With New Credit Laws Can You Reopen A Closed Credit Card

[Anonymous]

I had a Leroys Jeweler's account for around 13 years with around $7,800 cl.  In May 2011 they closed the account due to inactivity.  I didn't know until a few days ago that it was closed.   I never got a letter or anything from them about this.  My Grandmother recently passed away and had been sick for 9 months so I had a lot going on.  I usually keep better track of things like this.  When I realized this I called to see if they could reopen and was told due to the new credit card laws they can't reopen accounts with old account numbers.  I just wondered if this was correct because I can't find any information stating this anywhere.   I don't need to use the account but it was a long standing account and the credit line helped with my open credit for utilization. 

[CS800]

I firmly beleive that you will have to re-apply for this account. When an account is closed (unless it was the company's mistake) it is gone. That's my belief

[Creditaddict]

I would say most companies will not re-open a card after 30-60 days and most won't re-open at all... I Don't believe this has anything to do with the new law and it irritates me to no end that if the bank doesn't want to do something for you they just push it over to "Because of the new Credit Card Law blah blah blah" Almost in all cases it's just the policy of the bank but it gets them to make people believe that this new law was stupid and when it comes time to review it again (the new Mortgage stuff that the President spoke of last week.... they will get more resistance from consumers I think based on they feel the new law has done bad things to them.

[Anonymous]

Thanks :-)  I didn't think it had anything to do with the new laws.  I figured they might  have been just saying that because I couldn't find any info to back it.  The representative did state that you used to be able to just call in anytime and have the account reopened before these new laws.  If I remember correctly I had this account reopened before because I went to use it and it was closed for the same reason.  I was in the store this time and they called to reopen it.  I'm not sure how long it had been closed then.  I don't want to reapply because I don't want the inquiry to hurt me and I don't really need the account.  I wish I would've had some kind of warning.  I would've used it to keep it open.  On my credit report through Equifax they're showing that the account was closed and it didn't state that it was due to inactivity.  Not sure how that effects my credit score or if it even does but Leroy's said they would have that corrected. 

[pizzadude]

I'm not aware of anything in the Credit Card Act that would prevent you from re~opening an account.    It's just a riskier thing to do for companies, they want to just push you through the approval process from scratch.