R
Springfield,#2UPDATE Employee
Mon, October 15, 2007
Well John, the only "trickery" here is you not looking at your credit card statement really good. Each statement that Chase sends you tells you what the charges are for. If indeed it was for an annual fee, you could have called customer service and asked what this statement was for. Credit card companies try to get you to sign up for their cards by giving away t-shirts, hats, coolers, etc at sporting events, fairs, at the airport, etc. If anytime you fill something out for a vacation or one of these free items and you give your SSN, chances are it is for a credit card. We as consumers SHOULD KNOW to whom and why we are giving out our SSNs, something that should be very private to us. Also, when you are approved for a credit card account, it is reported to the credit bureaus that you have a new credit card account, even if it is not activated. When you activate a credit card, that just means that you can go use it at a store. So when you close an account, it's reported to the bureaus that you closed the account.