Credit Card Blog & Article Area
Blog Post Date: Oct 20, 2005
MSN Money - Why credit cards expire
This is an interesting article as to why credit cards expire.
They site that the two main reasons that you credit card companies expire you credit card is that the card deteriorates physically. As well, They have to mail the card out to you which keeps their databases more up to date.
If you think about it, there are hundreds of millions of credit cards outstanding and the credit card companies need different ways to keep track of them.
Hypothetically, if there are 300 million credit cards outstanding, there would be approximately 274,000 cards that expire each day over a 3 year period. IMHO this is another great marketing tool for the credit card companies to stay in touch with the customers. Keeping 274,000 credit cards up to date each day must be a pretty large task, especially with people moving on average every 5 years.
MSN - So is an upcoming expiration date a good time to talk terms with your card company?
"It's always a good time to renegotiate," says Staten. "If you think you're in a position where you think the issuer would be sorry to see you go, you can always call and bargain for a better rate." This is the best point of all. Use your card expiration as a great time to renegotiate interest rates. And yes... you can get better interest rates IN CANADA!
MSN Money - Why credit cards expire
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