Cancel unused credit cards

[II kings 9:20]

Just got a call from Chase fraud, seems someone charged $2400 to an online vegas company and $50 to Old Navy. This card is sitting in a drawer with all my other never used cards and has not been used in over a year. My project after work is to Cancel ALL but my 3 daily use cards. I also found out that they arrive active and the activation process is to let the cc company know you got the card, activation is just busy work and not activating the card like I have done is no protection at all . I have many cards with the stickers on that I thought were not active since I never called to activate them.

[jjs]

That royally sucks!! I am like you in thinking the sticker and phone number actually activate the cards...hmmm...time to kill my open ones...

Thanks for the information....

[HEMEEE]

The way the process is supposed to work is that it matches your activation call to your home phone number on file. I've called from work in the past and could not activate. In Oct. I called on a renewal from home to activate but it seemed as if the process didn't complete. Suspicious, I took both the new, and nearly expired cards with me on a trip. As I thought, the new card would not work so I handed them the other... because I had attempted to activate the new one, the old one was now inactive and neither could be used.

I wonder... could someone have cloned your phone to activate, could it be an 'inside' job from the issuing bank.

... or ( gulp) do you have teenagers??

[JonW]

OK, I don't normally send out "public service announcements", but since you guys are on the topic of credit here, I think this is worthwhile.

A new U.S. Federal law went into effect on 12/01/2004 that gives you access to receive free credit reports every 12 months from each of the 3 national credit reporting agencies. This is not the same as all the so-called "free" offers that spammers send. This is legitimate and setup by the FTC. The only downside here is that since this is such a huge undertaking for the FTC, they are phasing it in and only the Western states are currently able to access this. Check the links at the FTC's website to see when your states will be eligible.

For additional information, visit the FTC's website at:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm (press release - facts for consumers)
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm (how to obtain your report)

You can also review the FAQ's (frequently asked questions) at:
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/helpfaq

If you've never looked at your own credit report (or its been a while), this is now an excellent opportunity to do it for free.

- Jon

[cmego]

For that matter, some state laws currently provide for free reports, but not with online access.

[HEMEEE]

Good info JonW, since I am in the West this was recently included in a news broadcast. The one caution I would share for this, or any offer that involves your personal and/or credit info is this: Only take advantage of these offers when YOU initiate them!!! Do NOT respond to such offers sent to you via email, even if they LOOK like they came from a known and reputable site... it's likely fake, called "fishing", and will result in identity theft. One of the more current schemes involves Ebay or a bank stating that they need you to "update your account info for their records" when in reality you're handing them the keys to your life.

Also, use a SHREDDER for any discarded mail and do not place outgoing mail in your home mailbox for pickup. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes today and I want my forum buddies to stay safe and sound!

[II kings 9:20]

No teenagers, this card was active, but not used in over a year sitting in a drawer. I use a cross cut shredder for everything including CC offers and those checks they send almost daily. The fake activation may be a Chase thing but all activations I do from home are on a restricted callerID blocked number and I have never had to un block the #. This would make sense if it were my daily visa, inside job? Doubtful, why only $2400 and on a card that would surely raise suspicion in the fraud dept. This automatic activation sucks, I asked twice, why is it active even without calling the activation# and she said that they do not want to inconvenience customers with a dead card if they peel the sticker off and don't call. Hopefully this is Chase specific but I doubt it.

[Vanilla]

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

[JonW]

Originally Posted by II kings 9:20

The fake activation may be a Chase thing but all activations I do from home are on a restricted callerID blocked number and I have never had to un block the #.

Just an FYI - When calling toll-free numbers, your caller ID blocking is not in effect. Toll-free numbers always get the CID info because they are paying for the call.

[Vanilla]

Potentially relevant: I have a biker gang friend that had his credit card info stolen out of his house by his maid. She was part of a credit card fraud ring. She passed the card info that she got digging through his files to a group that then order Dell computers to be shipped overseas....