After I was divorced back in 2001, my finances, and consequently my credit score took a pretty good beating. I could not get credit to save my life.
Finally, I was able to get a few high APR, low limit, unsecured cards to start rebuilding my credit. One of these was a Capital One card with a $500 limit that I held for emergencies. I have never charged anything to it. Zero. Nada. Zilch. It has just sat in a deep, dark recess in my wallet.
Fast forward to today:
I just got approved for a card with a $5,000 limit and 0% APR until January, 2008 (woot!). I reckoned that since I have no intentions of ever using the Cap One card I ought to just go ahead an close the account. So I called them.
I lady that I spoke with did not want me to cancel the card. She extolled the benefits of being a Capital One cardholder. How it would improve my credit rating, protect my from identity theft, help me lose weight, and make me irresistible to the ladies. I swear she did damn-near everything she could do to get me to stay, except perform fellatio on me while humming, “Hail to the Chief.”
Finally (finally!) she agreed to cancel the damn card!
I don’t get it. After years of rejections and denials by card companies, you would think that closing an account would be a pretty easy affair.
Let’s face it: I was a low limit cardholder who never generated them one cent of revenue. In fact, I probably cost them money (albeit a minute sum) to maintain my account. You would think that they would be happy to drop a deadbeat like me.
Oh no. As long as you have the card you might use it–and that’s worth it to them. I don’t think you’re costing them a cent at the moment, and in the future you might become like so many Americans and start maxxing our your credit cards. Bingo! It’s worth it.
They have a retention department at Capital One. They need to pay their salaries somehow .
I used to work for Capital One. As long as you had a good credit history with them, they tried to keep you. My favorites were always the ones who called up who had late fees every month, were over the limit, and had $200 credit limits - they’d call up and threaten to cancel, and when we said “Okay”, we’d get “What, just like that? You’re not going to give me anything to stay??? I want to talk to your manager!”
Isn’t the second category of customer a much higher profit customer? Why would the credit card company want to get rid of someone who racked up a late fee and rolled over a small balance continually? Or did you mean that they never paid anything at all?
My understanding is that they’ve estimated that it takes hundreds of marketing dollars to secure one customer, so they hold on to a good customer with all they’ve got when you decide you want to leave.
I had a Citibank credit card once, but it carried an annual fee (around $35). I opened a credit card with another bank with no annual fee, and called Citibank to cancel. I was directed to an “Account Closure Specialist” who asked why I would want to do this. I told her that if she would waive the annual fee (as most companies were doing), I would stay on as a satisfied customer. She countered by telling me I should take the card out to dinner, charge a meal, circle the fee on the statement and send it to her. She would then deduct $35 from the total. I asked her if this didn’t come down to the same thing, and what would keep me from doing this again next year? She wouldn’t budge, so I cancelled. Within a year, Citibank had waived their annual fee. :rolleyes:
While we are talking about closing accounts: I had a cellphone account with Cingular up until recently, and my company offered an employee group discount of $3 per month, credited to the account. I cancelled the account in December, and opened an account with Verizon. I paid my last bill with Cingular, and just received my statement showing my final payment. Oh, and a $3 credit. Yep, as long as this billing remains active, they’re going to owe me $3 a month even though the account was closed, and they’re going to pay postage to tell me that. Why oh why can’t a closed account be zeroed out and actually closed?
I had a similar experience when I wanted to cancel my cell service w/ AT&T. I felt some sympathy for the young woman, as I figured she was required to follow a script. I finally told her that there was absolutely no way I would continue the service and she finally gave up.
I recently cancelled my long distance service with Verizon, because I don’t make that many long distance calls and, when I do, I use my cell phone.
The customer service rep kept trying to talk me into a different long distance plan, etc. Finally, I said to her, “No matter what you say to me I’m cancelling this service, so let’s not waste any more of your time or mine.”
Finally, she agreed to do as I said. However, (1) the long distance service in only blocked for now (I’m assuming in case I suddently need Verizon for this service again), and (2) I was charged a five dollar and something “cancellation fee” (same amount as the long distance charge, because I cancelled. I suppose this was just to “get back at me.”
I actually wrote to cancel my Capital One Credit Card. They were going to change it from a no fee card to a card with $48 annual fee, and they were going to offer me the “convenience” of charging $4 a month.
Yeah, right. I wrote them a FO letter, and never heard back.
My favorite is when I cancelled my Dish Network account. I work for a company owned by a large cable provider, so as a bennie I get my cable, ALL the movie channels, plus high speed internet, for free. (Actually, the first cable box is free. The second box is $7 a month. So, cable with ALL the movie channels in two rooms of my house is $7 a month. Yes, I’m bragging. )
Anyhoo, when I told Dish I no longer wanted to pay them $60+ a month for one box without all the movie channels and why, all they could offer was “But, but, our picture is better!”
Yes, but it goes out in a rainstorm. Thanks, but no thanks.
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