this may be a dumb question, but if I told my credit card company that I want to pay off my entire balance in full with one payment, would they give a pay break/interest break/discount/etc and the full balance owed? I'm going to ask them anyway since it couldn't hurt, but I wanted to see if any of you obners know anything about this.

If you would like to experiment, I'll gladly send you the information for mine.

No, they probably won't. Remember, they don't want you to pay it all off. It's in their best interest (pun intended) to keep you making payments forever, because the only $ they make is off the interest. So you calling to tell them they're about to stop profiting off you, and then asking them to help you do it, isn't gonna happen.

But it's fun. I just payed one off a few months ago. Feels Great.

yeah, i know they'll probably chuckle. BUT WHO'S GETTING THE LAST LAUGH NOW, MBNA?! i can't wait to make this call.

let me know when this fails utterly - i've got mbna too.

i hate mbna. and to think that I got this card in college because I wanted a free t-shirt. but the t-shirt was too big and I never wore it. this has turned out to be quite the expensive cotton T.

One thing to make reeeally sure of, before you do your Evil Villain voice on the phone, is to get the FINAL PAYOFF BALANCE. Lots of times you think you paid it off, but there's another little fee just hanging out somewhere, so the account is open, and you keep getting bills and shit. You know you succeeded when you get a statement telling you it's been paid off and closed (as though it might've been a mistake, "please come back to us and ring up $3,000 more, you could do it this weekend, you've always wanted a plasma" etc).

I'm no fan of MBNA, but BankOne is worse.

hating a credit card company because you owe them money is like... hating ice cream because it gave you your fat ass.

fatass.

I don't hate them because I owe them money.

BankOne is just a pain the ass to get in touch with more often than not. Or you get stranded on hold.

At least with MBNA I can just automate payments for a year.

FAT ASS.

You've obviously not been charged $60 because your cheque got there a day late.

[devil's advocate]They do, however, act rather predatorily in some cases, charging interest percentages that defy logic and giving credit to people who in NO way deserve it, as well as making online mayment / management much more difficult than it has to be.[/d.a.]

I just have curves in ALL the right places. Every single one. Sometimes two curves in one.

Call them and say "I want to pay the full balance, and close my account."

Do so.

Call back tomorrow and make sure your account is closed.

Yep. The only reason I stressed all that closing part is because I guarantee that if you just paid the "balance" on your latest statement, you'd still magically owe money.

I fired MBNA after 12 years for their crappy customer service.

Credit cards will give you a break if you pay them in full. It won't be a HUGE break, but one nonetheless.

I've got an MBNA card and have never had a problem with them or their customer service. They even lowered my interest rate both times I called to ask.

Somewhat related - If your payment is late (and you're normally very prompt in paying on-time) it's worth it to call and ask them to waive the late fee. I was a day late once, and MBNA did this for me.

They've also lowered my rate when I called and asked.

that's exactly what I'm doing.

I'm sure this is this something that I need to ask for?

Ask if they have a special on right now where you pay your balance off and they send you golf clubs.