Tesco want to cancel my Mastercard

[BobM]

Since acquiring an Avios Barclaycard last year, all of my non-Amex spend has switched from the Tesco Mastercard to that card.

I have now received a letter from Tesco Bank stating that if I don’t use their card within the next month it will be cancelled.

Should I allow this to happen would my credit score be impacted, and are there benefits to keeping the Tesco card alive?

[Rui N.]

If you want to keep just do a small transaction on it. Not really worth a thread.

[WillPS]

Rui N. wrote:

If you want to keep just do a small transaction on it. Not really worth a thread.

I’m not sure threads are a precious resource that we need to aim to keep down, are they?

BobM wrote:

Since acquiring an Avios Barclaycard last year, all of my non-Amex spend has switched from the Tesco Mastercard to that card.

I have now received a letter from Tesco Bank stating that if I don’t use their card within the next month it will be cancelled.

Should I allow this to happen would my credit score be impacted, and are there benefits to keeping the Tesco card alive?

You don’t have a credit score, the ‘score’ (or scores) you see are made up numbers which lenders will never see. Your credit record will show that your account has closed, as it would if you closed it yourself. I cannot tell you definitively whether or not lenders will view this as a negative thing, but I close accounts all the time and it certainly hasn’t stopped me getting the credit products I desire.

One caveat – if Tesco is your longest held card, you may want to consider keeping it alive as there is a school of thought that it’s good to keep your longest held account open.

[John]

I’ve had the Tesco card for about 10 years but I’ve never really used it. I got it because if you used the linked clubcard you got more points on Tesco fuel or something (and could pay with amex), but then they introduced the current account which got even more points so the credit card went into a drawer.

I think they’ve sent me that letter every 2-3 years and then I just do a small transaction to keep it open. I may actually be in profit from having the card as they messed up with my first direct debit and gave me £25 compensation, but I may have spent less than £25 on the card ever – plus there is another oddity about the card which is best not mentioned on a public forum.

Also unlike any other bank / card provider I’ve been with, Tesco used to send out new cards by Special Delivery which must have cost them a fortune.

[TooPoorToBeHere]

John wrote:

Also unlike any other bank / card provider I’ve been with, Tesco used to send out new cards by Special Delivery which must have cost them a fortune.

IME this is a postcode lottery at well-run financial institutions – they track loss/theft rates by destination and pay up for more security in places where the sorting offices steal stuff.