closing account questions

kezzygirl

Dear all, I have read on another of my threads that it is possible to ask a credit card company to default you and close the account and that this will stop interest?Is this right?

Would I be able to pay it off gradually still or would they expect the full amount at closure?

Thought i would start a new thread to get more responses.Thanks in advance

lvm

You can certainly ask them to close the account however it's not a set rule that if you ask them to freeze interest in return for a default.

How is your credit rating at the moment? Do you have any other defaults? If not, I would strongly advise against getting one - it will affect you for credit file for up to 6 years. So no phone contract, no mortgage, no 0% credit cards - it will be a very restricted lifestyle!

How about just writing to them and asking them to freeze interest but keep up the minimum payments? Say explicitly that you don't want a default applied to your account. On the other hand, if you're not too fussy about a default then your best bet is to just stop paying the credit card, wait for it to be sold to a DCA (could be 1-2 years though!) and at this time you will have saved a bit of cash and be in a position to offer a reduced settlement figure. Wouldn't really advise it if it can be avoided though - you really really do not want a default on your file!

kezzygirl

teehee!....too late already have a default from the lovely alliance and leicester.so my credit rating is shot to bits anyway.I couldnt really care less about it to be honest...not interested in a phone contract,quite happy paying a fiver a month for unlimited texts,dont want a mortgage and certainly dont want credit cards again!been there done that and now learning the lesson.