How to Cancel a Credit Card

To cancel your credit card, call your credit card company’s customer service line and ask to close your account. You will need to bring your card’s balance to zero, but you may be able to close your credit card account first and then continue making the necessary payments.

You can estimate exactly how much closing a credit card will hurt your credit score using WalletHub’s free credit score simulator. We’ll also guide you through the steps to cancel your account below, as well as give you additional information on when to cancel a card, the credit score implications, and alternatives to canceling.

1. Redeem any unused rewards.

Ater your close your credit card account, some issuers may give you a certain number of days during which you can still redeem rewards. For example, Citi ThankYou Rewards actually gives you a 60-day window. However, many credit card companies make it nearly impossible to redeem rewards once the cancellation process begins. You can’t count on a customer service representative warning you ahead of time, either.

Regardless of your issuer’s rules, it’s always best to redeem before initiating a closure to avoid any headaches. Leaving rewards on the table is one of the most common mistakes people make when closing unused credit cards, so be sure to spend them or transfer them elsewhere (e.g. another card from the same issuer or an eligible travel partner).

Branded vs. Non-Branded Rewards

If you have a credit card that’s co-branded with a certain hotel, airline or merchant, your rewards may go into your overall loyalty account with the company, so you might not lose them if you close your credit card account. For example, if you close a Southwest Airlines credit card, points that you’ve earned will remain in your Southwest Rapid Rewards account and won’t expire as long as you remain a Rapid Rewards member.

With general-purpose cards that aren’t tied to a partnered merchant, you lose the rewards either immediately when you close your credit card account or soon after.

Taking Advantage of Unused Benefits

In addition to redeeming unused credit card rewards, you should consider taking advantage of any worthwhile supplemental benefits your card offers before you cancel it. For example, you might want to cash in on the following types of benefits:

• Yearly credits for certain types of purchases
• Free hotel nights
• Airport lounge access, free checked bags or priority boarding, if you have a trip coming up
• Anniversary bonuses if you’re close to reaching your account anniversary (but weigh the value of that against any potential annual fee)

It’s worthwhile to squeeze every drop of value out of your credit card that you can before closing it. The exception, of course, is if you have another annual fee coming up that will cost more than you get back.

2. Make sure there is no unpaid balance.

You can’t completely close a credit card account with an unpaid balance. The terms of your agreement with the issuer won’t be satisfied until you repay everything you owe or you come to a settlement. This can be a stumbling block for many people given how confusing credit card billing is.

Even if you paid the full amount listed on your last statement before calling to close your account, there still could be a small balance remaining. That’s because the issuer might have charged interest between your statement date and when you paid the bill. Or, you might have made purchases in between your last statement closing date and when you called to cancel.

Therefore, it’s best to double-check your balance online and confirm with a customer service representative that it’s zero before finally requesting closure.

3. Call your credit card company.

You can simply flip your card over and call the number on the back, or you can look up your credit card company’s customer service number online. Then, call and follow the prompts to speak to a representative. For your convenience, we’ve listed the cancellation phone numbers for some of the most popular credit card issuers below.

Information Required

You’ll need to provide your card number so customer service can verify your account. If you can’t find your account number, the issuer can look it up using your SSN. They might ask you to confirm other information, such as your date of birth, to verify your identity.

Getting to a Human Quickly

In some cases, you can bypass the automated menu and reach a representative by pressing “0.” Otherwise, just listen to the menu and select the option for account cancellation, if there is one, or the option to speak with a representative.

Alternative Ways to Cancel a Credit Card

Calling your credit card issuer is the most reliable way to cancel your credit card account. Credit card companies typically do not allow you to cancel an account online, but it is possible with a handful of major issuers, such as American Express, Capital One and Chase. Some companies might also let you cancel your card at a branch location.

4. Tell the representative you want to close the account.

Inform the representative that you want to close your account. They may ask why you want to close your account, and you can give them a reason if you’d like, but you don’t have to feel any obligation to go into specifics. You should also be aware of the potential for retention offers, and there are a few important questions you should ask before finalizing your cancellation.

Retention Offers

Before proceeding with the account closure, the representative might try to convince you to remain a customer, perhaps even offering you incentives to stay, such as a:

• Special rewards bonus
• Statement credit
• Reduced or waived annual fee

Depending on the offer, if may be worth considering keeping your account open. But if you’re sure you want to close your account, politely insist on proceeding with the cancellation.

Key Things to Ask When Canceling Your Card

Before finalizing things, it’s a good idea to double-check with the representative that you don’t have any unredeemed rewards or an unpaid balance. If you do, you should redeem them and/or make a final payment before you proceed.

5. Follow up in writing.

If you want to be extra sure that your account is closed, you can send an email to your credit card’s customer service email address to get written confirmation. That way, you have documentation from the company itself in case there’s an error and the card remains open.

In the email, mention the date you called to cancel and say that you are requesting confirmation of the account’s closure. Include your name, address, phone number and email but do not give any sensitive information such as your Social Security number.

Once you receive a reply, you may want to print a copy so that you have hard proof even if you accidentally delete the email.

You can also do things the old fashioned way and mail a letter, but it will naturally take longer to get a response that way.

6. Verify the change is noted on your credit reports.

About two months after you close your account, check your credit report for free to make sure the account in question is marked as “closed.” If it’s not, the cancellation might not have gone through due to some mistake by the credit card company, and you’ll need to notify them of the error.

