Closing CC Accounts

brij2006 · January 2015

Okay, so H and I will be 100% debt free within the next few months. We have not used our credit cards in over a year, and we also never check them to make sure nothing has been charged to them since we no longer use them. We have decided that instead of waiting for our accounts to close, we're going to call in and close them ourselves. We understand that this will affect our credit score, but we don't care since we will no longer need credit for anything. This will also allow us to have no credit score within 6 months. To where if we left these accounts open, it would be longer and our credit score would decrease rather than come back as nothing.

So, I have most of our credit cards with the 800#'s on the back that I can call up and cancel them. However, I know that there are a few store cards that I've lost and haven't used in many years. Do you think that I would be able to call up those companies and check to make sure my card with them are closed, or should I run a credit report to see all of my creditors and call each of them up to cancel?

I know not many people do this, but I'm just not sure what the best route is to go, and there isn't really anything out there that says how to go about this. I was always one of those people who opened a store card for the 20% off your purchase that day, but then would never use it again. So honestly, I'm not even sure who all I have cards with that may still be active. I have a good idea, but am afraid of having 1 lingering card that will cause our credit score to not actively reach zero, which is what we want.

Xstatic3333 · January 2015

When we joined Credit Karma, we could see all of our old credit card accounts that haven't closed yet. Like you, I had a lot of old store cards. I think the credit report method is probably the easiest way to find them all.

vlagrl29 · January 2015

I would pull up your credit report to see which cards you have open and start from there.

brij2006 · January 2015

@aprilH81 If anything were to happen in an emergency, we will have enough cash sitting there to cover anything that could possibly happen. So a credit card will never be a resort for us again, ever. We also already book all of our travel with our debit card. Our credit union treats it the same as a regular credit card, and immediately puts the money back into our account if/when our cards have been hacked (they have been twice already). We also don't have any accounts other than our checking connected to our cards. So they will only get as far as what's in our checking account. Which usually isn't a whole lot more than we need at that time.

jessica490 · January 2015

I would pull your credit report that way you can see everything right there. I had opened many cards over the years (both major and store cards) but have cancelled them slowly over the years so that now I have only a few and my credit score is 820 or so right now....

brij2006 · January 2015

Is there anything else that I need to look for as far as doing this? Is there anything that I'm missing here?

cbee817 · January 2015

I would wait until things are settled with your family and the baby. In all honesty, a kid changes everything... you may just want to have one on hand in case of an emergency.

brij2006 · January 2015

cbee817 said:

I would wait until things are settled with your family and the baby. In all honesty, a kid changes everything... you may just want to have one on hand in case of an emergency.

I don't plan to do this until we have the money in our account and everything paid off. But I'm just trying to figure out what the best route is to go so when it does come to that in a few months, I can buckle down and spend a few hours on the phone getting everything closed.

Erikan73 · January 2015

You can pull your credit reports from each company for free through annualcreditreport.com. You can order from each company once every twelve months. Great & free way to monitor what's on your reports. They will show contact info for the companies that the accounts are through & if the account is open or has been closed.

KatieCutie05 · January 2015

Debt free in a few months with a baby coming?! you guys are awesome!

I'd probably call and close everything and then a few months later try and order a credit report - that way if the company screws up and doesn't officially close your account you'd catch that too. I used to work retail in college and all too often customers would think their store CC account was closed but really it was just deactivated. Apparently the company liked to do this so ppl could easily open their account again... (like they were doing them a favor)

Regardless i'd want to make sure everything is really closed - i wouldnt assume that it was just because you called every account that was open. I just plain don't trust these companies.

brij2006 · January 2015

@katiecutie05 That's a very good point, and I didn't even think of it at all. It will be places like Best Buy, Victorias Secret, New York & Company, Sears, and Maurices. I definitely would want these accounts closed all the way, not just deactivated.

Unfortunately, we aren't getting to baby step #7 within a couple of months because of saving. We lost my brother to a very bad car accident 2 weeks ago, and he had a life insurance policy with me as the beneficiary that we had no idea about. Definitely not the way we wanted to get debt free, but we're going to continue to work our way through the baby steps as planned and get ourselves set up to live and give like nobody else. It's just happening in a 16 month time frame instead of the 10 year time frame we had originally planned for.

shakinros · January 2015

@brij2006‌ oh my gosh. I am so sorry about your brother.

GarnetAndBlack · January 2015

I am so very sorry about the loss of your brother. I lost my brother last year and it's devastating.

Closing CC Accounts

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