How do I cancel my Credit One credit card application?

To cancel a Credit One card, call customer service 24/7 at (877) 825-3242. When prompted, enter your card number. Once connected to a customer service representative, state that you want to cancel the card and close your account. The representative may counter with a “retention offer,” such as lower fees or interest rates, to keep you as a customer.… read full answer

Another way to cancel is to mail the request. The address is:

Credit One Bank

General Correspondence

P.O. Box 98873

Las Vegas, NV 89193-8873

Requests by mail will take longer to process. Credit One does not offer an option to cancel online.

What to do after you cancel a Credit One card:

When you cancel your Credit One card, you’ll still have to pay at least the minimum amount due on any balance each month until it’s paid in full. Your account won’t be officially closed until you do. Any future transactions that you try to make after cancelling will be declined, but pending transactions may still process. Also, make sure to cash in any leftover rewards before canceling your Credit One card, as unredeemed rewards will expire once you close the account. You’ll need to update the payment method for any recurring bills you were charging to the Credit One card, too.

A primary reason you’d want to cancel a Credit One card is that you simply no longer need it. Credit One cards are designed for people with bad-to-fair credit. They also come with high annual fees. As such, your credit standing may be to the point where you’re ready to upgrade to a card with lower fees and more rewards. And because Credit One caters only to a specific group of customers, upgrading to another Credit One card is not really an option.

Keep in mind that when you cancel a Credit One card, your credit score could temporarily take a small hit, depending on the specifics of your credit history.

You can cancel a credit card application by contacting the credit card issuer’s customer service department. The sooner you contact them, the easier it will be to cancel the application. Applications usually are processed quickly once they’re submitted, especially if you’re an obvious candidate for either approval or rejection. Many credit cards will give you a near-instant decision in those cases. So if you applied online, you may have only a few minutes (or even less than a minute in some cases) to contact customer service. But you might have a window of about 7-10 business days in other cases, such as when you mail a paper credit card application. … read full answer

If you are unable to cancel a credit card application before it is processed, you will have to deal with the hard inquiry on your credit report. But depending on the issuer, it may still be possible for you to stop the account from being opened, so you don’t have to close it and damage your score further. There are a few more things you should know about the cancellation process, too.

Here’s how to cancel a credit card application:

• Contact the credit card’s issuer as soon as possible. You need to stop the application from being processed to prevent a “hard inquiry” from being added to your credit report. That could temporarily hurt your credit score.
• You may only have a few minutes (or even less) to cancel an online credit card application. If you mailed your application, you will have a wider window, thanks to the time it spends in transit.
• If your application is approved before you can cancel it, you may still be able to avoid officially opening an account. But make sure to call customer service and ask because that's not always the case. With Chase and Discover, for example, the account is considered open once you’re approved. Quickly closing a newly opened account can hurt your credit score.
• Consider waiting a few weeks or months before applying for another credit card. Multiple inquiries in a short period of time can make you seem risky in lenders’ eyes. If that’s not possible, try for a card with very high approval odds, such as a secured card or a card targeted to people who have lower credit scores than you do. You can also work on building credit without your own credit card, like becoming an authorized user on someone else’s card.

At the end of the day, it’s also worth mentioning that keeping a credit card you didn’t want could be good for your credit score. Even if you decide not to use the card, you’ll still have positive information reported to the bureaus each month. But if the card comes with an expensive annual fee, it’s better to close your account than lose money every year. Many issuers charge an annual fee when you open an account and then every 12 months on your account anniversary. Others won’t make you pay an annual fee if you cancel your account before the close of the billing cycle in which it’s charged.

Credit One now offers free credit scores from Experian. Credit One cardholders can access their free credit score simply by registering for online account access on the Credit One website. This credit score, along with a summary of your credit report, is updated once per month.

Offering free credit score access to their cardholders is a recent move by Credit One. In doing so, they join the ranks of many other card issuers. Keeping track of credit scores may be especially important to Credit One cardholders because many of them are in the process of rebuilding their credit.… read full answer

That said, there’s no need to wait for once-a-month updates while rebuilding your credit. A free WalletHub account will get you daily credit score updates, plus personalized credit improvement tips for your situation.