Confirmation

• Send a letter to your bank confirming the account closure after your phone conversation, Bankrate writer Holden Lewis advises. Use certified mail and request delivery confirmation in case any conflicts arise later. State in the letter that the balance should be zero and that you expect the account to be reported as "closed voluntarily" or "closed at customer's request" on your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion credit reports. This written follow-up clears up any misunderstandings that may have occurred in your phone conversation.
  
  

Cards

• Destroy the credit cards through a method that renders them unreadable and unusable. Mar the magnetic strip with something sharp, then cut the card into tiny pieces or run it through a shredded. Separate the pieces between at least two different trash bags when discarding them. Thieves who get a card for a closed account could attempt to reopen it by impersonating you or call you, impersonating the bank, to phish for financial information.
  
  

Credit Reports

• Order free credit reports through the official, government-mandated website, AnnualCreditReport.com, two or three months after account closure to verify that your bank complied properly with your request. Check the closed account's status to ensure that it really is closed and indicates that you did so voluntarily. The balance should be zero, with no available credit line. Complain to the bank, or directly to the credit bureaus, if you find mistakes. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act to check with the card issuer for validation and fix the errors, the Federal Trade Commission explains.
  
  

Considerations

• Closing an older account with no balance and a high credit line lowers your credit score. Fifteen percent of your credit score comes from your credit use history, according to the MyFICO scoring website. Scoring models favor long-term accounts, so canceling older cards hurts you. You also hurt your balance of available credit compared to debt if you owed very little on the card and it had a high credit line. The bank cannot penalize you with a fee for an unused card if you keep it open, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, but some card issuers close accounts for inactivity. Make occasional small charges to prevent involuntary closure.