Many students fall into the trap of credit card debt. As soon as they enter college, these students apply for multiple student credit cards and get approved right away. The problem comes with how students handle their student credit cards. Unfortunately, overspending is too easy when you have all those credit cards in your wallet.
But worse than using all these credit cards, students often fail to make payments on time. They either forget or neglect their due date payments or they choose to submit only the minimum payment and carry their balances from one month to the next. The result? They incur high interest rates, late penalty fees, transaction fees, and other additional costs in their account until debts go out of hand.
For this reason, financial consultants advise students not to get too many college credit cards in their account. One or two student credit cards should be sufficient to be used for your student expenses and the other for emergency purposes. But what if you already have multiple credit cards in your name? What can you do about them? Is it possible to cancel these unnecessary credit cards?
How to Cancel Unwanted Student Credit Cards
Canceling a
student credit card carelessly can bring damage to your credit history. That’s why very important to consider each step before making your final decision and cancel a credit card. First of all, never cancel a student credit card if you still have an unpaid balance with it. If you really want to cancel your card, you need to completely pay all your charges first before canceling.
Don’t just cancel any of your student credit cards, especially the old ones. If you’ve had that student credit card for a long time, you’ve already build an important part of your credit history with it. Therefore, canceling that student credit card would be like deleting the oldest part of your credit history. If you need to cancel a student credit card, choose the ones that you’ve acquired more recently.
But what if your old student credit cards come with very high interest rates? You still want to keep those student credit cards to protect your credit history. Remember, if a card has a high interest, you don’t have to use it frequently. You may use it once in awhile for small purchases just to keep that credit card from automatically closing. To avoid the high interest fees, pay off your entire balance before your due date ends.
Once you’ve examined the student credit cards you want to cancel, the first thing to do is call your credit card issuer. The representative you’ll speak may try to convince you to keep the credit card, but if you’ve already made your decision, don’t let a credit card representative change your mind. Be sure to note the name of the representative you spoke with. Next, send your letter of request to your credit card company as a follow-up. Remember, you should make it very clear that you are personally requesting the cancellation, not your credit card issuer.
After receiving notice that your account has already been closed, check your credit report immediately. Make sure that it does not say that your account was closed by your credit card company. This can happen sometimes, and if it does, call your credit card company to clarify the issue. You may need to wait up 30 days before the matter is corrected. Re-check your credit report and if the issue still hasn’t been resolved, send a dispute letter to the credit bureau.
