Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Cancelled credit card

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Cancelled credit card

Dear Mr. Tan
My wife cancelled her credit card with Standard Charted Bank in 2006. It happened that there was a $25 credit in her favor. So, for a few years, the bank kept sending monthly statements to her indicating that. She eventually went down a year ago to a Standard Charted Bank branch (Marine Parade) to close her credit card account. The bank sent her a cheque of $25 subsequently. A few months later, she received a new Standard Charted credit card in the mail, unsolicited. She cut up the card immediately. Then, the monthly NIL return statements started to come in monthly.

Today, she received a statement indicating a bill of $480 for the credit card annual fee. She then had to spend 25 minutes waiting and talking to an Standard Chartered Bank operator about the whole incident and asked for the card to be canceled again!

5 comments:

Unknown said...: but if u dont take time to get them to cancel, the next letter could be from the lawyer then to court and your credit history will also be damaged.

tan wa lau; January 19, 2011 8:20 PM
Vincent Sear said...: I've had a StanChart credit card for more than ten years. I'd have to say I've experienced no problem all the way from application to cancellation. My cancellation has nothing to do with any dissatisfaction but I just felt that I didn't need it anymore.

As to the process of cancellation, it was quite simple and cordial for me, didn't even have to visit any branch. Just verify the last amount due, settled it through internet banking and mailed the card back in halves with a letter saying I wished to cancel.

I did receive a call to ask me why I wanted to cancel and was there any dissatisfactory service? I just replied no, it's just personal rearrangement of financial affairs and thanked them for past services rendered. No hard selling was involved.

A few days later, I recieved a last statement confirming that I've cleared the balance and the account was closed. That was it.; January 19, 2011 9:21 PM
Solomon said...: Credit card companies spend huge money on advertising and marketing to attract customers. Once you are their customers, they tend to treat you badly. They will try to impose one charge after another and assume that their customers will pay obediently. Most of the charges are in fine prints during signing up process and these charges 99% of the time tick their customers off.

I normally stick to one credit card company until they start to impose strange charges, like "customer processing fees", " supplementary card usage fees", "customer maintenance fees", "yearly fees" etc. When you ask them to waive them, they are very firm on imposing those charges until you decide to terminate the service.

My point is why bother to spend big on marketing when the banks have no intention to keep their customers by imposing hidden charges?

I do not know the current banks' practice but I have been using my current card for the last 12 years without paying any fees.; January 20, 2011 11:00 AM
Metta said...: I once cancelled standard chartered bank credit card due to suspicion of fraud. Thereafter, they sent me a new card. However they did not send me monthly statements for the new card even though my address is correct. I have to call & request from them every time. Went on for 4 mths. They have been investigating but still,I did not auto receive their statements to-date. I am rather peace off now. Considering to cancel the card if they stay so inefficient.; January 20, 2011 1:01 PM
Serendib said...: I had a credit of about $20-30 on a credit card I had cancelled. The bank (HSBC) kept sending me monthly statements showing this credit. I called to ask that they simply send me a cheque for the amount - and was told that the credit was from a rebate programme they had, and hence they could give it to me. The "best" they could do was to "absorb" it (ie HSBC would cancel the credit). I asked them to continue sending me the statements - which they were happy to do!; January 21, 2011 3:01 PM