Keeping Zero Balance Credit Cards

Tom_Williams

Hi All.

I have been slowly paying off credit card debts, and now have an embarrassing number of cards which have zero balances.

Is it best to keep these for a emergency or is it better to cancel the accounts and cut the cards up?

I have:

MBNA
A & L
Amex Blue
Marbles
Barclaycard Gold
Barclaycard Platinum
LloydsTSB Mastercard.

At the moment I have the LloydsTSB card in my wallet as I can easily transfer balances to this card as my current account is with Lloyds as well so I can use it and pay the full balance easily monthly.

I have a 14 months Zero % on a balance transfer on the B/Card platinum (thanks for the advice) which I need to keep till its paid off, and I have about £800 on the Barclaycard Gold.

This leaves me with 4 cards with Zero balances and hence my question, whats better?

To keep with Zero balances or to cancel?

I know credit scoring is a myth but will cancelling the cards affect my credit history? Or am I more likely to be seen as a risk if I have too many when I want a zero % card for a transfer in the future or am I better to cut them all back and be clear.

Thanks in advance.

Tom

Buffythedebtslayer

OOo I wanted to ask that question too.

I have cards at 0, so should i cancel them?
(thanks Tom for asking )

Treading_Water

I have found that if you keep them but don't use them for a while - they tend to send you great offers to entice you to use them again i.e 0% bts or low life of balance offers. Also if you hang on to them - you can call them when the 0 balance on your other cards runs out and see what (if anything) they have to offer you. If after a while you find that they won't offer you anything useful - and I'm sure people here can advise you of which would be most useful - then cut them up. Also if you think the temptation to use them would be too much - get rid.

ShelfStacker_3

Treading_Water wrote: »

I have found that if you keep them but don't use them for a while - they tend to send you great offers to entice you to use them again i.e 0% bts or low life of balance offers.

I thought of that briefly for my cards, then realised I'm with Vanquis. No bloody hope

Just cut all mine up actually into little squares. Credit card confetti

CannyJock

ShelfStacker wrote: »

Just cut all mine up actually into little squares. Credit card confetti

Cancelled the card first I hope? Otherwise, you need to be good at credit card confetti jigsaws to get those 3 security digits off the card if they ask you that as a security question

ShelfStacker_3

CannyJock wrote: »

Cancelled the card first I hope? Otherwise, you need to be good at credit card confetti jigsaws to get those 3 security digits off the card if they ask you that as a security question

Noted them down in an obfuscated format. I do think of these things

keiron

I'm sure I saw Martin say that you should cancel old credit card accounts. I think this was because the cards may be at 0 balance, but they're not marked as "settled" in your credit profile. Too many non-settled cards may be viewed negatively by a card issuer's criteria.

Tom_Williams

Thanks guys makes sense to close them as they are zero balance.

Also removes temptation and may show good on any credit score.