credit cards

I heard of a man who tried to close his credit card account, only to be hit with fee after fee each month.

This happened to me with a debit card ---- even worse.

I lost the card and, long story short, after being issued a new card that the old card got into the wrong hands and there were over $800 in NSF and overdraft fees in the period of 2 days.

Needless to say I didn't feel the need to pay those charges but the bank wouldn't fix it either so I'm sitting in Chexsystems for it.

I have heard of the stories of people who had requested that their account be closed (like a credit card) only to find out that it was never closed.

When you close an account, you need to send them a letter indicating the date that you want the account closed. Keep a copy of this letter. That is really your only proof that you want to close your account.

I have also heard that someone had a discover card and wanted to pay the debt that they owed in full. How about Discover Card charged them a fee for paying off their account. Crazy, I know.

ALWAYS put your requests in writing.

Michikade - If you need a bank account I've compiled a list of banks and credit unions that either don't use chexsystems, or do but will still open an account for certain situations. So if you need a bank account here is the list for each state.

Capital One is good for that.I have account with them from 1999 that was closed in writing. It still shows open on credit report.Now since it is so old, we have to either leave it or take the score hit for losing a older account.

I also had Capitol One and also requested the account closed, both verbally and in writing. They said no problem and then I discovered that they were still showing open on my credit report and it was continuing to accumulate charges on there. I called them and told them that I had requested it closed and that I was making payments to get it paid off and it was still showing open and the amount was getting bigger and they said until the account was PIF, it would remain open. Then when we moved here and had to file bankruptcy, before the account went to bankruptcy, they put on there closed by grantor. Still included it in bankruptcy, but that ticked me off that they did that. I don't think that credit card companies should be allowed to keep adding fees/fiance charges on an account that you asked to be closed and were paying off. It then takes you twice as long to pay it off.