How do you make hotel reservations? You must at least have a debit card to do this over the phone. I'm not sure you can rent a car either with just a debit card. Usually they'll put a several hundred dollar “hold” on your credit card.

One of the many factors that go into the calculation is the average length of credit history. Canceling an account that you've held for a long time can reduce that timeline and have an impact. You don't need a double whammy.

Nonetheless, you're doing the right thing as there are many credit card issuers would welcome you. Having an excellent credit score is a must eversince the financial crisis begin.

When an industry is regulated and controlled by the law, it somehow forced to revolve. The new law is necessary to promote fairplay to the cardholders. But if it means those with good and excellent credit rating are being affected as well, then there is surely room for improvement.

With the aid of 50 mg of Valium and a dirty site that I know of that can get “anything.” I bought a $101 pre paid card and used a public computer, but I got the bank president's name, his address, the location of his home on Google Earth, a list of all telephones billed to the residence, listed and unlisted, and the telephone numbers of all their neighbors. I called the wife's unlisted cell phone and explained my problem and that I expected her to get it right, then I read out the list of neighbors' telephone numbers.

Within an hour my cellphone almost exploded, my email address was chocked full of messages. I just checked and the unlisted cell phone number for the wife is “not in service,” but I now have a personal banker that can take care of “ANY” problems that I have. Sometimes it helps to be crazy and make it personal.

Most banks and large institutions treat people as fungible objects and act no better than loansharks. Those who wrote that letter to you couldn't care less that you had an emotional attachment to that institution for 30 years. I can get better interest rates and overall fairer repayment terms from my friend Guido in Little Italy back in Cleveland, Ohio.

The only way citizens can get back at the financial industry that sucked up so much public money to bail them out of their own greed and stupidity, is to live without them. Over time, they will need to compete for business. I put investment money into places such as Charles Schwab and keep my business and personal banking at a local federal credit union. Best wishes to everyone is gaining financial freedom from your co-blogger in Phoenix – MP

You're right that in some cases, canceling a credit card can have a negative effect on one's credit score. However, if the card has zero balance *and* you're not carrying credit card debt, it won't have any effect at all.

If your credit card balance is zero, go ahead and close as many unused accounts as you want. As long as your credit cards are balance-free, it won't hurt your credit score a bit. So call those card issuers and cut away.

Link to source. More discussion on this topic can be found here

So you're right that this isn't necessarily something everyone can do with impunity. Bottom line for me, though — with zero balance running on any credit card accounts anywhere — is that they've earned my letter. And little pieces of plastic.

Canceling a credit card often has a negative impact your credit rating, so be alert to changes in your score.

Also, I'm not really sure if sending a letter alone will be sufficient to cancel the card. You really ought to call them in a week or so to follow up.

American Express sent me the same letter a couple of weeks ago.

It's possible that, instead of “going Galt”, I'll take a new card from his company instead… because there's a WORLD of difference.

Anyway- point being, although I was tempted to write a letter back like yours and close the account, PM, I'm concerned about whether or not anyone is extending credit even to people with good credit ratings now. I haven't really looked into other options but I get the sense that no other cc company would be any better anyway. I guess I figure that as long as we keep a zero balance, it still may be better to keep the option of the ridiculously high interest rate on the line of credit, and of course only use it as a last resort.

Therefore, in the LOOoooong pre-implementation window left by Congress, the card companies are radically increasing their baselines on existing balances, since they won't be able to raise them later.