well that was easy

johnwallace

American Express wanted to charge a dormancy fee of £20 a year because I hardly used my credit card so I phoned up to cancel my credit card.

Can I just get some security details the operator asked so I gave them.
OK the card is cancelled goodbye.

Have CC companies given up on the hard sell now?:D

chattychappy

I had a plat chargecard (fee was around £250 a year). When I cancelled it, they offered it free for another year. A year later, they wanted a fee again, so I tried to cancel it again. They then offered me a gold card "free for life" (think it usually cost about £80 a year). A year later they billed me £80. I phoned up and said I thought it was meant to be free for life. They said er.. yeah, but you haven't used it. So they refunded it and I really did cancel it!

Rupert_Bear

johnwallace wrote: »

American Express wanted to charge a dormancy fee of £20 a year because I hardly used my credit card so I phoned up to cancel my credit card.

Can I just get some security details the operator asked so I gave them.
OK the card is cancelled goodbye.

Have CC companies given up on the hard sell now?:D

In your own words you have already stated you hardly use the card.

They probably thought whats the point of flogging a dead horse.

exel1966

johnwallace wrote: »

American Express wanted to charge a dormancy fee of £20 a year because I hardly used my credit card so I phoned up to cancel my credit card.

Can I just get some security details the operator asked so I gave them.
OK the card is cancelled goodbye.

Have CC companies given up on the hard sell now?:D

Ask yourself why they would want you as a cardholder ? When you realise that, you'll realise why there was no hard sell.

They're not going to make any money if you're not using the card are they! After all c/card companies make a higher percentage from retail sales than they do from gathering interest.

chattychappy

exel1966 wrote: »

Ask yourself why they would want you as a cardholder ? When you realise that, you'll realise why there was no hard sell.

They're not going to make any money if you're not using the card are they!

Some banks are more enlightened. I had a Barclaycard which was unused for about 3 years. I phoned up to cancel (about a year ago) and they were keen to "do some business". They asked if I had any other cards and whether I was interested in a balance transfer. 6.9% LOB or 0% for 8 months, (both 2.5% fee). The woman said she could probably improve on that a little if necessary, but as I simply didn't need to do a BT I said no. Then she gave me some reasons to keep the account open - emergencies, better insurance etc. All very friendly, but I went ahead an closed it anyway.