Saturday, October 04, 2008

Sample Credit Card Cancellation Letter

You don't need three VISAs, two MasterCards, six department store cards and three gas cards! If this sounds like the credit cards in YOUR wallet, chances are you're running a balance on every single one of them.

You can easily get by in the modern world with just ONE Visa or MasterCard, ONE American Express card, and maybe ONE gas card. And you don't need the department store cards at all – they usually carry an interest rate that's WAY too high.
Here's a mistake we hear about from time to time: Joe decides to take our advice and reduce the number of credit cards he has in his wallet. So he goes and cuts up a few of his cards and tosses them in the trash.

Good for him, right? Well, yes.

But Joe needs to take one more step.

Here's the problem: Cutting up your credit cards doesn't close the accounts–you actually have to let the credit bureaus know that you've closed the accounts. And if the accounts aren't closed, you may hurt your chances of getting credit in the future because it will appear that you've got open credit lines from those old cards.

Dolan Smart Money Move: To close a credit card account, simply send a letter with your name, address and account number to the credit card company, asking them to close the account. The point is to show credit rating agencies that you are canceling and not being canceled by the card company because you're a deadbeat.

We want to make this as easy as possible so we've written one for you. To make your point clear, use our form letter below to write to the company:
Credit Card Cancellation Letter

[Your name]
[Your address]
[Date]

Dear Sir or Madam:

Please let this letter serve as notice that I am terminating my credit card account effective immediately. Please close the following account:

Credit Card Company: ____________
Account Number: ________________

Please send me written confirmation that my account has been closed. Also, please confirm that you have notified all appropriate credit card bureaus that this account was closed at my request.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
[Your Signature]

This information came from www.dolans.com Let's all work at getting out of debt...Have a great weekend everyone!

19 Comments:

At 12:03 PM, Blogger Granny Annie said...

Lucy, that is excellent advice and it is so helpful to have a form letter to send also. I tell everyone, "Put it in writing!" Agencies can ignore your phone calls but they rarely ignore your written requests.

 
At 7:25 PM, Blogger Diane@Diane's Place said...

Lamar and I don't have any credit cards by choice, so thankfully I don't have to worry about this, though I know a lot of people do.

Happy weekend, Lucy!

Love and hugs,

Diane

 
At 7:50 PM, Blogger Mountain Mama said...

This is great advice. Like Diane I don't use Credit cards but my family do. Thanks for sharing

 
At 1:59 AM, Blogger MightyMom said...

that's the best way. But, there is a faster way to have it show as letters take 6-8 weeks to be processed.

step 1) pay off all balances get a statement that shows a zero balance

step 2) call the card company and tell them you want to close the account. be prepared for a sales pitch. Just quietly and repeatedly tell them to close the account. It will be closed as of the next buisness day.

And yes, you must close every account or the "open line of credit" counts against you.

 
At 8:43 AM, Blogger Rachel said...

Hey Lucy - no credit cards here and we are debt free! :)

I get my organizing push from reading:

http://blog.wantingwhatyouhave.com/

They are also very frugal and debt free.

 
At 3:00 PM, Blogger Fred said...

Excellent post.

Also, people should watch their credit limits nowadays, too. With the economic meltdown, the credit card companies are slashing those limits left and right, especially for people with many open lines of credit.

 
At 6:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My credit report shows some credit cards that I thought were closed years ago. I don't know if I have access to the complete account number. Can I still close the account?

 
At 7:59 PM, Blogger Jim said...

Hi Lucy, this is very good information. Thank you.
We don't have store cards anymore either. But there might be one or two still on the books.
Guess we're like Rachel as we don't need any more credit than we have. We do have a few bank cards so we don't have to cary cash.
..
Is your net still in operation or are you waiting until the next emergency?
..

 
At 7:03 PM, Blogger Jamie Dawn said...

Excellent advice! I would not have thought of that.
Debt can be devastating. Credit card debt is awful, and using credit cards is just too easy. It gives us the feeling of "free" money because we are just handing over a card and not cash.
I'm all for cutting them up!!

 
At 11:49 AM, Blogger Ralph said...

Good advice and thanks for following up on the pesto question.
Ralph

 
At 6:55 PM, Blogger OldLady Of The Hills said...

Very Very Good advice, Lucy.
And great info on how to take care if this in the right way, too!

 
At 7:23 PM, Blogger Rachel said...

Certainly excellent advice Lucy. I cancelled a card and just called them. Drats! I should have written a letter instead!

 
At 11:07 PM, Blogger Jim said...

Ditto for your blog, Lucy. But I do like that Red Truck.
..
BTW, my blog will be updated some time early this morning. :-0
..

 
At 11:11 PM, Blogger Jim said...

News, Charles is W5WF now. He went down the 'no person assisned' list and applied for it.
..

 
At 12:24 AM, Anonymous Victoriamabel said...

That would be quite interesting stuff. Well… I visit your website first time and found this site very useful and interesting! Well…


borrower news

 
At 6:29 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Well written article! Thanks for the advice! Oh and also thanks to Victoria for sharing borrowernews.com :)

 
At 12:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is absolutely brilliant! Really good insight.@bose
Letters

 
At 4:53 AM, Blogger Ruby Claire said...

Spectacular post. Thanks for adding links.

Sample letter Format


 
At 5:14 PM, Anonymous Satyesm said...

Nice post. Thanks for sharing these useful samples and templates of terminal letters.

 

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