Closing Credit Card Accounts with outstanding balance?

creditcardnewbie

Hello to you all,

I am currently paying off 4 credit cards at the moment and I have cut them all up and put them away somewhere safe. I do not intend to spend another penny on any of these cards until the balances are paid in full.

I was wondering is it possible to contact your credit card company and ask them to close the accounts so no further money can be spent on them until the balance are paid in full? (I will be closing the cards once the balances are paid off).

I would like to do this for all 4 cards but I am concerned about 2 things 1) this may have an adverse effect on my credit history if I do this and 2) doing this may lead to the companies increasing my APR.

If this is not possible I guess I could always reduce the credit limits until they are paid off?

The 4 companies involved are Citibank, Bank of Ireland, HSBC and Barclaycard.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Creditcardnewbie :beer:

hansi

Excuse me, but have I missed something here You say you have cut them up and put them somewhere safe Why? If they're cut up, you can't use them anyway! You can't close the account until you have paid all outstanding balances. You can't use the card anyway.

creditcardnewbie

hansi wrote: »

Excuse me, but have I missed something here You say you have cut them up and put them somewhere safe Why? If they're cut up, you can't use them anyway! You can't close the account until you have paid all outstanding balances. You can't use the card anyway.

Hi Hansi,

Thank you for your response. Well, I was thinking more along the lines of online shopping. Granted the cards are cut up and I would not be able to use them if I physically walked into a store, the temptation would still be there to spend online. Many apologies - I should have outlined that better in my post.

CannyJock

Were all of the 4 cards maxed out on their limits or would it have been possible to transfer the debt from the highest APR cards to the lowest APR cards?

Have a look at the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com if you've not already and use the snowballing technique to minimise the amount of interest you're charged.

Consider checking your credit report and applying for 0% balance transfer cards or lower APR LOB deals to minimise the interest that you pay.

With a little bit of cleverness, you can save yourself a lot of additional interest and get rid of the cards completely a lot quicker if you're not comfortable having them.

creditcardnewbie

CannyJock wrote: »

Were all of the 4 cards maxed out on their limits or would it have been possible to transfer the debt from the highest APR cards to the lowest APR cards?

Have a look at the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com if you've not already and use the snowballing technique to minimise the amount of interest you're charged.

Consider checking your credit report and applying for 0% balance transfer cards or lower APR LOB deals to minimise the interest that you pay.

With a little bit of cleverness, you can save yourself a lot of additional interest and get rid of the cards completely a lot quicker if you're not comfortable having them.

Hello Cannyjock,

Many thanks for your response.

All 4 are not maxed out at the moment so I think that is a great idea to transfer between cards - I will definitely look into that.

Many thanks for the link to the site - I will look into that also.

I have sent away for a recent copy of my credit report and there are no problems there, but, unfortunately I have been turned down for a few cards in the past few months and have since ceased new applications for a while.

Thank you once again - plenty of food for thought there.

creditcardnewbie :beer:

CravingSaving

Ahh, the old "I've cut them up and put them somewhere safe" thing! I know it well so when noone is looking you can sneak them out and spend online!! Throw them away! If you plan to close the accounts when they are paid off anyway, you wont need them for anything else.

Also, as always, CannyJock has excellent given excellent advice too.

creditcardnewbie

CravingSaving wrote: »

Ahh, the old "I've cut them up and put them somewhere safe" thing! I know it well so when noone is looking you can sneak them out and spend online!! Throw them away! If you plan to close the accounts when they are paid off anyway, you wont need them for anything else.

Also, as always, CannyJock has excellent given excellent advice too.

Hi CravingSaving,

Thanks for your advice. Glad someone else understands "The old cut them up and put them somewhere safe" routine

Have to agree too - CannyJock's advice was excellent. Going to make a few calls to the card companies to see what they can do for me.

Thanks again to all who replied - your advice is very much appreciated :beer: