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Has anyone been able to successfully stop their credit card company from sending convenience checks to them?
I don't do balance transfers and would never use a CC check to pay for an item so I don't need these. I've called several times to have the companies stop with no luck.
I don't like the thought of blank checks tied to my credit card going through the US mail and sitting in my mailbox for the whole day while I'm at work. I've even stopped all paper statements to prevent any of my records from getting into the wrong hands, but I can never stop these silly checks from showing up every month.
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MBNA & Amex both refuse to stop sending them to me. I moved in November - when I moved, I changed my address with the CC companies & had my mail forwarded - even though I get my statements at the right address, I recently got some "convenience checks" delivered to the old address (Thanks, Amex :mad: - luckily, the post office forwarded them) - but what if they didn't? What if the person who rented my old house was a little shady & tried to use them? Convenience checks are annoying as hell - I think only stupid people use them. When I get them, they go straight into my shredder.
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good to see I'm not the only one that finds this practice annoying
bhatnasx - have you been successful in getting MBNA to stop mailing you a paper statement. AMEX and Citibank have complied, but MBNA seems to be one of the most obtuse companies
If I weren't getting 1.5% back from fidelity and not wanting to close of a paid account, I'd dump them in a second
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I too stick them in the shredder....
I think they are a waste of time....
I wish we had the option to remove ourselves from getting them, but no such luck.
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Bank One always used to send me multiple batches of convenience checks every month but I called in December to "opt out" and they seem to have stopped...at least for now.
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I was able to stop the checks and all other offers when I put fraud alerts on our accounts at all the credit agencies. It only stopped everything for a certain time period, maybe two years, and then they started up again recently.
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I've gotten Citibank to stop just by calling them, but I can't seem to make them stop from my FirstUSA UA card...
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Capitol One offered 0% no fees for 15 months. So I borrowed US$10,000, and used it for travel cash-flow purposes during the past year.
Then they offered $5 free if one converted to electronic-only statements.
So I ended up paying back only $9995, and probably earned a small amount of interest (say $10) as well.
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Whenever I would get convenience checks from my credit card issuers, I would call them and ask that they stop mailing them to me. A while back I started notating the date of the call to see my calls to them made a difference.
My experience has been that the credit card companies do stop sending the checks if asked. That said, I did have to call one company twice before it stopped. Note too that it can take two months or so after the call before they stop showing up in the mail.
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Smart move to try to stop them. A few years ago, a woman moved into my apartment building. She was kind of off-the-wall but friendly. She said she was from New York and that her parents had died and left her a trust fund so she did not have to work. She often walked around in a bath robe. She hung out at the pool and the laundry room and made some friends. Her apartment also had a lot of inflatable furniture. A couple of times the maintence people saw her going through the dumpster and she said her watch fell off when she dropped garbage down the chute and she was looking for it. She was off-the-wall enough you believed it. Turned out she was going through the garbage and getting those checks and buying merchandise and using the checks to pay. Some of the tenants got rung-up for $10,000. Although they did not have to pay it took a lot of time to correct the situation and to clear-up credit issues. Somehow she was found out but before the police could arrest her she packed-up her belongings including the inflatable furniture and took-off. I was lucky and always tore them up and put them into the paper recycling pile. Since then, I have gotten a shredder and anything remotely financial or private gets shredded.
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I have turned on e-Bills with most of my credit card companies, and have opted out of receiving other mail. Since I no longer receive paper statements (which usually had the convenience checks in them,) I rarely receive the convenience checks.
Just a thought.
Bob
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Today when I called to activate my new citi card, the rep. agreed without hassle to stop the convenience checks. Hope it works.
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Has anyone been able to successfully stop their credit card company from sending convenience checks...Discover stopped at my request via phone call - it's been years now - still no checks.
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Note too that it can take two months or so after the call before they stop showing up in the mail.
Right.
I called FUSA to have them stop sending the convenience checks on my Marriott Rewards VISA, and they agreed. About a month later, another batch of the blasted things arrived. I called FUSA back and they were apologetic, saying that the convenience check mailings are programmed about three months out, so even when they stop them, there are some "in the pipeline" you'll still get.
This makes no sense to me -- in these days of computers they should be able to stop any mailing that has not actually already gone out, let alone ones "programmed" to go out in three months.
I'm not sure whether it is a deliberate scam, or if they really are as incompetent as they claim to be. :(
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Thanks for the tips. I am going to start making calls to stop the checks. I never use them and can see from your comments that they are dangerous !!