7. Cut up your card before disposing of it, just to be safe.

Once you’ve successfully canceled your credit card and confirmed that your account is closed, you should destroy your credit card by cutting it up or shredding it. Although it couldn’t be used to make purchases anymore even if someone found it, the information on the card could still be used to aid in identity theft, so we recommend destroying your card rather than simply throwing it out.

“Investing in a shredder is one of the best $25 investments someone can make,” says Christopher Browning, an assistant professor in the Department of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University. “Even if a credit card is expired and can’t be used to make purchases, simply throwing it away makes information that is potentially sensitive available for someone to use in a harmful way.”

If you have a metal credit card, you won’t be able to cut it up or shred it, but you can typically mail it back to your issuer for disposal.

When to Cancel a Credit Card

It’s unwise to cancel a credit card account without carefully considering the potential credit score damage. But even with your score’s fate factored in, there are some situations when you should put an old credit card to rest. The most common ones include:

• When an unused card has an annual fee
• When you have too many cards
• When you’re not planning a big loan (e.g. mortgage/auto loan), so temporary credit score damage won’t cost you
• During divorce proceedings
• As part of a debt settlement/management agreement
• If you’re a victim of fraud

You can learn more about when to cancel a credit card on WalletHub. It’s also worth noting that if your desire to cancel your card stems from the belief that it will lead you to overspend, you can always just cut it up! That will remove the temptation without hurting your credit.

Effects of Closing a Credit Card on Your Credit Score

Canceling a credit card is easy, but doing so without hurting your credit score is a bit harder. The key is to avoid closing your oldest accounts and those with the highest credit limits, especially if they don’t charge annual fees. If you really need to close such an account, you can minimize the impact by doing it when you won’t need your credit score for anything important for at least a few months.

Below, you can learn more about the different reasons why closing a credit card account can hurt your credit score.

It Can Raise Your Credit Utilization

Closing a card can hurt your overall credit utilization ratio, a key component of your credit score, if you continue to spend the same amount of money. That’s because you’ll have less available credit, so a higher percentage of it will be taken up with each dollar you charge.

The table below shows an example of how closing a card but keeping the same spending habits could affect your credit utilization, bringing it from below the recommended maximum utilization of 30% to above it.

It Can Lower Your Average Account Age

The average age of your accounts is another important factor in your credit score. The older your average account is, the better it is for your credit score. Having a longer credit history can demonstrate more trustworthiness as a borrower because lenders have more data on your past repayment behavior.

So if you’ve always paid on time for many years, you’re likely to have a better score than someone who’s always paid on time for a year. Of course, if you have a long credit history but have used credit irresponsibly and missed payments during that time, your score will still suffer.

Depending on how old the card you close is, it can dramatically shorten the average age of your accounts and hurt your score as a result. The table below shows an example.

It’s worth noting that some credit-scoring models count closed accounts that are still on your credit report when calculating the length of your credit history, but closing an account ultimately makes it fall off your credit report sooner. Opening any new accounts after closing a card can shorten your average account age even further.

In addition to the average age of your accounts, some credit scoring models factor in the age of your oldest and newest accounts, according to the credit bureau Experian. So if your oldest account is suddenly a lot less old, for example, that can hurt your score.

Other ways closing a credit card can affect your credit score:

• It stops you from receiving new payment history. When you close an account, that’s one less card that’s reporting payment history to the credit bureaus each month. As a result, your score may not continue increasing as quickly as before.
• It can make your credit mix less rich. One component of your credit score is how many different types of accounts you have (e.g. credit card, mortgage, personal loan, etc.). Closing a credit card can cause your credit mix to become less diverse and thus lower your score.
• It can create a need to open new credit. If you’re opening a new card to replace the old one, the new application will cause a small drop in your credit history that will take at least a few months to bounce back from.
• It can cause recurring payments to go unpaid. If you cancel a credit card, any recurring payments linked to it will no longer go through moving forward. If those payments happen to be on an account that reports to the credit bureaus, that could damage your credit score. And even if it doesn’t impact your score, you could still owe late fees or lose access to the service your recurring payments are for. Always make sure to link a new payment method to all recurring payments after cancelling a credit card.

You can estimate how much closing a credit card will hurt your credit with WalletHub’s free credit score simulator, and you can also read more about the different reasons your score may be affected.

Alternatives to Canceling a Credit Card

Since canceling a credit card can be bad for your credit score, we recommend keeping accounts that you no longer want open, as long as they don’t charge an annual fee. There are several good alternatives to canceling your credit card, including:

• Don’t use the card: You can simply put your card away in a drawer and not use it. You’ll still build credit slowly, since it’ll still report to the credit bureaus even if you’re not making purchases or payments. That said, some credit card issuers may eventually close your account due to inactivity, so you may need to make a purchase every once in a while to prevent that.
• Lock your card: If the reason you want to cancel your card is simply to stop yourself from spending, many banks allow you to “lock” your card, which prevents you from making any new purchases until you remove the lock.
• Switch to a different product: If the card’s issuer has a different credit card that’s more appealing to you, try calling customer service and seeing if you can do a product change to that card. A product change may help you avoid a hard pull of your credit, but the downside is that you might not be eligible for the new card’s initial bonus since it’s not technically a “new” account.