Cancel unused credit cards

[II kings 9:20]

Originally Posted by james jefferson

thats strange. about a year ago, my visa card was used by a crook with costco and bought about $1500 worth of merchandize (russian guy). lucky for me i stopped the last $900 and notified my credit card bank. but it caused me problems for about 6 months before i got it straightened out.

Incredible, several companies begged and almost harrassed me not to cancel, I had 5 Discover accounts and they made all kinds of 0% offers, $15 instant cash back offers, free balance transfer offers, etc. to get me to keep the other 4 accounts. Several said we hate to lose you as a customer even though I rarely if ever used thier card, a typical response was "I understand your reason for wanting to cancel but you are protected in the event of a fraud charge and are not held responsible" , what these jerks don't tell you is that it takes a long time to clear things up. Some said, we'll put a block on this account and send you a new card under a different #, I said I don't need more cards that's what caused this problem in the first place I am looking to reduce the # of cards I have. So I am finally down to three and plan to stay there.

[james jefferson]

Originally Posted by Mikeyjohn

This is in Canada James, we can only use Amex or if you have a bank debit card they will accept that, no Visa, MC or any others are accepted.

I may be wrong on this but I had heard that bank debit cards were not very popular in the US but is widely used here on this side of the border. I very seldom use it as I like to get points on my Visa. If I am wrong on the debit card, I apologize.

oh, thats interesting. i do have a bank debit card, but the number that was stolen was my Capitol One visa card.

[james jefferson]

Originally Posted by II kings 9:20

Incredible, several companies begged and almost harrassed me not to cancel, I had 5 Discover accounts and they made all kinds of 0% offers, $15 instant cash back offers, free balance transfer offers, etc. to get me to keep the other 4 accounts. Several said we hate to lose you as a customer even though I rarely if ever used thier card, a typical response was "I understand your reason for wanting to cancel but you are protected in the event of a fraud charge and are not held responsible" , what these jerks don't tell you is that it takes a long time to clear things up. Some said, we'll put a block on this account and send you a new card under a different #, I said I don't need more cards that's what caused this problem in the first place I am looking to reduce the # of cards I have. So I am finally down to three and plan to stay there.

sometimes, life sucks. good for you, i only have one credit card for last 5 years or so.

[Jerk_Fitter]

"kings, you'll also increase your credit score when you get rid of all those credit cards...."

That is not entirely true, # of open accounts does affect your score but equally important is credit utilization.

Many people have made the mistake of consolidating all there card balances onto one or two cards at almost a 100% utilization and then canceling the other open accounts only to see their credit score suffer.

It's good to have a few cards that are not used often, but not too many that the # of open accounts hurts you.

Either way I think # of accounts and utilzation each account of 10% of your score.