Credit card nil balance

Abbafan1972

Hi there. 

We have finally cleared our 2 x credit card accounts (after drawing a pension) and don’t intend to use the accounts again. We haven’t used the accounts for more than 2 years, apart from making the payments each month. 

How long is it usually before the accounts get closed down after the nil balance statement has been issued, or do we have to tell the Halifax to close them? 

Thanks in advance. 

JGB1955

AIUI the accounts will remain open unless you ask for them to be closed.

sleepyjones

You would need to ask for them to be closed.
It's a good idea to keep using them though, even if you just buy your monthly Sainsburys shop on it and pay it off in full every month.
You also get better protection from fraudsters online by using a Credit Card.

Grumpy_chap

The cards will - eventually - close as dormant.

[Deleted User]

Banks may well close it after inactivity of a year or so, depends on the bank. More importantly, typically after 13 months your bank will close the direct debit so that if you do spend on it say in 14 months time, your card wouldn't be paid.

As above though, there is little to be gained by not using the cards, at the very least, chargeback and S75 cover are a great bonus of credit cards and you could switch to a rewards account whether AmEx, Nectar, Tesco, that sort of thing, where you get paid for using your card. Provided you pay it off in full every month then you can really make the card work for you.

eskbanker

Deleted_User said:

As above though, there is little to be gained by not using the cards, at the very least, chargeback and S75 cover are a great bonus of credit cards

Just to be clear, chargeback cover applies equally to debit card purchases too, if that was what OP would be considering as an alternative to using credit cards....

Abbafan1972

Hi there.

Thank you for all your replies.  Just for context, we have had years of debt - overdraft maxed to the limit and 2 credit cards (1 each) to the limit and only just managing to pay the minimum payment each month.

We started a plan with Stepchange and the C/C company suspended interest which helped. Meanwhile the bank closed our current account and passed the overdraft to a collection agency and the payments being sent by stepchange.  I have even had to turn to my parents to borrow money. 

We are now out of debt and the only thing outstanding now is the mortgage, which is higher than it should be due to extra borrowing on it in the past.  

I really don't care about C/C rewards, I would rather be able to sleep at night knowing I don't have any debt. 

sleepyjones

Because you've been through all this before, with the StepChange stuff, you'll probably find that you are a lot more "responsible" with credit, you know the pitfalls and the stress it can cause to get uncontrollably into debt, so you presumably won't fall into that trap again.  If you can keep them running, use them sparingly and pay off in full every month ... you never know when it might come in handy.
If you just don't want the hassle, don't want to take the risk etc then you can just contact your providers and ask them to close the accounts.  You could also ask them to reduce the limits on your cards if you want to limit your exposure to credit but still have it available.  ie, you could ask them to reduce the limits to £1000, or £500 so that technically you can only ever get that much into debt without asking them to up the limit again.

Well done though!

Ganga

Well done on getting the debt paid ,i think YOU know it is best to remove the temptation of falling into debt again so go ahead and close the card accounts ,onwards and upwards