Information on Chase bank one credit card cancellation

Given the current cachet of living within one's means, I've cut back on the number of credit cards I carry. In addition to feeling more solvent, I've developed a picture of how far financial services marketers will and won't go to keep a customer.

I'm worth trying to keep. Like too many of my generation, I learned early on how to make ends meet with help from plastic.

Financial services marketers played me like a fiddle. Just when I'd approach my limit, they'd raise it. Sure enough I'd have some need to spend the money--impulse travel or emergency root canals being of equal importance to me.

The direct mail ploys were particularly effective during the holidays when I succumb to overgenerosity. To the credit issuers' advantage, I paid on time, frequently the minimum.

This year I decided to scale back to credit lines offering the best interest rates (under 12%) and cards with no annual fees. (Because of the issuers' propensity to raise my credit limit every so often, this reduction would still leave me well over $20,000 of reserve.)

I also decide to keep my American Express Gold Card for old time's sake and in hopes that one day it would offer privileges I wanted in on.

As I began to close my accounts, I wondered which companies would try to keep me. The overtures came from unexpected places. None convinced me to stay.

Bank of New York never even acknowledged receipt of my cut-up Visa card. (I dropped it as soon as the bank raised interest rates at a time when the prevailing trend was to lower them.) I still suspect I'll receive a renewal card and a bill for the annual fee next year.

Choice Visa sent me a brief cordial form letter asking if I was absolutely sure I wanted to cancel. If I changed my mind, it would waive the annual fee. This was followed by an official cancellation form, repeating the offer of no annual fee. I completed the form and closed out the account.

Chevy Chase Visa proved more problematic. I'd signed up for its gold card at a time when I thought I might need the extra cash reserve. But my need had evaporated by the time and free six-month introductory period passed. I mailed back the card after receiving the first annual fee billing. For three billing cycles I tried to convince its computer I had elected to close my account. Each bill said the card was suspended for "delinquency."

This outfit was particularly hard to reach by phone. When I did not get a busy signal, I was told the person I needed to speak to was unavailable. After seeking third-party intervention, I have in my possession a personal letter from a bank executive assuring me that Chevy Chase reported nothing bad about me to any credit bureaus. (Can't wait to apply for my next mortgage.)

I had the highest hopes for American Express, whose Optima card I had elected to drop. Considering Amex's well-publicized troubles with deadbeat Optima customers, I figured they'd want to keep a live one like me.

Here's what happened.

A full month's cycle passed after I submitted my cut-up card and I received a routine statement from Optima advising me next month was time for the annual fee.

I phoned to remind them I'd just tried to cancel the account. But I decided if I could get the company to waive the annual fee, I'd stay in the fold. But clearly Amex was receiving this line from other people. The customer service rep I was finally transferred to with authority to close my account read a script stating that because Amex is not a bank, it incurs costs that require it to charge $15 a year. Her come-on: "We really think you get a value from our card."

Several weeks later, my file had made its way to a retention center of some sort. The gentleman who phoned me at home sounded young and nervous as he asked why I was canceling my account. The annual fee, I told him. I'm eliminating all credit cards with a fee. Besides, I am already chagrined that I pay you 75 bucks a year for a gold card.

Curiously, when I pushed the telemarketer, he was willing to give me the lowest interest rate for Optima (although I had not purchased the requisite $1,000 over the past year), but he would not waive the fee. He repeated the mantra that Amex is not a bank and the Optima card is worth the value.

A few days later I received the first of several love notes from the American Express Co. thanking me for being a card member and calling me a "Member of Distinction." At first I though this was part of my Optima saga. Then I realized it was part of Amex's new relationship marketing program for gold card members. (If they were so thrilled to have me, why wouldn't they drop the $15 annual fee for my Optima?)

A $1.25 check for "CR BAL REF" arrived from American Express a few weeks ago. I deduced this must be reimbursement for the remaining fee on my Optima account. Two AT&T Universal cards remain in my possession. I will pay no fee on them for life.