Hi @bradssubs, welcome to the community.
That is unfortunately correct. It possibly was a mistake to cut up your cards 20 odd years ago without contacting them to cancel the credit card and account.
In 2024, Latitude decided to commence charging credit card accounts with a monthly fee ($8/month). The community raised these new charges here:
Most financial institutions require an account holder to formally request a closure of their accounts. However, most credit card issuers have timeframes where credit card accounts are automatically closed due to inactivity:
In Australia, bank accounts can also be closed when there is inactivity after 7 years:
Whilst this may occur, these are usually only actioned after an account holder has been notified and has the ability to challenge the closure notification. Latitude will have its own policies in relation to whether it closes inactive credit card accounts and if they do, the timeframes for automatic closures. Looking at the card’s T&C, there isn’t any mention of closing accounts due to inactivity.
Unfortunately not closing an credit card account isn’t the fault of Latitude.
What may be possible is to ask why Latitude didn’t close the account due to inactivity (and hopefully they waive any outstanding fees and close the account) and/or pay the outstanding monies and close the account. It is possible that not paying the monies may impact on your credit rating which may impact your ability to obtain finance or open a new account with somewhere else (inc. telcos and utility providers).
