Is it legal for lenders to close an account without contacting the consumer?
Posted in Personal Finance on 04/22/2010 08:06 pm by admin
Michelle asked:
I just looked at my credit report and saw that one of my Visa cards was closed without my permission. It had a pretty low credit line and has been paid off for quite some time, but I kept it open to increase my debt to available credit ratio. Is this legal and will it have any adverse affects on my credit score?
JESUS
I just looked at my credit report and saw that one of my Visa cards was closed without my permission. It had a pretty low credit line and has been paid off for quite some time, but I kept it open to increase my debt to available credit ratio. Is this legal and will it have any adverse affects on my credit score?
JESUS
04/24/2010 at 5:15 pm
WM
Perfectly legal for a CC card company to close your account any time they want. They simply have to provide you written acknowledgement that it occured.
It will only harm your credit in the sense that it lowered your credit available. You mentioned it was a low line, so it likely will have minimal effect overall.
04/25/2010 at 3:59 am
DALLAS
Sure. Creditor need not to contact or warn you of closing or changing credit lines. They can tell you after the fact. It’s in all that small print you throw away with your credit card statements periodically.
Credit card companies have closed and reduced millions of credit lines and closed accounts for risk of loss, even if the accounts were in good standing.
04/25/2010 at 12:32 pm
CLIFFORD
Sure………they don’t care about you…….they just want their card used…..your taking up main frame space………
04/27/2010 at 1:54 am
CODY
Your cardholder agreement (not that anyone ever reads those things) probably provides that the account can be closed after a certain period of inactivity. When I worked for Sears, it happened to people all the time.