GE Money Bank - Gap Visa GE Money Bank penalizes you for paying off your card! Internet

  I'm closing the account, obviously, but just wanted to let people know.

- The only thing obvious in this is that you don't understand how credit or credit cards work..so let's help you out.

First a credit card is NOT your money, it is an amount of money a creditor is willing to allow you to borrow.  The only thing that is going on here is that the creditor is saying they want to wait extra time before they allow you access to THEIR money again. 

Now, the reason is a simple one and before you go off..no I am not saying this is your case, I am just telling you the reason why.  There are many people who will "pay off" their account and immediatly turn around and charge it back up to the credit limit and then turn around and dispute the payment with their bank and have it reverssed.  So many creditors(especially ones that deal in the "subprime" market as GE does is to put a hold on these accounts until they have assured themselves that the payment is valid and won't come back. 

As long as a creditor applies and credits the payment when they get it there is NOTHING illegal about it, and in this case from what you have said they did. 

Now guess what the only one who will be damaged by you "obviously" needing to close your card is you.  If this credit line is in good standing, closing it out will lower your credit score.  Especially if this is one of your oldest cards.  Depending on the rest of your history you could actually lose a significant amount of points in your score.