Cancel Your Credit Card
My wallet was feeling a little too heavy, and it wasn't because of all the money stuffed in there. So I decided to lighten my load and cancel a credit card that I hadn't been using. Here's a great little shortcut I learned that might help you, too... |
"You Wanna Cancel Your Credit Card?!?"
Have you ever tried to cancel a credit card, close a bank account, or (shudder) terminate your AOL service? Some of these companies can really put you through the ringer with their "customer retention specialists" who ask you endless questions, then try to talk you out of your decision to cancel. They lay on the guilt, question your sanity, and make it sound downright unpatriotic.
I had such an experience today, when trying to cancel my Amazon.com Visa card. There's no balance on the account, so I figured I would call the number on the back of the card, tell them I wanted to cancel the card, and that would be it. Not so...
The first person I spoke with after navigating a few levels of voice prompts asked me if I was having a wonderful day. I told her yes, and that I would like to cancel my account. She transferred my call to someone else, and after being on hold for a short time, I was greeted by "Randy" (name changed to protect the guilty).
Randy identified himself as a Customer Support Supervisor and asked how he could help me. I told him I wanted to cancel my card. That's when the dark coulds rolled in. Here's how our conversation went from there:
Randy: Can you tell me why you want to cancel your card?
Me: I have no further use for it.
Randy: You have no further use for the card??
Me: That's right.
Randy: What was it that made the card "unbeneficial" to you?
Me: Can we skip to the end of the questions and just cancel the account?
I recently read the story of a guy who called to cancel his AOL account. They kept him on the phone for 15 minutes, asked endless questions, insulted him and then demanded to speak to his father. (The guy was 35 years old.) I knew I wanted to cancel, and I didn't want to participate in a pointless Q&A session. So I persisted...
Randy: Nope. (long pause)
Me: Can I speak to someone else who can help me cancel?
Randy: No, I'm the only one. Just me.
Me: Okay, Randy, I'm going to start recording this call now. Will that be alright?
Randy: No, that's not alri...
Me: Okay, I just started recording.
(Click!) Randy hung up on me.
Resistance is NOT Futile
Apparently it's okay for THEM to record calls for "training or verification purposes" but they sure don't want YOU to record what THEY'RE saying. Maybe it would prove embarassing to them if folks knew what a hassle it really was to cancel an account.
I called back right away, punched in my account number, and the next thing I heard was "Your account is closed. The balance is zero dollars." Well that's exactly what I wanted! So it seems that if you tell the phone rep you want to cancel, and that you're going to record the call, they can cancel your account in under ten seconds. That's good to know... I have another card I need to cancel. :-)
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Posted by Bob Rankin on 29 Jul 2006
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Cancel Your Credit Card (Posted: 29 Jul 2006)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/cancel_your_credit_card.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
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Most recent comments on "Cancel Your Credit Card"
(See all 44 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Jon
01 Apr 2008
Well, if you think you've canceled your card, think again. I canceled my Citicard two years ago and they still charge against it. They are saying that any recurring agreemens can be charged even if the card is canceled. The probelm is that I never bought the product they claim I did and here is the best part, the product they claim I purchased is owned by citi itself called "Citishoppers". I asked for the proof of purchase which they claim is the signed agreement but they kept giving me the run-around. This is beyond evil, they are charging me for a product which never bought and charging to an account which i canceled two years ago.
Posted by:
Daniel
10 Jul 2008
Hi,
When canceling a card you should be aware of its terms and conditions about charges. I think this is the better way to cancel a card. I still don't understand why you should cancel a card?
Posted by:
Jay
29 Jul 2008
Daniel, are you kidding me? Are you saying that forever I'm stuck with AMEX charging me over and over again by a company that I authorized but no longer want to come from my AMEX (which was canceled in FEB). They say they have to accept recurring charges no matter what. That is INSANE!!! And by the way, talking to a Supervisor does not help.
Posted by:
Luis F Florez
16 Sep 2008
Cancel my AOL Chase Credit Card
EDITOR'S NOTE: Pretty sure you're in the wrong place...
Posted by:
sherrelle
13 Jan 2009
Now that I read all these comments I'm kind of nervous about canceling my macys card =(
Posted by:
vid
28 Jun 2009
Some hacker is using my compromised cancelled amex card as well. the hacker is smart and charged only less than $20 but luckily I checked my statement and saw this and called amex. they were good enough to refund the money but said any electronic transaction will go thru and there is no way to stop that with any credit card...
I am disappointed and cancelling card does not even give you peace of mind...
any idea how to permanantely block all transactions on cancelled cards? is there a way or will this glitch will continue??
EDITOR'S NOTE: That seems totally unacceptable. I'd check with your state attorney general.
Posted by:
jimmy
24 Nov 2009
aol s..ks i cancelled 6 months ago they told me do it online they was down so i did this morning go get cash little low 109.00 aol took that for the months back i told bank i dispute it they did nothing will not said call merchant
EDITOR'S NOTE: Wow. Perhaps Vanna White can sell you some capital letters and punctuation marks.
Posted by:
Yellow Credit Card
15 Jun 2010
Excellent site, keep up the good work. I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog.
Yellow Credit Card
Thanks
Posted by:
shanewarne
17 Jun 2010
This is actually a good site which helps to know all this stuff. keep up this good work.
Posted by:
Sara
04 Aug 2010
lmao!!!