Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

[Anonymous]

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@rmduhon wrote:
What I do with my cards that I don't use regularly is put Netflix, Ancestry, etc on them and set them to auto pay. That way there is regular usage on them to keep them active and I don't have to worry about changing them out. Just thought I'd give you some ideas.

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Thanks for the idea. I had done that with a few of them but had neglected to do so with WF. But, it matters not, as that card was actually a thorn in my side, with seemingly no way of getting a logical CLI. Still, I will check all my cards to make sure they each have a regular household charge and an autopay. Appreciate ya!

[Anonymous]

UPDATE: RE: Husband's WF card, which was never secured, BUT that he had neglected to use for nearly 2 years. Last week he got a lovely letter in the mail asking him if he wanted a credit limit increase. Wow, talk about arbitrary. He also has a BK7 still showing btw. And since nearly all our accounts are joint or AU, his reports and scores look much like my own.

[Anonymous]

I want to leave them but I have a joint account and its nice to be able to transfer funds to other wf customers, but if they do that to my card I'll rage right out of there. I have wf au card with $8k limit, it's my oldest card and would destroy my aaoa if closed.

I had a Serve card from American Express and they closed it saying they were worried about fraud. I never commited any fraud with that card or any other and it pissed me off, so I will never have anything American Express in my wallet ever. Lol they send me prequals all the time and I just chuck them in recycling (what I would like to do with wf).

Can't believe these evil rip off companies like wf and verizon can still be in business. The too big to fail corprorate model is destroying America imo.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have wf au card with $8k limit, it's my oldest card and would destroy my aaoa if closed.

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Hey Shenron!  You may be mistaken about the devastating effect that this would have on your AAoA.  If you don't mind, could you tell us:

Your current AAoA  (counting the WF AU card)

Your current total number of accounts (counting the WF AU card)

The age of the WF AU card

The age of your next oldest account

One thing to bear in mind is that the WF AU card, if closed, might well not be deleted from your reports.  If it isn't, there will be zero impact on your AAoA.  Even if were deleted, the impact on your AAoA may not be extensive, if you have several other accounts.

As a practical matter, you can prevent it from being closed due to inactivity (which is what happened to the OP) by using it once every five months.

[UncleB]

This was a great reminder to put something on my own seldom-used WF Amex Propel (I have it mostly for OD protection). 

It's loaded in Samsung Pay, so I figured I would buy myself a $10 Amazon gift card using the Samsung Pay app so it would 'count' towards my retaining Platinum Level in S.Pay.  Went through the screens, did the fingerprint, and... denied. 

I called Wells and spoke with a friendly CSR who after verifying a few things was able to remove the fraud block; it was blocked because I haven't used the card since August.  After hanging up I tried again and the $10 purchase went through.

Lesson learned... either put something recurring on my WF card, or remember to give it some 'exercise' every 2-3 months. 

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

This was a great reminder to put something on my own seldom-used WF Amex Propel (I have it mostly for OD protection). 

It's loaded in Samsung Pay, so I figured I would buy myself a $10 Amazon gift card using the Samsung Pay app so it would 'count' towards my retaining Platinum Level in S.Pay.  Went through the screens, did the fingerprint, and... denied. 

I called Wells and spoke with a friendly CSR who after verifying a few things was able to remove the fraud block; it was blocked because I haven't used the card since August.  After hanging up I tried again and the $10 purchase went through.

Lesson learned... either put something recurring on my WF card, or remember to give it some 'exercise' every 2-3 months. 

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Hey Uncle!  I wonder if the fraud block was the result of two things happening together:

        (1) Not using the card for 4-5 months

        (2) The attempted transaction being for a gift card

Fraud-detection algorithms may be especially sensitive to certain kinds of purchases, those that bad guys are most likely to make.  Thus if you had been using your WF card every three months (including for gift cards) then the alarm wouldn't go off.  Likewise, if you had used it to buy something at a merchant in the city where you live (Target, Kroger, MacDonalds, etc.) -- even after not using it for 7 months -- then the alarm wouldn't have gone off. 

