3 Steps to Canceling a Credit Card

It should be common knowledge that simply cutting a credit card in two does not necessarily ensure that your credit card is canceled.

Of course, the reasons why you might want to cancel your card might be either because you want to avoid excessive spending, high interest rates or even annual fees.

However, it’s important to also find out how the canceling of the card will affect your credit score and based on which you can then go about doing more than just snipping your card into pieces.

With that said, here are the 3 steps that you’d have to follow so as to cancel a credit card:

#1: Find out who you should contact

You can find the customer service phone number and the mailing address of the bank on the card, the issuers’ website and on your monthly statement. This is the first step to canceling the credit card.

#2: Make the payment of your balance in full

You can only close a card if you’ve paid the balance in full or have transferred the balance completely to another credit card. That’s how it works. As for interest that accrues, you can call the issuer to freeze your account while you go about paying the balance fully.

#3: Inform the bank about the full payment

The final step involves contacting the customer service representative’s department to confirm if the balance on your card is zero once you’ve paid in full or transferred the balance to another card. It’s a bad idea to assume that your balance is zero, thanks to the possibility of residual interest accruing on your account.