Are BT 0% offers usually on new cards?

kimwp

I have a NatWest card with the balance transfer offer coming to an end. Is it better to close the card, reduce the limit to keep the card open, or keep the limit as I might get a new offer on the card?

Brie

I get repeated offers (every other month?) on my MBNA card - have done so for the last 2 decades!!  Barclaycard has just offered me a 0% BT for the first time in 8+ years after being a regular there.   Santander and M&S also seem to have offers once every few months.  Never had a NatWest card so not sure what they are like.  

kimwp

Brie said:

I get repeated offers (every other month?) on my MBNA card - have done so for the last 2 decades!!  Barclaycard has just offered me a 0% BT for the first time in 8+ years after being a regular there.   Santander and M&S also seem to have offers once every few months.  Never had a NatWest card so not sure what they are like.  

Thanks Brie!

teaselMay

I've 4 cards, apart from one that I use to spread vehicle costs they're just for specific emergencies and unused, each of them has a 0% offer every month and has for years.

Altior

kimwp said:

I have a NatWest card with the balance transfer offer coming to an end. Is it better to close the card, reduce the limit to keep the card open, or keep the limit as I might get a new offer on the card?

Effectively you can ensure that a 0% deal is available on a new card, as you only apply for a new card if there is a good deal.

IME there is no reliable pattern. Some cards you get regular deals, but sometimes they are pretty pants. For example, I have an offer currently on Virgin with near 5 digit available balance but the offer is 0% to May 2026 for a 4.5% fee.

I've only closed a couple of my accounts myself, BC had £17K limit and constantly deals were for new accounts only. I actually called them to see if I could get them on an existing account, nope, so I confirmed that I could apply for a new account after a year iirc of closing the original. Ironically I got the new account, but the liability was only £3K!

Utilisation seems more important to the algorithms than total available credit. My available credit is a multiple of my salary but I still get new 100% chance card offers on eligibility. The only exception I'd say is Santander, they ask how many cards you have in their eligibility checker, and I never get an offer, even though my mortgage is with them and is a clean account for over 10 years. 

So typically I'd say there's not a big benefit in closing accounts unless you want to apply for a deal only available to new customers. Many accounts get closed due to inactivity eventually anyway, so in a way it's self cleansing. But it's all educated guesswork, and things seem to happen in cycles. 

cantbelieveit23

Just one question to add....if you are looking for a 0% BT without paying a fee,  most likely you need to apply for a new card.  In my experience, those offered on my existing cards carry a % fee added to the BT amount.  I just got a Chase CC in minutes, 0% on purchases up to £6k+ for 15 months (not a transfer), but I realise that is probably not the kind of deal you want.

Jami74

NatWest/RBS allow you to have 3 credit cards. I continually close the balance transfer cards when the promotion ends and open a new one the next month.

DJSINGH

Jami74 said:

NatWest/RBS allow you to have 3 credit cards. I continually close the balance transfer cards when the promotion ends and open a new one the next month.

Do you mean 3 per bank or 3 across Natwest/Ulster/RBS?

When I opened my Natwest/RBS cards, it always says I'm not eligible in the app for anymore

Jami74

DJSINGH said:

Jami74 said:

NatWest/RBS allow you to have 3 credit cards. I continually close the balance transfer cards when the promotion ends and open a new one the next month.

Do you mean 3 per bank or 3 across Natwest/Ulster/RBS?

Across the group 

kimwp

Thank you everyone, your comments have been really useful. I'm definitely struggling to get new fee free offers after my first year of stoozing, my combined available credit is 77% of my pre-tax income, my overall utilisation less than 50%, but utilisation on the three stoozing cards nearer 90% because I loaded them up with money transfers. 

kimwp

After giving up on getting good offers, I paid off about half the debt and  closed my NatWest and RBS cards in the last week - yesterday I logged onto the mse credit club out of curiosity to see what my score was doing and what balances it thought I have (some banks seem to take an age to update the credit agencies) - and I was pre-approved for 0% NatWest card!