Closing a credit card account - Be Warned!

[ChrisGreaves]

(Forum?)

So a certain lady of a certain age is shopping at a local department store; the clerk asks if she'd like to open a MCard account and receive an extra 15% off today's purchases? Sure! Why Not? For 5 minutes supplying details such as her Mother's Maiden Name etc she wins a discount of about fifty dollars. You can work out her hourly rate - it's more than you earn, right?

A month passes; the bill arrives; she writes a cheque and pays it in full then cuts up the credit card.
She only wanted it for the quick discount.

A year passes; she and the store say nothing, then this arrives in the mail Christmas Eve:

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The total is around $6,400.
She is now in telephonic communication with the store and if I have my way, will write a letter on a piece of paper and TAKE it to the store, to the Customer Service Counter.

What did she do wrong?
She thought that cutting up the card closed the account.
To my mind NOTHING beats returning to the store with the card, closing the account and receiving a printed confirmation that the account is closed.

Banks work this way too - I recently closed two piddling accounts and from each bank (branch) received a printed slip with a statement that on that date at that time I withdrew the balance (e.g. $8,32) and closed the account.

"If it ain't written down, it don't exist"

P.S. A quick Google Search reveals that anthing from 400 to 400,000 MCard accounts were compromised in March 2013 through a data processing service.

[viking33]

What did she do wrong?
She thought that cutting up the card closed the account.
---------------------------------------
Unfortunately, not enough!
Cutting the card just prevented her from using the card but the account was still very active.
You are right. Getting a paper receipt after advising the card issuer to close the account is the way to go.
Hard lesson to learn!

[Claude]

You're not liable though, are you Chris ? Considering that it's public knowledge that the system was compromised, you shouldn't have any problems, no ?

[ChrisGreaves]

You're not liable though, are you Chris ?

It's not me. It's a little old lady, littler than me; older than me; more silly than me, ...
I don't anticipate she'll have to pay.
But it is a hassle.
She has to fax stuff to Equifax and the other company; she has to file a report at the local Cop Shop; she really ought to go to the store (Customer Service) and demand a piece of paper saying that she's no longer using the account.
Sadly, she'll not be able to close the account until the $6,400 issue has been dealt with.
What a time (coldest winter in living memory since Rob Ford got stripped of his powers ...) and she is supposed to be trapising all over the place.