Bank of America just closed $63K of my credit cards

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Were you a preferred client when this happened to up. I'm very paranoid that it'll happen to me also. I have 100k limit on BOFA travel card and put between 100k-150k a month in business expenses. I pay my card weekly from my business acct .I earn 2.625 cause I'm a preferred client.

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I would get a back-up card so you don't have to worry about it.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Jumping on this train late, but I just thought I'd throw in my 2¢ worth.  The question OP asks (and others in this situation have asked) is "why did paying off a $50k balance put me in their sights?"  But I think what really put you in their sights was running up the $50k balance in the first place.  When that happened, they analyzed your report and determined you were "high risk."  But they wouldn't want to close you down then, because that could make it more likely that you actually *would* default on your $50k obligation.  Better to string you along, letting you think if you kept paying it off, you'd get future opportunities to run up credit again.  Once you substantially paid it off, there was really no reason *not* to shut you down, so the predetermined decision to close your accounts now kicked in.

Sucks, but that's how the banks think.

Chris.

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+1

[jawbrkr]

This is such nonsense from BOA. OP paid the balance down in 9 months. That is really not all that long. 45K in 9 months is pretty **bleep** good. If that doesnt show that op can manage and handle that kind of credit, then what else does one have to do? To have that done after having been an excellent customer for all those years? That's an insult. They could also have sent a notice by mail to inform and encourage paying down perhaps a bit more but what the hell, right? BOA has been throwing offers at me for months now and I will never bite. 

[ChessChik47]

Hmm...I've had a banking relationship (on and off) with BOA since they were Nations Bank in 1997 and not until now have I thought about getting a credit card with them...maybe I should rethink this move.  I'm going to wait until 2018 to pull the trigger on them.  I still want to app for PenFed this summer, so BOA can wait a few more months.

[Anonymous]

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Lol, what?

I've spent over $20,000 in the past 4 months all on credit.

Total interest paid: $0.

Total rewards/cashback/freebies earned using credit: ~$280 in cash, ~$300 in rewards certificates.  Plus about another 10% in overall savings by using one payment method over another.

If I would have paid cash, I would have gotten $0.

On top of that, with the grace period/float, my pay-off money was parked in a savings account earning me about 1.15% APY -- which isn't a lot but $20,000 sitting in a savings account at 1.15% APY is still $20 or so.  So I am over $600 ahead because I used credit wisely.

[Anonymous]

No one else thinks what happened here was in no way surprising and is a predictable result of the OPs behavior?

OP, you don't think carrying $45,000 on a card with a $50,000 credit limit for an extended period of time is a concern for a bank? What is your income relative to that amount?

I 100% agree that it is an incredibly frustrating situation and to me it would feel like a lot of progress erased very quickly. It sucks, but you live and you learn.

I would say my opinion is that the action taken by BoA is clearly the result of the tremendous balance carried for a long period of time. Was it put on all at once? How long did it take to drive the total due to $45,000?

If it had been paid off in 0-3 months and during those months heavy payments were made, I could see the confusion. Nine months is a long time and depending on how it was paid back, they may have decided early on that as soon as it was paid they were going to close your accounts. It also sounds like you paid $45,000 back all at once very recently. That could also have triggered the closures. I understand your position that they gave you the credit limit and they should expect you to use it, but the truth is that they don't. They want you to spend 3-8K a month every month on that card and pay it in full on time. They don't want you to put 45K on the card and let it sit for a year. They want to earn money on interest, but it's not worth dealing with what happens if you don't or can't pay them back.

I know this is very late on the thread, but I think their actions were reasonable and predictable.

I don't blame you for wanting to walk away from them forever, but it won't help them and it's not really their fault in the end. Your behavior triggered a high risk behavior warning. Pretend you were lending someone your money and you could choose between the best of the best and you didn't need to deal with anyone else. It sucks but it's not their fault...

[pennccrn]

Yeah so to the OP, I had this happen to me when I had a 6K limit card carry over from when BofA absorbed MBNA. Ran the balance up to 100% of my credit line and paid it down in three months. The next month my limit was cut to 1K. At this point I had three credit cards all with BofA and all had their limits cut based on the behavior of this one card. Lesson that I learned is that it's dangerous to have credit cards exclusively with one issuer. Although I still have one credit card with BofA with a 10k limit I have six other cards that offer much better rewards and generous limits. Basically, I view BofA as a poor mans credit issuer the credit lines are thin, rewards are not that hot. But most importantly, it's dangerous to have credit cards with the same issuer. I have seven cards all with different issuers.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Money Laundering.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Sounds like Money Laundering.

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What does? And do you mean it sounds like to the bank, or to you?

[AverageJoesCredit]

Ill never understand the Boa "poor mans credit issuer" reference. Regardless if a bank slashes ones limits or balance chaces for whatever reason, i still see this Bank giving huge limits to income enriched or income impaired individuals . Im almost sure someone on welfare isnt thinking ill just go to BOA, theyll issue me credit no probs