For example, a client decides to change bank due to a change of job. The new employer sends salaries to his employees to the card products of another bank. Or, as a result of a change of residence, it has become more convenient for a client to use the services of another bank.
Or the former bank has disappointed the client professionally. There can be many reasons. In general, for a bank, this is a very valuable indicator - the ratio of the inflow and outflow of the client base.
Every bank interested in its survival in the financial services market does its best to retain borrowers, deposit holders, and debit account holders. But for objective and subjective reasons, this does not always work.
The main objective reason is the current systemic crisis in Russia. Customer turnover in the bank is one of its main symptoms. Also, users of Tinkoff Bank services decide to break the agreement with this organization.
There are very different reviews about this bank, so everyone decides for himself whether to refuse its products. In questions of how to close a Tinkoff credit card, and how to close a Tinkoff debit card, there is a lot in common, but there are also extremely important nuances.
Important features of credit cards
They will be discussed. First of all, what is the difference between a debit plastic product and a credit one? The following points can be mentioned:
- A credit card is obligatorily personalized, and a debit card may not be personalized (for example, in the VISA Electron format).
- Credit plastic will definitely require annual fees for its maintenance, and most debit cards are either completely free, or the client pays only once for the registration itself. The cost of the annual maintenance of a credit card can vary from a couple of hundred rubles to many thousand rubles (depending on the class of the credit card). So, Tinkoff Platinum costs only 590 rubles a year, but the Gold card from Sberbank is several times more expensive. See also:.
- A certain non-withdrawable limit should always remain on the credit card (for example, 1000 rubles), while debit plastic can easily go into a negative.
- When withdrawing funds from a credit card, credit interest will be charged, which must then be returned along with the withdrawn amount.
- Most credit cards work mainly in a non-cash mode, because When cashing out funds, almost all banks now charge a significant commission. From a debit card, money is transferred into crisp bills for free.
- A variety of mobile applications, Internet services, and bonus services are almost always automatically connected to credit cards. For all this, a certain fee is taken from the card. Debit plastic, when issued, may not be connected to any application at all, or only to one of the simplest, and therefore free.
That is, summing up the conclusion, it becomes clear that a credit card is a type of lending, and a debit card is an electronic wallet. But there is one major similarity between them. Both products are just plastic intermediaries, each of which is attached to a specific, unique, bank account.
Closing a card does not mean canceling the plastic itself, for it is really just a piece of plastic, but canceling the credit card account. That is why even if a Tinkoff card is blocked through a mobile application, or even a plastic product is broken in general, a person will continue to remain a client of the bank to which a personal account is opened.
And that's why you shouldn't wave your hand at the closing procedure, thinking that if a bank card has been gathering dust in a drawer for many months, blocked, expired or physically damaged, then the agreement with the bank is canceled.
Okay, even when it comes to a debit card. It's easier with them. But you cannot do this with a credit card in any case, if the client does not want unnecessary financial costs and wasted time.
What will happen if a debit card is idle for a long time?
When the holder of the debit plastic stops using it, usually the following events are:
- if funds cease to come to the card balance, but the positive limit remains, i.e. there are no deductions and withdrawals, then the account remains active at all times, and the card itself - until the end of the expiration date; after the expiration of the card, it will no longer be possible to use it, however, the card account will not go anywhere, as well as the funds on it;
- it may be that a negative balance has formed on the plastic; most often, this happens when funds cease to come to the card, and the monthly fee for a mobile bank, for example, is charged; in this case, all connected services are suspended, and in many banks, including Tinkoff, there is a certain waiting limit for replenishment of the balance, i.e. if the client has not canceled the negative card balance, the card is blocked; you can unblock it only when you contact the bank or via the Internet service;
- physical damage to plastic will also not lead to anything - the holder will continue to be considered a client of the bank, since an active account will be kept in the institution;
- the customer's account is kept much longer than any card products; but when there is no news from the former holder of the plastic for many years (say, 7 years or more), the bank can close the account automatically, as unnecessary; usually, before such an act, the financial organization sends a notification letter to the client's home address specified in the contract.
In terms of closure, debit products are good because, in principle, you can simply forget about them. A large negative balance cannot be formed on them. For example, in Sberbank, payment for a full package of Mobile Bank is 30-60 rubles per month.
Even if there were tiny pennies on bank plastic, the minus will not go further than 60 rubles. After that, all paid services will automatically be suspended until the card account is replenished. Feedback from debit cardholders confirms this.
If the debit product has any special conditions requiring its official cancellation, then the bank employee must warn about this in advance. And this should be spelled out in the universal customer service agreement. As for the card loan, the matter is different here. A credit card is a means through which a loan agreement between a bank and a plastic holder is implemented.
Consequences of idle credit cards
An electronic wallet (debit card) can be simply left as it is, but the loan is officially refused and separately. Here, too, it is necessary to outline several important points:
- in principle, a negative balance on most credit cards cannot form, since when a certain cash balance is reached, the limit is considered exhausted, and even the card itself can be blocked; but if something like that still happened, additional penalty interest will begin to "drip" into the holder's account;
- physical damage, blocking or simply termination of operation does not cancel the collection of fees for the annual plastic maintenance, because the holder pays for servicing not the credit card itself, but the account to which it is tied, and the account does not go anywhere; if the client stopped using the card and depositing money, debt and penalties will begin to accumulate;
- in the same way, penalty interest will begin to accumulate if the customer stops using the product before making the last payment taking into account the credit interest rate.
It is easy to understand that simple ignorance here will necessarily turn into a debt to the banking institution. Moreover, the amount of this debt is assumed to be very different. Depends on the terms and on the class of the credit card.
