Clothing Store Credit Card Account closed but not deleted
You have little chance of getting it deleted. I have the same situation, I closed mine in 2006, and the login still works. Keep the paperwork that you closed it (or print a PDF of the site showing so), and forget about it. If someone is trying to cheat, re-opening it should be the same difficulty as making a new one in your name, so it is not really an additional risk. You could also set the username and password both to a long random string, and not keep them. That soft-forces you to never login again. Note that it will also stay on your credit record for some years (but that's not a bad thing, as it is not in default; in the contrary). The only negative is that if you apply for credit, you might be ashamed of people seeing you ever having had a Sears or Macy's card or so. "They close accounts to render them inoperative.  They never delete accounts because they want to retain the data to inform any future decision to give you credit.     Also, 99% of the time, if a customer demands their account be deleted, it's because of adverse credit marks and the angry customer wants this accurate information to stop burning their credit report. The answer in this case absolutely must be ""heck, no!""  That pretty much precludes any valid reason to delete an account.  As such, their business systems are not built in a way to make account deletion really possible. Even if you got a job with the company's data-processing department and had direct query/write accesses to the databases, you would find it technically inachievable to surgically remove the specific data (without risking serious damage to the entire DB).  And it would still be in transaction logs, so not gone forever.   Another reason to keep your account alive is to give you online access to statements.  After all, the IRS can audit you 5 years after the fact, so it's real nice to be able to go back that far.  Most places the statue of limitations is 6-7 years, so again, defending yourself in a lawsuit, here's raw data from an independent third party that you couldn't have faked.  Strictly from a customer service POV, that means you can self-serve on requests like that, instead of having to involve expensive staff time.     I totally get the annoyance of having yet another login/password you don't want to have flapping out there in the breeze potentially exposed to a cracker... but given that the account is closed, it's probably not going to cause you much trouble.  If anything, change the password to one outside your normal choices, perhaps even one you don't know (retain). As long as you retain the email you have tied to the account, you can always reset the password on the off chance you ever need to get back in.   Speaking of that, don't rely on your ISP's (me@rr.net or me@att.net or me@xfinity.com), get a Gmail account. I have a dedicated gmail account just for stuff like that." If it is closed, you should be able to trust that it is closed permanently. What you still have is the online account. Imagine this would be removed and then the account would be re-activated? That should not happen, but the way you see it, you must be afraid of that as well. What I mean to say: See these two things as completely separate. There are three parties involved here: there's the store that issued you the card, then they have some bank that's actually handling the account, and there is some network (VISA, MasterCard, etc.) that the transactions go through. So one avenue to consider is seeing whether all three are aware of you canceling the card.
"The Wells Fargo scandal was and still is a big deal because Wells Fargo opened over 1.5 million unauthorized bank and credit card accounts. The credit card accounts were opened without authorization, which means people's credit scores and reports were pulled without permission. That is considered fraud and identity theft. Other than the legal side of it, by opening more bank accounts without authorization, it was showing ""synthetic growth"", which resulted in an inflated number when quarterly and annual performance numbers were reported. This caused people to invest more in Wells Fargo stock, not knowing that the growth in stock was not organic. After the scandal was uncovered, stocks decreased. However, the root cause of this can be traced to the culture at Wells Fargo, where customer service reps (i.e. bank tellers, and store operations employees) were faced with the challenges of meeting quotas that could be considered a stretch. As a result, faced with pressure from upper management, they opened unauthorized accounts.  In addition, these unauthorized accounts cost consumers money either because credit cards had balances, or bank accounts did not meet a minimum balance. It is not about ending ""up with 8 rows in their database instead of just 1 row"" as OP wrote. It is about stealing consumer money and committing fraud and stealing the consumer's identity.  *Suggestions and constructive criticism are welcomed in improving my answer." "I always used Uber until one day they just stopped accepting any payment method I added! No matter what I used, credit cards, debit cards, Paypal, it always claimed that it was an invalid payment method. I worked with Uber support for weeks to resolve this, including being given access to their super-secret web-based option that requires them to explicitly enable for you. THAT worked exactly one time, then I was right back where I was.  