Capital One Canceled Our Cards

[AverageJoesCredit]

Crazy story op, guess a lesson learned the hard way will help prevent future ones.

[Anonymous]

OP sorry about your closures. And I never knew gift cards were a no no. So now I will be more careful. I'm always using my card to buy my sons google play, steam, and iTunes cards. Now I will think twice before I do that again.  

[fltireguy]

All I will say is this- one of my best friends is a higher up in Publix's IT department. We talked about this scenario one night... And, From what he has said, itemized transaction information is NOT transmitted to ANYONE during a CC transaction - only the total amount, etc. While they DO have a record of the transaction, they will ONLY share it w the CC issuer if there is a retrieval request involved. NO data mining is being done

[UncleB]

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@fltireguy wrote:
All I will say is this- one of my best friends is a higher up in Publix's IT department. We talked about this scenario one night... And, From what he has said, itemized transaction information is NOT transmitted to ANYONE during a CC transaction - only the total amount, etc. While they DO have a record of the transaction, they will ONLY share it w the CC issuer if there is a retrieval request involved. NO data mining is being done

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+1

I'll add that I use my various credit cards to buy gift cards each month (eBay, Hulu, Netflix, and various fast-food places) and I've never had a problem. 

Generally when it comes to GC purchases, if there's something to be concerned about the person doing the buying is already aware of it and any problems that come up aren't a total surprise... the folks buying a couple of GCs here-and-there are fine.

[Dalmus]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@fltireguy wrote:
All I will say is this- one of my best friends is a higher up in Publix's IT department. We talked about this scenario one night... And, From what he has said, itemized transaction information is NOT transmitted to ANYONE during a CC transaction - only the total amount, etc. While they DO have a record of the transaction, they will ONLY share it w the CC issuer if there is a retrieval request involved. NO data mining is being done

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+1

I'll add that I use my various credit cards to buy gift cards each month (eBay, Hulu, Netflix, and various fast-food places) and I've never had a problem. 

Generally when it comes to GC purchases, if there's something to be concerned about the person doing the buying is already aware of it and any problems that come up aren't a total surprise... the folks buying a couple of GCs here-and-there are fine.

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 Absolutely...  While its certainly possible a single $100 GC might raise an eyebrow during a spend period, I think they are generally pretty safe purchases.  Heck, when Christmas time rolls around, I probably buy 5 or 6 $25 - $50 gift cards during the course of the season.  I always put them on credit cards, never have an issue.

 Now, if you are in a promo spend period, I'm sure any large purchase at grocery / drug / discount stores (or anywhere that commonly sells gift cards) could raise a flag and cause the CC company to look closer at that charge and see what it consisted of, while a single large purchase at a travel agency or home improvement is less likely to be scrutinized.

[Anonymous]

Sorry this happened to you! I saw it mentioned that you applied for another card after they closed your accounts. Why! Forget them! I'd move on to another creditor not give business to one that would close you down, tell you to apply for another card, approve it and close it down too! 

[Anonymous]

One of my customers is a very large prime bank and CC lender and they absolutely, positively have relationships with major vendors to detail itemized spending data including category of each item bought.

Type "itemized receipts" in the searchbar here -- it is known that big banks and big vendors share data.  If you use your rewards card at the grocery store, read the contract again and you'll see that they are allowed to share your spending habits with discrete categories of spend with others including the banks.

Here's a thread on it: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Can-Chase-see-your-itemized-receipts/td-p/2247801

[Shooting-For-800]

I think the keys here are:  age of the account, bonus period, ratio of gift cards to normal purchases.

Like I said before, I have bought thousands of dollars in gift cards on my Cap One cards but I use my cards for every purchase no matter the size or type.

[Anonymous]

I didn't know about the gift card thing either. I'm shocked that Target hasn't shut me down yet.  I ONLY use my Target card to purchase gift cards for the 5% off, then I pay it right off.  Maybe since its a store card, they are more lenient. 

[Anonymous]

Really a lot of misinformation in  this thread.

First, very few credit card companies know exactly what you are purchasing per transaction.  That's called Level 3 reporting and only some banks get that info from a few vendors.  Most of your purchases on credit cards is reported by business type and that's all.  

Second, and more importantly, a single credit card purchase of a $500 gift card will not by itself get you shut down with Capital One, Amex (they encourage you to buy their gift cards) Chase, Citi or any other credit card company.  It's when you do it repeatedly that you run the risk of the card companies taking action.  Additionally, buying one $500 gift card is hardly Manufactured Spending.  Far too many people here assume that buying gift cards is completely taboo. It's not,  Far from it.  People buy them for lots of reasons, including as gifts to others.   I'm not encouraging this or saying it's ok but some people would really would have their eyes opened if they ever vistied a site that really deals with MS.  Too often posters scare others into believing that buying a gift card or two will get their accounts shut down.  It won't

In the case of the OP there is something else going on in their account that caused the closures.