Just canceled my Discover Card

[Night201]

6:20: Spoke with a customer rep, verified security info, and then was transferred to their cancellation department.

6:21: Spoke with a man who was all nice and stuff to begin with (no surprise). He kept offering me all these deals and I kept turning them down.

6:27: Account was closed and he said have a good day.

1 less card to worry about (I had this card for a balance transfer over a year ago and decided to finally close it since I don't use it).

 

[Turin39789]

did you think they were going to break your kneecaps?

 

[sygyzy]

I like Discover. They always treated me right.

 

[imported_Baloo]

Until next billing period and you get another statement.

Yes, I am suggesting they lied, agreed to your request, but did not actually do anything.

 

[Riverhound777]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
did you think they were going to break your kneecaps?

Have you ever tried it? I've never canceled my Discover card but I called them to active a replacement card not too long ago and it was horrible. Usually they just have you talk to an automated machine and thats it. When I called they put me on with a guy in India who kept trying to get me to sign up for this security service. The guy would not take no for an answer. He was basically calling me an idiot for not signing up, that it was FREE for 30 days! I told him I didn't want to have to call back and deal with people like him, but he insisted it was not a big deal to cancel it and that it was FREE, for 30 days...

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

I just cancelled an AMEX account. Now if I could only find something to spend my remaining 1057 rewards points on, but it seems the lowest i can find is 2500.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: Riverhound777

Originally posted by: Turin39789
did you think they were going to break your kneecaps?

Have you ever tried it? I've never canceled my Discover card but I called them to active a replacement card not too long ago and it was horrible. Usually they just have you talk to an automated machine and thats it. When I called they put me on with a guy in India who kept trying to get me to sign up for this security service. The guy would not take no for an answer. He was basically calling me an idiot for not signing up, that it was FREE for 30 days! I told him I didn't want to have to call back and deal with people like him, but he insisted it was not a big deal to cancel it and that it was FREE, for 30 days...

They canceled mine nice and easy.



Helps if you stop paying and returning calls for 8 months or so!

 

[ISAslot]

6:30: Your credit score dropped.

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: ISAslot
6:30: Your credit score dropped.

I only had this card for a year, I have plenty of other credit on my 2 other cards (Amex and Visa), and I have no balances on them. I have never missed a payment and have no other debts. My FICO score is well over 750, so even if canceling this card did drop my score a "little" bit, it would only be for a short while - and I could care less. My FICO is fine.

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: ISAslot
6:30: Your credit score dropped.

Funny though!

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
did you think they were going to break your kneecaps?

No, but I was dreading the whole "what can we do to keep you as a customer" pitch.

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I like Discover. They always treated me right.

I had no problems with them, just didn't want to keep a card open that I don't use - pointless and security risk.

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I just cancelled an AMEX account. Now if I could only find something to spend my remaining 1057 rewards points on, but it seems the lowest i can find is 2500.

Good for you! Sucks about the points!

 

[Imported]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I just cancelled an AMEX account. Now if I could only find something to spend my remaining 1057 rewards points on, but it seems the lowest i can find is 2500.

I want to cancel my AMEX.. but its the card I've had the longest and don't want to hurt my credit score any. I haven't used it in 3 years or so.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: Night201

Originally posted by: Turin39789
did you think they were going to break your kneecaps?

No, but I was dreading the whole "what can we do to keep you as a customer" pitch.

But then you could have asked for a million dollar 0% credit limit.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I just cancelled an AMEX account. Now if I could only find something to spend my remaining 1057 rewards points on, but it seems the lowest i can find is 2500.

gve it to me

 

[ppdes]

I'm tempted to do the same. Discover constantly sends me cash advance checks that I will never use. Additionally they sent me a second card a couple months ago for no reason at all, same number and expiration date, and a note that my old card would be canceled when I activated this one. WTH was the point of that? I never activated it and have been using my old one happily.

Half the letters I get arrive opened because my post office is completely corrupt or something, so getting sensitive stuff like this in the mail is very bad. Meanwhile I've never received anything from my Costco/AMEX card. I don't even get paper bills from them because I picked the online only option. It's worry and hassle free, unlike Discover.

/rant

 

[Squisher]

When I canceled my Discover card I thought the woman was going to offer to bear my children if I didn't cancel. I mean my head was spinning, but I think they offered 0% and no payments forever.

 

[oiprocs]

What kind of hit can you expect your credit score to take if you cancel a credit card?

What if you cancel 5 credit cards, and leave a 6th one with no debt on it? Is that a bad idea?

Let's also say you're 21, never been late or had derogatory marks, and you don't need a loan for 10 months.

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: Oiprocs
What kind of hit can you expect your credit score to take if you cancel a credit card?

What if you cancel 5 credit cards, and leave a 6th one with no debt on it? Is that a bad idea?

Let's also say you're 21, never been late or had derogatory marks, and you don't need a loan for 10 months.

It depends.

Closed accounts still appear on your credit report so it still counts as an account until it drops off (7years) so it won't have immediate affects. Assuming that you have 6 cards that are 3years old, close 5 of them, don't open anymore for 7years, then on the 8th year you open another one, the average age of your accounts goes way down and then your credit score could go down.

Assuming that all 6 cards have $1000 limits but you only use one regularly, say $500 a month that you always pay off at the end of the month, your total utilization will show as something along the lines of 8% (even if you pay it all off at the end of the month, if it has a balance when the bank reports, it's still shows up as a balance). If you closed the 5 that you don't use, all of a sudden your total utilization will show 50% (~35%, 50%, and 90% seem to be the big cutoffs from what I've read) and that can negatively affect your credit score.

 

[oiprocs]

Yeah, I know what you mean with the utilization numbers. I remember some of that stuff when I was refinancing loans in my cold calling days.

I'm just wondering if there is a range, like 5-20 points that you could see knocked off. The way some people make it sound, you cancel a few cards, and 100 points is going to disappear.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
did you think they were going to break your kneecaps?

Well Discover IS the card that pays you back, right?

Two big guys show up at your door one night carrying solid steel baseball bats (custom made for effective knee whacking).
"Hey dumbass, we're from Discover, the card that pays you back. *CRACK!!!* Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"

 

[Delta6Echo]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I like Discover. They always treated me right.

Actually, Discover is notorious for not caring about their customers and they are by far the worst company to have a credit card with. I'd rather deal with Chase/Citi/Capital One and I do.

This is of course from multiple experience that my family has had with them. Make sure they don't try to find a way to charge you.....