Chase Cancelled My Account For Following Dave Ramsey

[Anonymous]

This is my first post on this forum but I figured my experience was so ridiculous that I had to register and rant, so here goes.

For an exteneded period (around 15 years), I lived debt-free Dave Ramsey style eschewing credit cards, using nothing but my debit card. Then around Nov. of last year, I had this epiphany moment of what if I one day need credit. So I applied for credit cards where I had brokerage accounts or did banking and acquired a Capital One platinum card that I product changed to a Quicksilver (per advice learned lurking on this site), Schwab AMEX card and a Regions plain vanilla card. I just happened to apply for a Firestone card six months earlier to lower my bill and had the necessary credit history to allow the above to happen.

Fast forward to now, I have the aformentioned cards, another Quicksilver, a Discover IT and a Chase Freedom Unlimited and based on my free FICO's I'm around a 730 credit score. I had planned on gardening for about a year because of Discover's one card a year rule and Chase's 5/24 when last week (Dec. 2) I got a selected offer from Chase for a Freedom card (one on my radar that I was going to app after my year of gardening). I figured/hoped this was a way around 5/24 and that apping early would help my age of account by getting me the card sooner. I wasn't instantly approved, started checking Chase's website and calling their status line to see if I was approved (it was a 30 day message so I figured I would get approve sooner or later) when I find out (without any advance notice) that my account was closed Friday Dec. 8. No one in the office could help me, so I had to contact them today. Talking to a rep, I was told that my account was closed over some vague lifestyle reasons that still don't make sense. Apparently, being 46 and not having had credit for an extended period was enough to close my account. I tried to be civil to the rep, noting that surely I'm not the first older person to go without credit for an extended period of time and what about my present behavior? What if I was someone from a foreign country trying to rebuild their credit? 

I have 0% utilization on ALL my cards and tend to make my payments prior to the statement date. I don't make a lot of money but I try to have some activity on ALL of my cards. My scores have been increasing. Inquiries are reasonable. I've just never heard of such...ridiculousness! I don't see how I wasn't risky when they issued me the card but three months of good behavior with the card suddenly makes me risky.

Whew, thanks for letting me rant.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is my first post on this forum but I figured my experience was so ridiculous that I had to register and rant, so here goes.

For an exteneded period (around 15 years), I lived debt-free Dave Ramsey style eschewing credit cards, using nothing but my debit card. Then around Nov. of last year, I had this epiphany moment of what if I one day need credit. So I applied for credit cards where I had brokerage accounts or did banking and acquired a Capital One platinum card that I product changed to a Quicksilver (per advice learned lurking on this site), Schwab AMEX card and a Regions plain vanilla card. I just happened to apply for a Firestone card six months earlier to lower my bill and had the necessary credit history to allow the above to happen.

Fast forward to now, I have the aformentioned cards, another Quicksilver, a Discover IT and a Chase Freedom Unlimited and based on my free FICO's I'm around a 730 credit score. I had planned on gardening for about a year because of Discover's one card a year rule and Chase's 5/24 when last week (Dec. 2) I got a selected offer from Chase for a Freedom card (one on my radar that I was going to app after my year of gardening). I figured/hoped this was a way around 5/24 and that apping early would help my age of account by getting me the card sooner. I wasn't instantly approved, started checking Chase's website and calling their status line to see if I was approved (it was a 30 day message so I figured I would get approve sooner or later) when I find out (without any advance notice) that my account was closed Friday Dec. 8. No one in the office could help me, so I had to contact them today. Talking to a rep, I was told that my account was closed over some vague lifestyle reasons that still don't make sense. Apparently, being 46 and not having had credit for an extended period was enough to close my account. I tried to be civil to the rep, noting that surely I'm not the first older person to go without credit for an extended period of time and what about my present behavior? What if I was someone from a foreign country trying to rebuild their credit? 

I have 0% utilization on ALL my cards and tend to make my payments prior to the statement date. I don't make a lot of money but I try to have some activity on ALL of my cards. My scores have been increasing. Inquiries are reasonable. I've just never heard of such...ridiculousness! I don't see how I wasn't risky when they issued me the card but three months of good behavior with the card suddenly makes me risky.

Whew, thanks for letting me rant.

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They closed your Freedom Unlimited card?

[Anonymous]

Where did you get the selected offer from Chase?  Mailer?  On the Chase website?

