Sam’s Club is one of the most popular big-box membership retail warehouse clubs in America. The club is second only to Costco in popularity and sales. If you have a Sam’s Club membership, it’s natural that you might want to maximize your savings even more with a Sam’s Club credit card. However, the time might come when you’re ready to kiss your membership or your credit card goodbye.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- How to Cancel Your Own Sam's Club Credit Card
- How to Cancel a Deceased Loved One’s Sam's Club Credit Card
If you’re ready to say “sayonara” to your Sam’s Club credit card, here are the steps you’ll need to take. If you’re closing accounts for a deceased loved one, follow the instructions in the second part of this article.
How to Cancel Your Own Sam's Club Credit Card
Though Sam’s Club works hard to keep their customers, they also provide a simple, straightforward process for canceling your credit card. Here are the steps to take.
Note: Canceling your Sam’s Club credit card is not the same thing as canceling your Sam’s Club membership, and vice versa. If you want to cancel your credit card and your membership, you’ll need to complete both processes separately.
Canceling your club membership can be done by calling 1-888-746-7726 and talking with a Sam’s Club customer service representative. Canceling your credit card is accomplished with the steps below.
Step 1: Pay off any remaining balance
Before you can work your way through the cancelation process, you need to make sure the card has a zero balance. You can do this by logging on to your Sam’s Club credit card account or calling the number on the back of your card.
If you have a balance, submit a payment and wait for the payment to post before proceeding to the next steps. Payments typically take 2–3 business days to complete processing.
If there are any pending purchases, returns, or refunds, you’ll also need to wait until these items clear before canceling your credit card. Should a refund post prior to account cancellation, you’ll be mailed a check for the refunded amount on your account.
Step 2: Collect account information
Depending on how you want to complete your account cancellation, you’ll need to have your account information at hand and available. This is especially true if you plan on calling to talk to a customer service representative. To make the process go as smoothly as possible, you’ll want to gather the:
- Last four numbers of your credit card
- Billing address on file
- Email address on file
- Answers to security questions
When speaking with a customer service representative, they’ll need to locate your account and verify your identity as the account holder. This is why the above information is needed to complete the process via a phone call.
Step 3: Contact customer service
There are two ways to contact customer service to cancel your credit card. You can call the customer service number on the back of your credit card, or you can log into your credit card account and submit a request. Here are detailed instructions for both methods.
Calling customer service
Calling customer service is the quickest way to cancel your credit card. After calling the number on the back of your card and choosing the reason for your call, you’ll be directed to the cancellation department.
Once on the phone with a representative, they’ll look up your account, verify you as the account holder, and determine whether your card can be canceled. If there is a zero balance, they’ll proceed with the account cancellation.
Submitting an online request
After logging onto your credit card account, you can submit a cancellation request. Simply navigate to the message center and choose “cancel account” from the drop-down menu when selecting the reason for your message.
Once you start this process, it could take up to a week to complete cancellation depending on your account status and the time between communications.
Step 4: Request cancelation confirmation
Whether you cancel your card over the phone or through the message center, you should receive a confirmation email that your account has been canceled. Be sure to request this email, or physical mail if preferred, before you get off the phone or wrap up your message center communications.
Step 5: Shred your old card
Though your account may be canceled, it’s always a good idea to destroy old credit cards. These cards still have valuable personal information on them. If they got into the wrong hands, you could be looking at fraud issues. Never throw your credit cards away whole. Shred them first.
How to Cancel a Deceased Loved One’s Sam's Club Credit Card
Canceling a deceased loved one’s Sam’s Club credit card will require a few extra steps, but the process is straightforward. Plan on spending anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes on the phone to complete the process once you have all the required documentation.
Step 1: Gather information together
Just like you do with your own account, you’ll need to collect several pieces of information before you start the process to cancel your loved one’s account. You will need:
- A death certificate copy
- Proof of executorship (if you’re the executor)
- The billing address on file
- The last four of their credit card number
These pieces of information help ensure you are legally allowed to request cancellation and will also help the customer service representative look up your loved one’s account.
If you aren’t sure of their billing address, look through old pieces of mail for any correspondence from the credit card company. Another place you might find this info is in a password manager if they used one.
Note: You’ll need several death certificate copies to submit to financial institutions when someone dies as you cancel accounts when carrying out your executor duties. You can order several copies at once and reimburse yourself through the estate or purchase copies through the estate directly.
Step 2: Contact customer service
To close a deceased loved one’s account, you’ll need to contact customer service by phone at 1-844-365-1994.
Once on the phone with a representative, you’ll need to explain the reason for your call and provide identifying information for yourself and your loved one. They’ll locate the account and determine whether the account can be canceled right away.
If there is a balance that needs to be paid, this will come directly from the estate. If you’re the executor, you have the legal right to submit this payment from the estate. Balances on credit cards and other debts should never be paid from any source other than the estate.
Should the estate need to submit a payment, this will need to occur first before the cancelation process can continue. Once payments clear and there is a zero balance, then the representative can cancel the account.
Note: You’ll be asked to fax or email a copy of your loved one’s death certificate prior to account closure along with proof of your relationship and legal right to close the account. Have these documents available to speed the process as much as possible.
Step 3: Confirm cancellation
While still on the phone, request confirmation of cancellation for your records. You’ll be given the option of having a cancellation letter emailed or physically mailed to your address, or both. Once received, keep this information for your records in case any fraudulent charges occur after you’ve canceled the card.
Step 4: Update your loved one’s records
Once you have confirmation of account cancelation, update your loved one’s records and keep a digital or paper trail of your progress. Having this trail can come in handy should any questions arise later on about which accounts were canceled and when.
Step 5: Destroy old cards
Finally, once the account is canceled, shred any cards in your possession. Though the account is closed and cards cannot be used, these cards still have valuable personal information attached to them. Always shred them before throwing them away.
Canceling Unused Credit Cards
If you’ve stopped using a credit card and you have no plans to use it in the future, the best thing to do is cancel the card altogether. Canceling unused credit cards will protect you from potential fraud and unauthorized use. Completing this process will also remove the burden of a loved one needing to do so after you pass away. No matter how you look at it, completing this simple task is a responsible thing to do.
Sources:
- “How to Cancel a Membership.” Help Center, Sam’s Club, 2021. Help.samsclub.com
- “Manage Your Sam’s Club Credit Card Account.” Account Access, Sam’s Club, 2021. Samsclub.syf.com