I created a Lyft account out of desperation, and it worked every time with the same payment methods that Uber had issues with. So, I used Lyft exclusively for awhile.  The only difference I noticed was that Uber drivers, at least for awhile, seemed to be professionals in other industries who drive for fun or just extra cash. I would ride with someone who's day job was providing IT consulting for area casinos, and it was always a really fascinating conversation! Conversations with Lyft drivers tended to center around how they had just done a title loan against the REALLY old car I was driving in, because he lost everything in the divorce and couldn't get back on his feet…  Eventually, I found that my issue with Uber was a ""family"" profile I had created and forgotten about that included debit card information that had expired, and once I deleted the profile, things worked again. (NEVER got any feedback from their support department when I shared this with them)  So now I tend to favor Lyft just because of the issues with Uber's corporate culture. I was in a LOT of start-ups during Silicon Valley's heyday, and even though I encountered some levels of misogyny, anything even remotely close to the stories I've heard out of Uber would have caused an uproar!" "As documented in MyFICO (http://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score/), there are several factors that affect credit scores. Payment history (35%) The first thing any lender wants to know is whether you've paid past   credit accounts on time. This is one of the most important factors in   a FICO® Score. As @Ben Miller mentioned, checking your credit report to determine whether or not late payments were reported to credit bureaus will give you a sense of whether or not this was effected. You mentioned several bounced payments, which certainly could have caused this. This would be my largest concern with a closed account, is to investigate why and what was reported to the bureaus, and in turn, other lenders. Also, since this has the highest impact on credit scores (35%), it's arguably, the most important. This is further detailed here, which details the public record and late payment effect on your score. Amounts owed (30%) Having credit accounts and owing money on them does not necessarily   mean you are a high-risk borrower with a low FICO® Score....However,   when a high percentage of a person's available credit is been used,   this can indicate that a person is overextended, and is more likely to   make late or missed payments. Given that this card was closed, whatever your credit limit was is now no longer added into your total credit limit. However, your utilization on that card is gone (assuming it gets paid off), depending on any other credit lines, and since you reported ""heavy use"" that could be a positive impact, though likely not. Length of credit history (15%) In general, a longer credit history will increase your FICO® Scores.   However, even people who haven't been using credit long may have high   FICO Scores, depending on how the rest of the credit report looks. Depending how old your card was, and particularly since this was your only credit card, it will likely impact your average age of credit lines, depending on other lines of credit (loans etc) you have open. This accounts for about 15% of your score, so not as large of an impact as the first two.  Credit mix in use (10%) FICO Scores will consider your mix of credit cards, retail accounts,   installment loans, finance company accounts and mortgage loans. Given that this was your only credit card, your loan mix has been reduced (possibly to none). New credit (10%) Research shows that opening several credit accounts in a short period   of time represents a greater risk - especially for people who don't   have a long credit history. This focuses on credit inquiries, which as you mentioned, you will likely have another either re-opening this credit card or opening another at some point in the future.  Regardless, paying off the rest of that card is a priority, as interest rates on average credit cards are over 13%, and often higher (source). This rate comes into play when not paying the balance in full every month, and also as @Ben Miller suggested, I would not utilize a credit card without being able to pay it in full. It can often be a dangerous cycle of debt." In Canada, there are many stores that take debit (Interac) but don't take Visa or MasterCard. For example, a corner store. In the US the reverse is often true: every tiny place seems to take Visa or MasterCard, but not debit. A Visa debit card looks like a Visa card to the merchant. It therefore has the benefit of being usable at places that only take Visa. (Substitute MasterCard as necessary.) This benefit is very small in Canada, less so elsewhere. Meanwhile the money is actually coming out of your bank account just like a debit card, which therefore has the benefit that you're not borrowing money, can't accidentally overspend, and run no risk of incurring interest charges. It is also a way to get what appears to be a credit card when you can't qualify for credit. If you do the majority of your spending in Canada, you don't need a Visa or MasterCard debit card. Your regular debit card (Interac) will work fine for you. If you have a credit card anyway (from another bank or whatever) then again, you don't need a debit card that can pretend to be a credit card. While in London for a month about a year ago, I had similar issues. I ended up getting a prepaid chip-and-pin card that was filled with cash. I don't remember the retailer that sold me this, but I figure it'll give you something to start your search. It is barely possible that this is Citi's fault, but it sounds more like it is on the Costco end.   