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear of your account cancellation.  I thought I was the model Chase customer as well.  I had a Chase Slate card for 12 years.  I called to cancel but they offered to see if I could increase my limit (via HP) and I was given a higher limit.  One month later, I received a letter stating they would be closing my account due to inactivity.  I had used the card regularly on small purchases throughout my time with the account...except for 2 months prior to me calling in to cancel.  Maybe they noted in the phone call that I threatened to cancel, and since I didn't jump with delight to use the card within 30 days of the new limit, they felt the need to close my acount? Good riddance.  They aren't the only bank around.

[Anonymous]

Yes. When I went on their website to check on my application status, the account was stated as being closed. A phone call with a rep confirmed it. 

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is my first post on this forum but I figured my experience was so ridiculous that I had to register and rant, so here goes.

For an exteneded period (around 15 years), I lived debt-free Dave Ramsey style eschewing credit cards, using nothing but my debit card. Then around Nov. of last year, I had this epiphany moment of what if I one day need credit. So I applied for credit cards where I had brokerage accounts or did banking and acquired a Capital One platinum card that I product changed to a Quicksilver (per advice learned lurking on this site), Schwab AMEX card and a Regions plain vanilla card. I just happened to apply for a Firestone card six months earlier to lower my bill and had the necessary credit history to allow the above to happen.

Fast forward to now, I have the aformentioned cards, another Quicksilver, a Discover IT and a Chase Freedom Unlimited and based on my free FICO's I'm around a 730 credit score. I had planned on gardening for about a year because of Discover's one card a year rule and Chase's 5/24 when last week (Dec. 2) I got a selected offer from Chase for a Freedom card (one on my radar that I was going to app after my year of gardening). I figured/hoped this was a way around 5/24 and that apping early would help my age of account by getting me the card sooner. I wasn't instantly approved, started checking Chase's website and calling their status line to see if I was approved (it was a 30 day message so I figured I would get approve sooner or later) when I find out (without any advance notice) that my account was closed Friday Dec. 8. No one in the office could help me, so I had to contact them today. Talking to a rep, I was told that my account was closed over some vague lifestyle reasons that still don't make sense. Apparently, being 46 and not having had credit for an extended period was enough to close my account. I tried to be civil to the rep, noting that surely I'm not the first older person to go without credit for an extended period of time and what about my present behavior? What if I was someone from a foreign country trying to rebuild their credit? 

I have 0% utilization on ALL my cards and tend to make my payments prior to the statement date. I don't make a lot of money but I try to have some activity on ALL of my cards. My scores have been increasing. Inquiries are reasonable. I've just never heard of such...ridiculousness! I don't see how I wasn't risky when they issued me the card but three months of good behavior with the card suddenly makes me risky.

Whew, thanks for letting me rant.

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They closed your Freedom Unlimited card?

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[Anonymous]

On the Chase website.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to adopt that attitude. Part of my reason for applying for the Freedom Unlimited was the bonus (which I got). I have other 1.5% cash back cards and closing a three month old card shouldn't really effect my age/credit history too much (I applied for the Discover It the same day as the Chase Freedom Unlimited) but I'm trying to preserve the relationship with Chase and keep my TL open.

[yfan]

Did the rep specifically tell you that your age compared to the length of your credit history was the reason for the account closure? If not, I quite suspect they closed it because you have a lot of cards opened in a short period of time, and that's generally an indicator of higher risk.

[Anonymous]

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@yfan wrote:

Did the rep specifically tell you that your age compared to the length of your credit history was the reason for the account closure? If not, I quite suspect they closed it because you have a lot of cards opened in a short period of time, and that's generally an indicator of higher risk.

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What you said was mentioned as a reason, I guess (I sort of focused on the lifestyle one because that seemed so riduculous); but why offer someone a selected offer if you don't want them to apply?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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What you said was mentioned as a reason, I guess (I sort of focused on the lifestyle one because that seemed so riduculous); but why offer someone a selected offer if you don't want them to apply?

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Unfortunately, the marketing department and the underwriting department are a left hand-right hand situation.

There are more than a handful of similar stories on here about folks getting accounts closed after accepted a preapproved offer.  Like anything, YMMV, but with a young profile with no history, seeing someone acquire a lot of new credit can spook some conservative lenders.

I got 7 credit cards between March and November this year, one of them is Chase.  So far they haven't closed me, and I hope they don't, but I do keep it in mind that it's possible.  Chase is conservative AND jealous (hence the 5/24 rule).

Of course, there are folks who have gotten cards with 18/24 or worse, so as anything, YMMV, and when you have a brand new FICO profile, you're looked at even closer.