Cancel Your Credit Card In Writing

March 31, 2006

By Peter Kenny

It has been announced that millions of consumers could be leaving themselves open to fraud by simply cutting up their unwanted.

The risk of identity fraud is very high if all you do is destroy your old credit card and do not inform your credit card supplier.

MyCallCredit is warning consumers that they must inform their credit card supplier in writing whenever they wish to cancel a credit card. This move will guarantee that their personal details will not fall into the wrong hands.

Alison Nicholson from MyCallCredit said, “Each credit cardholder has an average 2.3 cards.”

"If just one in ten of those cardholders has a card they don't use that's three million people who are needlessly increasing their chance of becoming a victim of ID fraud."

It is estimated that there are 70 million in circulation in the UK at any time, which is roughly just over 2 for every person eligible.

Even though a credit card may be unused it still remains live and that means your details are kept on file thus leaving you open to someone taking your identity.

MyCallCredit also estimate that if you were a victim of a credit card ID fraud it would take between 3 – 48 hours work to prove you are a victim and costs could rise to more than £8000.

I would also like to point out that if you do not cancel a credit card, the information is kept on your credit file and when you apply for a new credit card this may work against you as credit card companies are tightening up on their exposure to bad debts. It may be decided that you have already reached your credit limit and may be turned down for your new credit card application.

In other words if you plan to apply for other, cancel the that you do not need.