay's web site that they're still offering ex-Arcadia branded cards like your Topshop one.

WillPS

Looks like they'll all be moving to a newly-created in house brand 'Pulse':
Welcome to Pulse (pulsecard.co.uk)

1% cashback for 3 months (good), 0.25% thereafter (the normal).
£150 annual cashback cap - which is unlikely to be a problem unless you hammer the 1%.