Perhaps (just a guess on my part) it was the two things together that triggered it?

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@UncleB wrote:

This was a great reminder to put something on my own seldom-used WF Amex Propel (I have it mostly for OD protection). 

It's loaded in Samsung Pay, so I figured I would buy myself a $10 Amazon gift card using the Samsung Pay app so it would 'count' towards my retaining Platinum Level in S.Pay.  Went through the screens, did the fingerprint, and... denied. 

I called Wells and spoke with a friendly CSR who after verifying a few things was able to remove the fraud block; it was blocked because I haven't used the card since August.  After hanging up I tried again and the $10 purchase went through.

Lesson learned... either put something recurring on my WF card, or remember to give it some 'exercise' every 2-3 months. 

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Hey Uncle!  I wonder if the fraud block was the result of two things happening together:

        (1) Not using the card for 4-5 months

        (2) The attempted transaction being for a gift card

Fraud-detection algorithms may be especially sensitive to certain kinds of purchases, those that bad guys are most likely to make.  Thus if you had been using your WF card every three months (including for gift cards) then the alarm wouldn't go off.  Likewise, if you had used it to buy something at a merchant in the city where you live (Target, Kroger, MacDonalds, etc.) -- even after not using it for 7 months -- then the alarm wouldn't have gone off. 

Perhaps (just a guess on my part) it was the two things together that triggered it?

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Hello my friend! 

The CSR said he couldn't see anything about the purchase but the dollar amount (I can confirm this - the decline text and email alerts both had a blank where the vendor info should be); I had to tell him it was made via the Samsung Pay app.  I would have thought that their algorithm would have taken into account that I had to provide my fingerprint for the transaction, but apparently it's not that sophisticated. 

He said the fraud dept. had a block on the account, and indicated that it wasn't something that was just triggered this AM but of course we know how dependable CSR info can be at times.

I do know from past experience that WF is weird about turning things off; I had my billpay deactivated on my checking account once because I hadn't made a deposit or withdrawal transaction in a while - I think a year?  I had enough on deposit to get the monthly fee waived, so I was basically treating the account like a savings account; I had to call in to have billpay turned back on.  Now that I'm using the account to hold my credit card cash rewards I make semi-regular deposits so that's no longer a problem.

Since their Propel Amex isn't especially rewarding (which is too bad, since it's a cool-looking card) I doubt I'll go out of my way to use it, so I'll likely get to test your theory again at some point.  Around March or so I'll make another small Amazon GC purchase using the Samsung Pay app and we'll have another data point.  At least next time I'll know to not be surprised if it declines... this time I had to wonder right at first if I still had an account! 

[Anonymous]

Chase did this "double trigger" thing to me last fall.  They have historically been very lenient with me with no fraud hold even after 7 months (say) of non-use.  But this time I did something different: I did not use it for 4 months and then used it for a "suspicious" purchase (I think it was a cash advance, which I had never done before).

The agent explained it was the two things put together.

In your case of course it could have just been WF being unsusally sensitive to non-use period!

Always good to see you posting, pal...

[Anonymous]

OP,  at least your secured card graduated.  My $ 500 secured card with WF has not graduated for more than two years.  I called last October to inquire about it and was told that WF periodically reviews secured accounts and will make a decision then.  The rep even told me that she was very surprised why my card has not graduated.  If it wasn't because it's my oldest card when I started rebuilding and a WF branch is located right next door to my wife's workplace, I would have closed all accounts and move it Golden One CU.    

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry to hear you haven’t graduated in 2 years. But perhaps these tips will be useful. Make sure you never go over (don’t even get close as the interstate can blow your statement balance). Try to PIF. Use it once a month, then immediately pay before statement.

I suspect WF also peeks at your other card usage so try to be disciplined with that too.

What did the CSR suggest?