Thoughts on Chase card closures

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@napplegate wrote:

Perhaps I will be the only one to say this but I don't believe any of these stories aside from the first person who posted, who I wouldn't put it past to create new accounts for the sole purpose of trolling.  There was just a new post made alluding to things that are theoretically impossible as far as MS goes.  You cannot purchase a prepaid with a credit card at a Walmart.  You cannot purchase a $4000 prepaid.  The entire post was just screaming to stir people up with a ridiculous, constructed story.  On top of that there is soo much misinformation regarding MS it's insane.  Take a stroll over to Flyertalk and brush up on their section devoted to MS.  Not one single report of shutdowns nor on any other forum board for that matter.  Why in the world would an issuer care if you purchased a small denomination merchant gift card?  It is NOT a cash equivalent in the way that a prepaid is.  You can use it at one merchant and that's it.  Did any of you stop overthinking things to realize that millions of consumers buy gift cards (merchant mind you) on a daily basis?  There is nothing fraudulent about this and it is certainly not prohibited by T&C by issuers.  The matter of contention is cash equivalents, which none of these supposed people ever purchased.  If you honestly think Chase or any other issuer is going to close your account for purchasing a $25 gift card to Olive Garden, frankly, you're an idiot.

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I buy WM GC's at WM to use at SC all the time with my SM. I intend to do this as well when Groceries is a 5% on the Freedom.

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You are planning to buy groceries at WM with your Freedom in Q1?

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Unfortunately...

Not including WM.

[napplegate]

I'll reiterate again, I don't believe any of these people.  Frankly, it is made up nonsense.  If the people MS'ing 30k a month aren't getting popped, the random person buying a gift card to Best Buy isn't either.  There are no new shut downs on FT that I can see and I will disagree that purchasing a merchant gift card is a cash equivalent in the eyes of an issuer in the same way as a pre paid OneVanilla card is.  On another note the merchant would have to have level 3 reporting to even see what the purchase was.  None of these shut downs happen out of the blue, there is ALWAYS something that causes them.  Credit/Income ration, inquiries, new credit apps, negative information on reports, the list is endless.  

[NRB525]

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@napplegate wrote:

I'll reiterate again, I don't believe any of these people.  Frankly, it is made up nonsense.  If the people MS'ing 30k a month aren't getting popped, the random person buying a gift card to Best Buy isn't either.  There are no new shut downs on FT that I can see and I will disagree that purchasing a merchant gift card is a cash equivalent in the eyes of an issuer in the same way as a pre paid OneVanilla card is.  On another note the merchant would have to have level 3 reporting to even see what the purchase was.  None of these shut downs happen out of the blue, there is ALWAYS something that causes them.  Credit/Income ration, inquiries, new credit apps, negative information on reports, the list is endless.  

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Have a great day.

[Anonymous]

Its evening though!

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Its evening though!

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Thanks for sharing

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Its evening though!

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Thanks for sharing

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Continue success in the world of credit cards.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Its evening though!

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Thanks for sharing

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Continue success in the world of credit cards.

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Lol.

On an unrelated note, a recurring theme on these threads is an accusation that the person reporting their accounts closed are being disinegenuous. I don't think it's fair to accuse people of making up stories or excluding information without proof. It doesn't make for a very welcoming community if we throw stones and otherwise cast judgment on people who have had an experience with a lender that differs from our own. This discourages members who are suffering from unusual credit situations from recounting their own experiences out of fear of being doubted, or worse, insulted.

But whether these anecdotes are true or not, I will be keeping a close eye on my Chase accounts for awhile and start using my Freedom for some non-category spending. Better to be safe than sorry.

[Anonymous]

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2014/09/07/how-to-keep-your-chase-credit-cards-from-being-shut-down/

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase-ultimate-rewards/1526572-consolidated-chase-closed-my-cc-accoun...

A quick google search on other sites will show this has been happening for the past couple years and there are enough closures from Chase to where I'm inclined to believe that not all off these people are being disengenous, but this is an actual phenomenon and not just sour grapes.

Some people seem to believe that these banks are above doing anything that would bend or break the rules and it's only us customers that stoop to such behavior.  That's naive.

I think it's obvious that some people who are violating T&C are getting shut down legitimately and other innocent victims are getting caught in the crossfire.  The banks want a monopoly on making money from money.  They can't stand the tables being turned.  They run the numbers scam.

[yfan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

On an unrelated note, a recurring theme on these threads is an accusation that the person reporting their accounts closed are being disinegenuous. I don't think it's fair to accuse people of making up stories or excluding information without proof. It doesn't make for a very welcoming community if we throw stones and otherwise cast judgment on people who have had an experience with a lender that differs from our own. This discourages members who are suffering from unusual credit situations from recounting their own experiences out of fear of being doubted, or worse, insulted.

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While it's true that it's unfair to accuse people of making up things or excluding information, being welcoming as a forum does not have to come at the expense of being inquisitive. People often do omit information, sometimes willingly, sometimes by mistake, sometimes because they think the information is irrelevant. But it does happen, and while we shouldn't automatically assume that people are intentionally hiding something, we also shouldn't automatically assume that the first post is the whole story.

[Anonymous]

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@yfan wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

On an unrelated note, a recurring theme on these threads is an accusation that the person reporting their accounts closed are being disinegenuous. I don't think it's fair to accuse people of making up stories or excluding information without proof. It doesn't make for a very welcoming community if we throw stones and otherwise cast judgment on people who have had an experience with a lender that differs from our own. This discourages members who are suffering from unusual credit situations from recounting their own experiences out of fear of being doubted, or worse, insulted.

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While it's true that it's unfair to accuse people of making up things or excluding information, being welcoming as a forum does not have to come at the expense of being inquisitive. People often do omit information, sometimes willingly, sometimes by mistake, sometimes because they think the information is irrelevant. But it does happen, and while we shouldn't automatically assume that people are intentionally hiding something, we also shouldn't automatically assume that the first post is the whole story.

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Asking questions is wonderful, preferred even. Sometimes, solutions to these mysteries only come out after the right questions are asked. I definitely don't want my position completely misrepresented. It's when posts take a judgmental turn that the feedback becomes unconstructive.