None of My Credit Card Companies Fought to Keep me as a Customer
Posted on October 10, 2008 by Her and tagged credit
Last night I closed six store credit accounts and one Visa account that I rarely use. It's part of the credit clean-up we're doing to start our marriage off. I was all geared up to argue with the credit card companies and decline their repeated offers to entice me to stay. I thought it would probably be like trying to close an AOL account (anybody else ever live through that nightmare?).
Boy was I surprised when not one of them tried to get me to keep my account open! I have excellent credit so I thought they would want to keep me around. Guess not!
I have read that banks are trying to reduce the credit they have made available to customers, so maybe this was why.
Anybody else get hit with the door on their way out recently?
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wow. I'm totally shocked at this. When we closed a gaggle of credit cards, it took an entire day. It was terrible.
Good for you for closing all those! For some reason, I always feel a sense of relief when I close a card... like, one less thing to worry about.
I cancelled a card in August. They did ask me why but they didn't argue or try to get me to keep it.
I didn't have a hardtime closing a credit card account recently. The CSR even commented that I don't use the card that much anyway.
Marie | Oct 10, 2008
I was suprised when I cancelled my term life policy because we'd swithced companies and they were all friendly about me closing it and didn't care that I was closing the account. They never wanted to even know why.
Gwen | Oct 13, 2008
I'm just curious...I just started to get into personal finance so I'm still learning :) I thought it was worse to close credit card accounts than just leaving them open and not using them. I thought you needed them to keep up your history.
I just closed 5 accounts within 30 minutes and while they all asked why I was closing the account, none asked me to reconsider.
They were all old accounts with small limits that haven't been used in 2+ years, but my credit is very good and I'm surprised they didn't even try to sell me a 0% offer.
Don | Oct 14, 2008
Gwen,
You're right about the Visa, maybe not about the revolving store cards (which aren't a big deal to creditors).
Your oldest Visa/MC credit is the most valuable.
When the wife and I were first married we ran up a couple mastercards and, thinking we were being good kids, closed them out. We should have cut the plastic up, left the accounts open, and paid them down instead. They are still dragging down our credit about 50 points almost 15 years later.
I was curious how it would affect your credit ratings, too. I just cut up the CCs in my wallet, but am not closing them until I research the potential credit score downfall.
How are you aware the closed MCs are still bringing down your Credit rating?
dami | Oct 22, 2008
I was notified via snail mail that my mc accounts will be closed due to lack of use. The banks are trying to gather up their "available credit". I called them and the lady was nonchalant and spoke as a "matter of fact". I need to act fast because one of them is my oldest cc and my credit history will be adversely affected if it is closed.
Melanie | Oct 28, 2008
Bank of America recently lowered the credit limit on one my cards that I've had for years, citing the fact that they had reviewed my credit and found me to be more or a risk. I was irritated, but since I never used the card anyway and was just paying it down faithfully every month, I let it go. But yesterday, I received notice that they had raised my interest rate from 10.99% to 24.99% and, as a result, the monthly interest nearly tripled. I've always paid on time and have been a customer for years. It is as if, by deciding I was a higher risk and raising my rate, they actually MADE me at higher risk for defaulting. I don't plan to, of course, but now I need to find an additional $60 a month to make the minimum payment in a difficult financial time.
Kevin | Oct 10, 2008
That is very suprising. That is exactly opposite of what I would expect. You would think that they would fight to keep people with excellent credit.
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