A lost credit card cancellation fee?

June 20, 2007 9:06 PM

I lost a credit card; I call the lost-card-number and report it. They say it's $10 to cancel the lost card...

I lost a credit card last night. I notice this morning, call the card issuer and say I want to report the card lost. The helpful call-center-drone says "no problem, but it's a $10 fee, are you sure?" I went ahead and said I'd pay the fee, but I have to wonder, if I'd said "no thanks", who'd have been responsible for any future use of the card?

posted by nomisxid to law & government (18 comments total)

Are you sure that wasn't a card replacement fee? Still pretty expensive though.
posted by puddpunk at 9:28 PM on June 20, 2007

If it were a replacement fee, would that mean they'd create a new account number, but not give it to me? It's the world of warcrack visa, which comes in 6 different designs, so I wonder if they might not have some people 'losing' cards to get one of each design...
posted by nomisxid at 9:32 PM on June 20, 2007

That sounds like a bad commercial...Capital One perhaps? Its in their best interest to cancel the card if its lost or stolen...otherwise they'd have to deal with potential fraudulent charges. That sounds utterly ridiculous to me. On that basis alone I would cancel my account with said company.
posted by Asherah at 9:47 PM on June 20, 2007

Sounds like you 'might' have sub-prime credit and the card issuer is taking you for a ride. (<6 00 credit score)

I have lost a Citibank/Chase/American Express/Capital one card before with no cost.
posted by SirStan at 9:47 PM on June 20, 2007

I would have said, "Oh, sorry, I misspoke, I meant I want to close my account and never do business with you again." Unless you have truly crappy credit, they would have waived the fee.

(Really, trust me. You can get annual fees waived, too, but you need to be polite and respectful for that.)
posted by misha at 10:11 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure by calling and saying "I lost my credit card," you reported it. As long as they can't prove there was some sort of fraud involved they're responsible for charges made after that point.
posted by EmptyK at 10:25 PM on June 20, 2007

On that basis alone I would cancel my account with said company.

Ditto.
posted by salvia at 10:27 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

There is no argument that the issuing bank is taking advantage of the warcraft cachet to milk accounts for all they can. I still want to know who would have been on the hook for future charges, if I'd said no to the replacement fee....
posted by nomisxid at 10:29 PM on June 20, 2007

There's a number you can call to disable any Visa card. I had to do so when the number on one of my cards got swiped.
posted by oaf at 10:34 PM on June 20, 2007

I'm a bit paranoid about Internet commerce, and I routinely "cancel" my credit card and request a new account number. I've never been asked to pay any fee.
posted by cribcage at 10:46 PM on June 20, 2007

The Fair Credit Billing Act limits consumers' liability for charges they didn't agree to or merchandise they didn't receive to $50. (Summary, full text PDF.)
posted by salvia at 10:56 PM on June 20, 2007

In the USA.
posted by salvia at 10:56 PM on June 20, 2007

Crib, your credit score is based at least partially on the length of time your credit has been established... closing accounts and opening new ones will completely screw that up. FYI
posted by crewshell at 12:18 AM on June 21, 2007

I lost several credit cards when I moved a few years ago - I had put them in a separate wallet than the one I usually carry around, and the wallet went missing. I called my credit card companies up, told them the situation and asked to get new cards ASAP and there was no mention of a charge at all. They actually sounded a little relieved or something that I had thought to call instead of waiting to see if anyone was going to use them.
posted by sutel at 6:03 AM on June 21, 2007

When I lost a credit card that I had through a credit union it was a $2 or something replacement fee to issue and mail me a new card, but there was no "cancellation fee" for the card. They were very clear what that $2 was for and it was listed in their printed lists of fees that I had from them.
posted by jessamyn at 6:46 AM on June 21, 2007

You can get annual fees waived, too, but you need to be polite and respectful for that.

+1. Believe it or not, sometimes flatly refusing to pay these fees actually works, at least in my experience. My argument is usually along the lines of "excellent on-time payment history, why should I pay for you to make a few more keystrokes, etc. etc." Stay calm and courteous but refuse to budge or be placated by anything less than what you want.
posted by scratch at 6:54 AM on June 21, 2007

They need you more than you need them. Don't pay it.
posted by notyou at 8:37 AM on June 21, 2007

Crib, your credit score is based at least partially on the length of time your credit has been established... closing accounts and opening new ones will completely screw that up. FYI

Only if this is one of your longest-held cards, in my impression. Maybe someone out there can correct me, but I am fairly certain that closing a card you just got won't really impact a credit score for this reason. The other reason the score-meisters recommend not closing cards is because part of the score is "usage," ie [credit used/credit available] so keeping the denominator high by keeping credit lines open is considered good. There are also a certain number of points that go to "balance" between various types of credit, so if the OP has few other credit cards, this might be balancing out his portfolio.

But my guess is that if this company is doing this now, they're sheisty and could be jerks about other things in the future, with bigger credit score implications. Unless there's some immediate need for a high score, it's better to shoot for long-term relationships with better companies.
posted by salvia at 9:15 AM on June 21, 2007