Many people suffer when they want to cancel their credit card.

Reflecting to the reporter of Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Le Hoang (living in Ho Chi Minh City) said that he had just received a phone call from a consultant of a bank informing him that if his credit card was reactivated, the annual fee would be waived for the next 3 years. Notably, this was the credit card that just 1 month ago, he had struggled for a whole week to… cancel.

Mr. Hoang said that in early 2024, an acquaintance who worked at V. Bank invited him to open a credit card to cover his expenses, with a limit of 44 million VND/month. Out of respect for his friend, he agreed to open the card even though he had no intention of using it. Opening the card was very simple, just needing a phone number, ID card and received it after only 1 week.

After receiving the card, the employee said that he had to deposit 10,000 VND to activate the card and that it would be refunded, but did not say that interest would be charged on this amount. More than 6 months later, his card account had deducted the initial 10,000 VND and incurred additional overdue interest and late payment fees for this amount, totaling nearly 200,000 VND.

The credit card account had not been used for a day, only 10,000 VND was loaded to maintain the balance, but then Mr. Hoang received a notice of a penalty fee of nearly 200,000 VND.

"I was surprised because I thought I didn't spend any money but still had to pay a late fee. It's worth mentioning that after paying this amount, I went to the bank to close the card, but the staff asked me to... go home and call the hotline to register to cancel the card. After reporting the cancellation, the hotline operator scheduled another 3-5 days for someone to confirm the cancellation. Opening a card is easy, but closing it is too difficult" - Mr. Hoang was upset.

According to records, there are currently many people who are in a "half-crying, half-laughing" situation because of credit cards. Many people, even though they do not need to use a credit card, still open one because the bank staff "asks" them to run the quota.

Mr. Quoc Ngoc (residing in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) said that it took him 2 weeks of "sweating" to close the credit card of a bank headquartered in Hanoi . The reason was that he suddenly received a notification that his credit card was continuously deducted transaction fees on the online platform, even though he did not use it.

"I went to the bank branch near my house and was asked by the transaction staff to call the hotline to cancel the card, because the bank changed its policy to not support cancellation at the counter. But when I called the hotline, I kept encountering an overloaded system, and no one answered the phone after calling dozens of times. When I answered the phone, the hotline staff continued to say that my account still had 600,000 VND in promotional money, the balance had not reached 0 so it could not be canceled. To cancel, I had to use all of this promotional money for shopping and paying for services?" - Mr. Ngoc complained.

Users should only open a credit card when they have a real need to spend or pay.

It was not until another week later, when Mr. Ngoc insisted on canceling the card and did not want to use the bonus money, that the bank staff flexibly resolved the issue for him.

In another case, Ms. Bich Thanh (living in Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City) encountered a more awkward situation when she helped her friend, a bank employee, open a credit card to meet the quota, but before she could hold the card, the bank reported her debt for overdue fees and annual credit card fees.

"I said I hadn't seen the card yet, but the operator told me to read the card number so they could check... In the end, I had to go to this bank branch to cancel the card," Ms. Thanh grimaced.

According to some financial experts, credit cards have the advantage of spending first and paying later with a preferential interest rate period of 45-55 days (depending on the card type). On the contrary, users need to pay attention to paying on time to avoid incurring very high interest and penalty fees. At the same time, annual fees also need to be carefully studied, because many card types that users do not use but have activated must pay an annual fee.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/nhieu-nguoi-kho-so-khi-muon-huy-the-tin-dung-19624082711215692.htm