The way that this is supposed to work is that they preauthorize your card for the necessary amount.  That reserves the payment, removing the money from your credit line.  On delivery, they are supposed to capture the preauthorization.  That causes the money to transfer to them.  Until that point, they've reserved your payment but not actually received it.  If you cancel, then they don't have to pay processing fees.   The capture should allow for a larger sale so as to provide for tips, upsells, and unanticipated taxes and fees.   In this case, instead of capturing the preauthorization, they seem to have simply generated a new transaction.  Citi could be doing something wrong and processing the capture incorrectly.  Or Costco could be doing a purchase when they should be doing a capture.  From outside, we can't really say.   The thirty days would seem to be how long Costco can schedule in advance.  So the preauthorization can last that long for them.   Costco should also have the ability to cancel a preauthorization.  However, they may not know how to trigger that.  With smaller merchants, they usually have an interface where they can view preauthorizations and capture or cancel them.  Costco may have those messages sent automatically from their system.   Note that a common use for this pattern is with things like gasoline or delivery purchases.  If this has been Citi/Costco both times, I'd try ordering a pizza or some other delivery food and see if they do it correctly.  If it was Citi both times and a different merchant the other time, then it's probably a Citi problem rather than a merchant problem. If the bank wants to close your account, they will do just that. Having a small ongoing balance isn't going to prompt them to keep it open.  Typically, the risk is for a card with zero usage to be closed, as it's a cost to them to keep the account open, and it has no revenue. To avoid this, it's a good idea to use that card or cards for a regular purchase, say, gasoline. A non-impulse buy, and just pay in full to avoid interest. There's no need to keep a balance accruing interest.  Keep in mind - A bill contains a month of charges. The bill for December is issued on the 31st, but due January 25th or so. When you pay it in full you do not have zero balance, you have the charges from January. This accomplishes your goal, will no interest. "As far as the banker himself goes, it's a customer service issue.  WF is not going to tell you about their internal discipline (or oughtn't, anyway), other than potentially to confirm that the banker does or does not still work there; that's the closest they should get to telling you about it.  I'm a (very) former retail manager, and that's absolutely the most I'd ever do in a case like this; and trust me, even with good customer service reps, you get requests to fire someone a lot, sometimes valid, sometimes not. You did the correct thing from your end: you brought the issue to their attention.  Despite the quota, it's (hopefully) not permitted to sign people up without their permission (since that's illegal!), and I can say that in my retail experience, with these promotions with great incentive to cheat in this manner, one of the main things our loss prevention department did was to monitor data to see if people were illicitly signing people up for cards or otherwise cheating the system.  That could be a very bad thing from a customer service point of view and from a legal point of view. What you should have done (or possibly did, but it's not clear in your post) is, after you reported the issue, asked for a re-contact on a particular date in the future - not ""after you've looked into it"", but ""Next friday I would like to get a call from you to discuss the resolution.""  Again, they're not going to tell you the discipline, but they should tell you at least that they've investigated it and will make sure it doesn't happen again, or similar.  It's possible they will want more information from you at this point, and this is a useful way to make sure that request doesn't fall off of their plate.  They should be able to, at least, tell you if there was a perceived issue on their end - it might be something meaningless to you, like ""He thought you said to sign up"", or something more descriptive, like ""He pushed the button to send you a notice, but our computer system screwed that up and made it an application"".  You never know these days how easy it is to screw these things up. Now, they certainly should have fixed the issues on your end.  Hopefully they did whatever you needed them to do banking-wise, or else you withdrew your money and went somewhere else.  If not, follow up with that supervisor's supervisor, or go up a level or two to a regional director or equivalent.  They may not be able to cancel the card for you, but the other banking-related things they certainly should fix.  The card you probably just have to cancel and be done with. As far as the misuse of personal information, one thing I'd consider doing is placing a freeze on your credit report.  Then this could never have happened - you would have to lift it to have your report pulled to be given the card.  This is not free, though, so consider this before doing this."