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- Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.u.washington.edu!uw-beaver!phaedrus
- From: phaedrus@cs.washington.edu (Mark Phaedrus)
- Newsgroups: misc.consumers
- Subject: Re: How to cancel a credit card (Mastercard or Visa)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul28.173119.24189@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
- Date: 28 Jul 92 17:31:19 GMT
- Article-I.D.: beaver.1992Jul28.173119.24189
- References: <22072809441040@vms2.macc.wisc.edu>
- Sender: news@beaver.cs.washington.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: University of Washington Computer Science
- Lines: 28
-
- In article <22072809441040@vms2.macc.wisc.edu> DBBARBER@MACC.WISC.EDU ("Deborah B. Barber") writes:
- >Misc.consumer folk: when you cancel a credit card, what is the proper
- >(that is, effective and self-protective) way of going about it.
- >
- >Do you mail (or UPS, or....?) back the card cut in pieces? If so, do you
- >insure it or send it certified or registered mail. By phone or in writing,
- >do you tell the issuer WHY you are dropping their card (high fees or
- >interest rates, etc.)?
-
- Call the customer service number, announce that you're cancelling the
- card, and ask for instructions on returning it. This will do a number of
- things for you:
- 1. You'll find out whether or not you should return the card in the
- first place. Some institutions don't want you to mail the card back, even in
- pieces, to prevent any chance of someone intercepting the letter and abusing
- the number (in these days of mail order, cutting a card into bits doesn't
- prevent its use, as long as the numbers are readable).
- 2. If any mysterious charges _do_ appear after you mail the card back,
- since you're already given the company notice that you're cancelling, you're
- protected.
- 3. If you do tell the institution why you're cancelling, they might well
- rectify the problem that's leading you to cancel in the first place (waive the
- fees, offer you a lower-interest card, raise your credit limit, etc.).
- --
- \ Mark Phaedrus, Computer Science Major, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA \*\
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