I closed my Aqua Reward card today for a few reasons:
It wasn’t my oldest UK card (okay, not a reason to close, but it was a reason to not worry about closing), my Amex platinum cashback is.
It was available credit - thus, risk, that I really saw no use for whatsoever.
Application Usage Control used to prohibit contactless overseas (yes, technically this just forces it online which cross-border contactless will do anyway, but the result was always an online decline). A huge pain in countries where they try to tap first like HK.
No sign of Android Pay coming (granted, I just opened a Virgin card with the same issue).
Bad experience with a random 1p credit then a random 1p charge the next month, could have easily gone very wrong if I wasn’t watching closely.
I have plenty of no foreign transaction fee Mastercards (Monzo, Halifax Clarity, Virgin Money Travel), with another hopefully on its way (Tandem, if I get accepted); and 0.5% isn’t worth the hassle of using Aqua. So, bye.
Now, why post about it? Because of something I found very odd… there was no ‘save’ effort made at all. Just okay, it’s closed, done. Is this typical?
Curious why you went for the Virgin money card? I looked at it but the didn’t seem to be anything particularly good about it and lack of mobile app or android pay turned me off
No particular reason, and the lack of Android Pay + lack of gender neutral titles were both big offputting things. Honestly, though, mostly it was to get another no-FTF card less awful than Aqua, plus a bit of ‘because I could’ - I always have come back not eligible, try Capital One, on their eligibility checker. So when it said I was pre-approved and would get the card if I applied, I figured ‘why not, it can replace the worse Aqua card’.
I have an Aqua Reward Card too, and every so often I receive letters saying they’re either increasing or reducing my APR.
Strangely the wording in the letter always states that I can call to cancel if I don’t accept the changes and make an arrangement to pay off any balance within a “reasonable timescale”
These letters always give me the impression that they don’t care about my custom either…
They absolutely have to offer you an out, but I’ve got the letter too… it isn’t letting you out. It’s the fact they seem at best totally indifferent about doing so, and almost enthusiastic to do so.
That said, it’s 0.5% rewards on 0.3% interchange. I rarely use it, and when I do I always PIF. They may be scoring profitability and deciding I’m not worth any save effort.
My understanding of aqua is they are credit builder cards (thus the high representative apr), so they will expect people to leave if there is a better offer but hope people just forget to switch.
Good point, maybe they know there’s not really much to convince people to stay. The thing is - the actual benefits of the Aqua (ignoring the real-life hassles) are great. 0.5% cashback on a fee-free Mastercard? That’s great.
I got one as it had the best cash transfer rates at the time.
Still does, has been veryyy handy for vet fees. I know I can pay off a cash transfer quick enough for there to be no interest applied. But I don’t have the funds right now.
I cancelled 5 credit cards last month, and they were all like that. Confirm your identity, you’ll get any credits as a cheque, you may need to pay interest, ok, all closed have a nice day.
I thought at the time that there was probably some law about not pressuring people into keeping a credit product they don’t want… I guess I was wrong?
Have you looked at the Lloyds Avios Card? I’ve just opened one, you get two cards (Amex and MasterCard)… Granted it’s got a £24 annual fee but you get:
2.5 Avios per £1 spent on the Amex in the first 6 months (1.25 per £1 thereafter)
1 Avios per £5 on the MCard.
It’s interest free for 29 months.
No foreign trans fees.
I’ve had it a month and pleased with it so far… nice to have the two cards for when places don’t accept Amex!
