As you read over your credit report, you may run across accounts that you have closed in the past. Each of the accounts will have a reason for having been closed. You may have finished paying off the loan, such as a car, mortgage, or student loan. Or, you may have, in an attempt to curb your own spending, requested that a credit card company close your account, leaving you to pay off the balance as per the usual payment plan. In a worst case scenario, your crediting agency may have closed your account, themselves, in a negotiation to reduce your interest rate and expedite your ability to pay off the card. The credit card company may have also closed your account because you don’t make regular enough payments on it.

If your creditor closed your account, it will show up on your credit report as “closed by grantor” or “closed at grantor’s request”. This usually only happens if there is a problem with your payments, because the creditor wants to keep all of the paying customers it can.

If a card is closed at grantor’s request, it won’t necessarily hurt your credit score – unless it has a balance on it. Then, it’s a sure sign that you’ve been delinquent in payments, and the credit card company is shutting you down. It can also hurt you if you have other credit cards carrying a balance. It may make those other companies worry that you will close your account with them, once you have a balance charged up. In addition, if this was your only credit card, it can hurt your score if the company closes your account.

However, “closed at grantor’s request” could also be wrong. Maybe you requested that the card be closed. This happens often. When people start getting debt paid off, they revel in canceling their credit cards and cutting them up. You just need to be sure to cover all your bases when you do that. You have to request, in writing, that the credit card company close your account. Make sure you state that this is at your request. Keep your documentation, too.

Because, if it shows up on your credit report as a decision made by the creditor, it will send out alarms to potential creditors. They all know that no grantor will lock out a client who pays well.
If you have closed an account, and it shows up on your credit report as “closed by grantor”, you need to immediately dispute the report entry. Make a copy of the letter you wrote requesting that the account be closed. Send the copy of the letter through certified mail to each of the 3 credit reporting agencies. If you don’t send it as certified mail, send it with a return receipt, so that when the agencies get the letter, they have to sign to prove they got it.
If you don’t get any satisfaction, contact a credit repair company. They know what to do, and can straighten it out quickly.



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