Credit Card Tart!

[jg96]

When transferring a balance to a 0% for 12 months deal is it best to then close the account on the old card or keep it active I have transferred balances twice before and now have three never ever used cards.Any advice most welcome.

[Ethel]

Tricky. I would close all the unused accounts in writing. There are signs that there may be either an annual or monthly charge for credit cards and you don't want to be paying for something you don't need. Apart from that I am not convinced that dormant accounts are safe.

But if you are planning to get any kind of large loan in the near future it may pay to hold on. When a credit check is carried out, the lender will see that you have available a large amount of unused credit, and only a comparitively small debt. This will make you look more appealing to the lender.

Otherwise, cancel the cards. Then you can re-apply when they have their next 0% offer, for new customers only!

[Ethel]

Excellent advice here from Martin Lewis - so it is unbiased.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewn ews.cgi?newsid1098274211,85485,