Properly closing a credit card account can be a relatively easy procedure. Whatever your reasons are, it is imperative to follow the correct steps to ensure you credit card account is completely closed for good.
Step One: Pay Off Your Balance
Before you begin the process of closing our your credit card account, it is necessary to bring your owed balance down to $0. Make a note of the exact day you sent in your final payment and also the date it posted to account. Organization is key to the process.
Step Two: Notify Your Credit Card Issuer
Contact your credit card issuer by phone and notify them that you would like to cancel your credit card account. Most of the time, your credit card issuer’s phone contact information can be found on the back of the actual credit card or your monthly statement. Remember to be diligent in writing down each person’s name you talk to and the exact time and date of the call. Card issuers hire many customer service representatives to assist their customers, so having all your information organized and thorough definitely helps the situation.
Step Three: Confirm Your Cancellation Request
Re-affirm your account cancellation conversation in writing by sending the credit card issuer a letter informing them that you wish to close the account. Requesting a confirmation letter to validate the cancellation is very important. Remember to request a written confirmation of the account’s closure from the credit card issuer.
Patience is a virtue: It typically takes anywhere from 30 – 45 days for a credit card issuer to completely close out a credit account.
Step Four: Check Your Credit Reports For The Account Closure
After your have allowed adequate time for the card issuer to close your account, it is now time to confirm that your account has indeed been cancelled. Begin by contacing the three credit reporting agencies to check that each has been notified of the closed account. Your credit report should reflect that no further action has been applied to your credit card account and the proper terms have been designated to your account closure.
Step Five: Cut Up Your Credit Card
Now that your credit account is completely closed, it is now time to destroy your credit card. Either physically cut up your credit card with a pair of scissors or have it properly shredded to guard yourself from future identity theft
.
As you go through the process of canceling your credit card, it is important to have all your phone contacts, conversations, confirmations and dates recorded. That way, if anything goes wrong, you will have all the facts needed to help you properly close your account.
Source: Consumer Credit Card Guide
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Consumer Credit Card Guide: How to Cancel a Credit Card
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Consolidate Debt Loans Guide And Lender Tricks
Many people in the US,UK and other industrialize countries are burdened by credit card debts, store card debts, unsecured personal loans and bank overdrafts. Does consolidate debts loans be the option? These kinds of debts incur very high interest rates and before you know what hit you, you are already in big debt. The other problem with these types of debts is they are easy to get and will land you deeper into debts.
The benefit in a consolidate debt loans is you would be able to pay all your existing debts in one easy monthly payment or settlement. The other benefit of a debt consolidation loan is by securing the loan on property (i.e. your home); you can borrow at a much lower rate of interest and reduce your monthly repayments by up to a half.
There are various types of programs to consolidate debt loans. This type of loan can be either secured or unsecured. Something of important value is used by a secured loan to protect the loan amount. The most familiar sources of security are the home. The risk is less for the lender with the low interest rate. But the unsecured loan is of some risk for the lender.
They charge a higher rate of interest rate and include some restrictions against the borrowing.
If you ever thought that consolidating all your credit cards into one easy loan payment and solve all you debt problems, think again.
There are pitfalls to this type of borrowing. Most people when they realize that their monthly payments are a lot less, they start to slack off and start spending more. If you are one of those, then consolidating your debts might not be the smartest idea. It will actually land you more in debt problems than before. When planning to consolidate all your credit cards and other unsecured loans, make sure you have the right psyche or discipline to go forward with a debt consolidation loan.
The right time to consolidate your debts is when you have temporarily slipped into debt (perhaps due to a change in personal circumstances) and want to get out of debt faster. It can cut your interest rate and your monthly repayments and simplify your finances, putting you back in control.
Be mindful of the tricks too, that the lender will do to entice you to get into their agency or company. Consider the following tricks they do.
They will convey to you a sense of urgency and that you have to do it right now or lose out on it.
They will claim that now is the best time to consolidate debt loans because interest rates are low.
They will use the low interest rate now and that sense of urgency to try to get or lure you into doing your consolidation now before the interest rate will go up.
They will offer X amount of percentage discount on the interest rate if your payments are made by automatic payment direct debit from your bank account. This to me is a red [...]
