Hey all,
So a little backstory, since of course nothing happens in a vacuum. I left my job back in July to start my own business. Also around the same time, I lent one of my friends a credit card to borrow while they were waiting for his father's estate to close. I figured he'd use it a couple months, I'd get some free cash back, and everything would be AOK. Well with the new business and the drop in income, the wife and I ran up a little bit of credit card debt, nothing we can't handle. We moved some of the balances around to take advantage of some 0% BTs offer, so all was good. Meanwhile, my friend proceeds to max out my Cap1 card, the one with the $23,900 credit limit.
Thankfully it's been paid off, he, of course, covered all the interest, I kept the cash back. I guess the estate drew out way longer than even he anticipated, but still, I think spending $24,000 in 5 months is a little much, IMHO. Surprisingly enough Barclay's who I was worried about the most about performing AA, actually gave me an unrequested CLI. AMEX did perform some AA and slashed my BCP then at $25,000 CL down to $3,200. That upset me a little bit, but I understood, my small business card (since it doesn't report UTIL to personal) has been carrying the brunt of the startup expenses. No other AA until today...
In regards to income, I get a decent chunk of change from the VA since I was medically retired from the Army and my wife teaches elementary school. We make enough to cover all of our bills thankfully, even without me working which is pretty awesome. That was one decision that was crucial in me having the courage to leave my job and start this business up. We also haven't been late on any bills, just had to tighten the belts a little bit and use the CCs a little more than planned. But we're making progress on the cards and balances. Every CC I pay at least 2x the minimum payment. In fact, the wife and I recently got approved for a 72 month 3.09% auto loan from NFCU to replace her older car with a newer version of what she had, a 2016 model with AWD and 3rd-row seating. We kept the payment roughly the same as her old note, so no real significant changes to bills. We, of course, waited until the Cap1 card reported it had been paid off so our scores jumped quite a bit from the util recovery. I had also just closed out my 401k from my last job and used that to take care of one of those BTs on Chase, paying off about $2500 on my AARP card.
Here are the balances/credit limits I had with Chase as of yesterday:
Freedom: 0/5000
AARP: 0/5000
Marriott: 2526/5000
United: 6449/13000
Is it pretty? Certainly not, but nothing I thought would raise any flags. So I sent a message to Chase yesterday asking if they could close my AARP card and move the available credit limit over to my Marriott card. Simple enough I thought. I had no idea I was poking the bear. I get the message they received my request and they would forward it to the appropriate department. Weird, but ok. Today I wake up to some emails from Chase that my AARP card had been removed from Apple Pay, cool looks like they finished it up. Also got another email saying I have a message available, I'm thinking everything is done.
Here's the SM from Chase:
Dear Ozix,
We are writing in regard to your recent online
correspondence.
Thank you for contacting us. We're reviewing your request.
Once we finish our review, we will mail you a letter
explaining our decision. You should receive the letter at
the address you provided in one to two weeks.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact a
Customer Support Specialist, Monday through Friday at
1-800-219-0015 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 10:00
p.m., Eastern time.
If you need any other assistance, you can send us a secure
message. We appreciate your business and thank you for
choosing Chase.
Sincerely,
Customer Support Specialist
--
Again umm, okay. I take a look at my accounts and sure enough, the AARP was closed out, that's one step right. I check my Marriott card and my heart sinks, I check the other cards and it's even worse:
Freedom: 0/1000
Marriott: 2526/2900
AARP: Closed
United: 6449/7800
UGH. I'm really upset by this, I've worked so hard in repairing my credit from the shambles it was in, built up a respectable portfolio of cards, and not once had I ever been late on a payment. I always paid at least 2x the minimum, sometimes way more when I was paying off a BT to make sure I didn't pay any interest. Is part of this my fault? Obviously, but I didn't think that asking Chase to move credit limits that I had as of yesterday with them would gut punch my available credit with them. The insult to injury is both my Marriott and United cards just had their annual fees hit.
So I'm gonna wait for their letter, but first I'm going to BT what's left on those two cards away from Chase. I'm not even remotely optimistic about getting my limits restored, I tried with AMEX and they didn't budge. Looking back at least AMEX's was understandable, they cut a ton of available credit from one card, not from all of them. With Chase, I don't even feel like keeping the Marriott card open and SDing it for the annual free room. I also have a checking account with Chase (only to get the security deposit box) since I get their Premier checking with them for free, and I'm seriously considering closing that with them too.
Sorry for the long post and rant, it's nice to get it off my chest, but what a crappy way to wake up today, I've never been so sad and mad at the same time...
Oz
