It is incredibly essential to change or update your credit card information if you are making some modifications in your life. This includes altering your marital status, moving out, or even something as simple as changing your contact number.
Sometimes, you might also be required to change your credit card and its details if it gets stolen or lost. Making changes in your credit card information is a crucial matter. It requires keeping all your information current, understanding when you have been a target of theft or scam, and staying on guard from falling prey to scams.
In this guide, you will learn what happens when you change your credit card number. What happens to the old credit card? What happens to your payments? Does it affect your credit score? Keep reading to find out.
What follows when a Credit Card number changes?
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Suppose your card or card information ever gets stolen, leaked, lost, or compromised. In that case, you probably need to get a new credit card right away, along with a new 15-16 digit inscribed on it. This will prevent your old card number from being wrongfully or fraudulently used.
Still, you must realize that a new credit card number is not the same as getting a new account. Hence, the new card number should not likely have any impact on your credit score. However, the new number’s downstream consequences will most likely put you in a complicated position if you do not pay attention.
Is there any effect on my Credit Score?
A new credit card number will not have any direct effect on your credit score. When the credit card issuer sends you a new card with a different number, it will actually be linked to the same account that you were previously using.
Moreover, there will be no changes on your credit report, neither will it affect your credit score. When you change your card number:
- Your old credit card is not stated as a closed account.
- There will be no credit check.
- The replaced card will not be reported as a new credit card account.
- Your payment history, the account’s age, and all other relevant information will be applicable on the new card, just like the previous one.
And, although it does not affect your score, it will undoubtedly have an impact on the payments. This, we discuss in the next section.
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What happens to the payments?
Now on to the most awaited question. Most people are interested to know if their payments can still be taken after changing the credit card number.
You must bear in mind that any bills you had formerly set up for automated pay with your credit card, like gym memberships, subscriptions, etc., might still continue being charged on your previous credit card number.
Now that the former credit card number has been disregarded, these payments will be rejected automatically. This means you can be liable for several late fees, penalties, account cancellations, and many other sellers’ issues. Even your water and power supply can be shut down if your utility service provider does not receive the payment.
If these outstanding bills pile up in collections if they even show up on your credit report and negatively impact your credit score. You can prevent this by logging in to all the accounts you used to pay automatically via credit card. You will need to alter your old number with the new credit card number one by one.
A few or more automated payments can take a billing cycle or two to process. Thus, you might need to make a handful of payments manually, or else you will be risking a penalty or a late fee.
Any trader that saves your credit card details for later use or whenever you make a purchase, such as Amazon, will also have your old credit card number stored. So, you will need to update the information on all such merchants’ websites.
