Santander All In One Credit Card

BACKTOBACK

Had a Santander all in one credit card for a couple of years now and have been really happy with it. Used it a lot, even bought a motorbike on it for the cashback which i paid off slowly on zero percent apr.
I am approaching the end of my zero percent offer on purchases and balance transfers.
What is the best approach with Santander to get another offer?
Should i close the account for a few months and apply as a new customer? Or maybe apply now for a second card?

Ebe_Scrooge

Who knows?  Anecdotally, most lenders will give 0% offers to new customers in preference to existing ones, to tempt them in.  But that's not a hard-and-fast rule, each lender has their own (highly confidential) lending criteria.  The usual advice is to close the card, give it six months or so, then try applying again.  That said, lenders have been tightening their criteria across the board for the last couple of years, so 0% offers are not as easy to come by as they once were.

Is this your only card?  If so, you're better to keep it and try a different lender.  If you've built up some solid history on this account (i.e. always repaying on time), that will be a positive mark on your credit history (though do ignore the gimmick "score" given to you by the CRAs).

Finally, the advice I always give - if you do receive a 0% offer, make absolutely sure you're able to clear the balance when the promotional rate expires.  There's never any guarantee that you'll be able to shift any remaining balance to another card.

blue.peter

There's another point to bear in mind. If you cancel a card and are accepted for a new one, it could well have a lower credit limit than the cancelled one. The credit limit that I have on my new Santander credit card is less than 60% of that on the Santander credit card that I closed in 2018. I'm not greatly bothered by this, since it's still sufficient for my purposes. But it might be more important to you or someone else.