credit cards

Wow, what a giant pain it is to close a credit card account.

I called up Fleet today to close out my Platinum Cash Dividend card. It used to be a tiered rebate card with up to 2% cash back a year, but starting in September it became a flat 1% card. The customer rep redirected me to a "closing specialist" whose job it was to convince me not to close my account. I spent a good ten minutes turning down all of her reasons for not closing my card, many of which involved lowering the APR %, which would have done me no good, since I don't carry a balance. Finally she closed out the account, and I requested written confirmation that the account was closed at my request, since I'd heard that was a good thing to do.

I'll be using my tiered 1.5% Amex Platinum Cash Rebate card as my primary credit card from now on, with my flat 1% Motley Fool Platinum Visa card as a backup, and my AAA Visa card at the pump (5% cash back on gas). I prefer the Fool card to the Chase PerfectCard (aka Freedom), even though the Chase credits your rebate to your card monthly instead of paying out annually. I find the Fool card more consumer-friendly, since it offers a 25-day grace period, all the normal platinum services, and no additional fee for overseas purchases. Plus, the Chase card charges you a fee if you don't use it at least 10 times a year, and I don't want to have to worry about being charged. Anyway, if you like rewards cards, Credit Card Goodies has a pretty active forum where people post information about all the different cards.