Benefit from having an "Empty" Credit Card?

anotheruser

I spent nearly £3000 on a credit card a year and a bit ago.
It's about paid off - £300 which will be paid next month (although still has quite a few months until the end of the 0% on purchases).

Is there any benefit to keeping it as "available credit" even though I won't be spending on it again?

MalMonroe

See link below, for what Experian advise -

https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/credit-cards/guides/unused-cards.html

You could also do a google yourself to see what other organisations suggest.

MEM62

Keep it.  Use it from time to time.  It is not a bad thing to maintain the facility in case you need it.  

Ebe_Scrooge

Depends.  Is this the only card you have?  If so it would be useful to keep it and use it occasionally to prevent it being closed.  Used wisely, a credit card has many advantages - Section 75 protection being one of the big ones.  If you ever need to hire a car or book a hotel, a credit card makes it a lot easier.  Added to which, long-standing lines of well-managed credit reflect positively on your history.

If you're sure you'll never want to use it again then you may as well close it - if it remains unused for an extended period of time, you'll more than likely find the issuer closes the account anyway.

anotheruser

MalMonroe said:

You could also do a google yourself to see what other organisations suggest.

While true, there is a huge proportion on the web that is out of date.
Even searching on this forum could yield results from 3+ years ago that give bad advice today.

Also, did you read the Experian link or just post it?
Because it's very much not really a definitive answer.

anotheruser

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Depends.  Is this the only card you have?  If so it would be useful to keep it and use it occasionally to prevent it being closed.  Used wisely, a credit card has many advantages - Section 75 protection being one of the big ones.  If you ever need to hire a car or book a hotel, a credit card makes it a lot easier.  Added to which, long-standing lines of well-managed credit reflect positively on your history.

If you're sure you'll never want to use it again then you may as well close it - if it remains unused for an extended period of time, you'll more than likely find the issuer closes the account anyway.

No, it's sole purpose was for the purchase I made.
I have another credit card for "every day" purchases - had that for years.
Was accepted for a M&S one last week, again for a specific purchase but needed a longer paying off time (in fact, I'll only need a couple of months but the same £500+ charge will happen again in 12 months as it's a yearly sort of thing, but will only happen three times before I receive all goods in the set).

GaleSF63

If it's Mastercard and your others are Visa, or if it's Visa and the others are Mastercard, keep it. 

Dandytf

Benefit of keeping Zero balance card, it allows as much time as possible, to decide if it's needed.

ferreroreeses

Personally I would keep it and use it for a few transactions each month. No harm in having the extra credit available unless it leads to bad spending habits.