topic Re: Bye, Bye Target card... in Credit Cards

Bye, Bye Target card...

masscredit — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 19:58:40 GMT

I stopped into my local Target store to pick up an online order and do some shopping. Didn't have any problem with the online order being charged the charge for the other itmes was declined. I called while standing there and was told that the account had been closed. I didn't want to hold up the line so I used a different card then called back after I got home. I was told the account was closed because I had a few payments that were returned. I did have a few that were returned in the past because I had the wrong account info listed for payments. I think it was a digit off but I didn't take the time to figure it out. Just deleted the old info an slowly entered everything in again. This month's payment was bounced back before I didn't transfer enough money into that account to cover the Target payment along with my insurance payment. Forgot about the insurance. I found that the payment had been bounced back when I logged into the account this morning and saw a balance. Thought it was going to say $0.00. Can't totally fault them because I did make the mistake. Would have been nice to get a heads up though. Oh well... they did say that I could reapply. I'm not going to waste an inquiry to possibly get another Target card. And if I did get one, it might not have a $3K limit like the one that was closed.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 21:32:32 GMT

Sorry this happened, but you understand why. You must pay as much attention to your credit as you would keeping your eyes on the road while driving. This is coming from one who used to get in all kinds of trouble like this, and most of it was just from being busy, laxidaisical and just not paying attention. Fortunately, I've gotten myself to the point where I pay a bill as soon as I see the statement. In doing so, I am able to check in a couple days and make sure the funds were properly credited and the money actually left my bank account. When you pay well before due, you have plenty of time to catch errors. When I set up a payment method in a new account I go slow, check and recheck my numbers and info. This cannot be a hurried process. Best of luck to you in the future and let this be a learning experience.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

masscredit — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 21:40:42 GMT

Yeah, I definately learned from this and will admit when I'm wrong. Funny thing about each payment is they were all made before the statement cut. Little speed bumps with this account caused a crash.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

FinStar — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 16:42:47 GMT

Agree. I have a Target Visa from eons ago and have had no issues (knock on wood). Besides, the OP went as far as sharing his experience (including admitting mea culpa) so that others are aware.

An item to keep in mind, aside from Target, there are other lenders who will close accounts if there is a repeated pattern of NSFs and/or non-adherence to the T&C, namely Comenity and Synchrony for instance.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

ddemari — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:44:04 GMT

sorry OP. back when I first got target red card, i set up my bank account info wrong too and had a returned payment. but I also sign into my accounts like 4-5 times a week so I know whats up always lol and I had made the payment 20 days early, so there were no problems. so you really bounced one payment with target and they shut you down? im sorry! and with target there is no one to speak to that has authority to do anything. A 3k limit on that card is good, but oh well you are not missing out on anything spectacular.

I have had this card for almost 3 years and the limit will never move

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

UncleB — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 03:35:41 GMT

@ddemari wrote:
sorry OP. back when I first got target red card, i set up my bank account info wrong too and had a returned payment. but I also sign into my accounts like 4-5 times a week so I know whats up always lol and I had made the payment 20 days early, so there were no problems. so you really bounced one payment with target and they shut you down? im sorry! and with target there is no one to speak to that has authority to do anything. A 3k limit on that card is good, but oh well you are not missing out on anything spectacular.

I have had this card for almost 3 years and the limit will never move

The OP stated he had 'several' payments returned, not just one. While it is still lousy, at least in this case there's a clear cause/effect for the action that was taken.

Something that's important to remember is that even if a returned payment is well before the due date and a 'successful' payment is completed before the DD, it still counts as a NSF to the lender - even if there's no late fee. While this doesn't impact your credit report, it clearly matters to many lenders.

I allow a few of my creditors to keep my bank info on file for payment purposes, and I guess I'm just paranoid in that I always do a 'copy and paste' from my bank's web site when I enter the account number. A benefit of using your checking account's bill pay service to do an ACH 'push' is that if a payment fails, there's no impact to your history with the lender (assuming you catch it and have it corrected before the due date).

To the OP, thanks for sharing with us. This is a good reminder to us all to take great care when entering account/payment details, and to really keep an 'eye' on things, especially the first time with a new account number.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 03:42:56 GMT

Thanks for sharing your story OP.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 03:46:23 GMT

I don't blame you. My Target card is sitting at $1,500 credit limit and won't budge. Thinking about getting rid of mine.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

peaceonearth — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 04:13:54 GMT

Were delinquent?

If you were not seriously delinquent they should not have closed your account, that's the only way to bring customers to the store

I am sure they charged you a returned patment fee. I think target just lost a customer. No wonder why they're closing stores left and right.

Sorry. Don't do it again!

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

ddemari — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 04:20:15 GMT

Right after it happened to me I called target an apologized and back then I knew how tight they were on limit and said please don't let your magic computer hold this against me!!! They assured me it was an honest error on my end and it wouldn't , ya right lol! I've always said to myself that dang wrong routing number is why target hates me lol

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

masscredit — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 04:37:07 GMT

@peaceonearth wrote:
Were delinquent?
If you were not seriously delinquent they should not have closed your account, that's the only way to bring customers to the store
I am sure they charged you a returned patment fee. I think target just lost a customer. No wonder why they're closing stores left and right.

Sorry. Don't do it again!

Each time I was paying in full before the statement closed so no balance would report. I can see if my payments were late but I never got close to that happening. I asked the account supervisor if anything could be done. She said she couldn't do anything and suggested getting their debit card.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

peaceonearth — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 04:40:41 GMT

@masscredit wrote:
@peaceonearth wrote:
Were delinquent?
If you were not seriously delinquent they should not have closed your account, that's the only way to bring customers to the store
I am sure they charged you a returned patment fee. I think target just lost a customer. No wonder why they're closing stores left and right.

Sorry. Don't do it again!

Each time I was paying in full before the statement closed so no balance would report. I can see if my payments were late but I never got close to that happening. I asked the account supervisor if anything could be done. She said she couldn't do anything and suggested getting their debit card.

You're better off without their Target.Credit Card

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

UncleB — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 04:55:38 GMT

@masscredit wrote:
@peaceonearth wrote:
Were delinquent?
If you were not seriously delinquent they should not have closed your account, that's the only way to bring customers to the store
I am sure they charged you a returned patment fee. I think target just lost a customer. No wonder why they're closing stores left and right.

Sorry. Don't do it again!

Each time I was paying in full before the statement closed so no balance would report. I can see if my payments were late but I never got close to that happening. I asked the account supervisor if anything could be done. She said she couldn't do anything and suggested getting their debit card.

I know it's different, but at the large apartment complex I worked at (back in the 90s) the system had a counter for NSF that was separate from the 'late' counter. It was actually possible (and happened) for folks to have more than one NSF in a single month, without incurring a late fee. For the employees who were very familiar with the system there was a way to 'manually' change the NSF counter (i.e. when a check was returned due to a bank error) but it was seldom used, since it required a letter from the bank as proof, and honestly most NSFs weren't the bank's error. If the account was made current (and all service charges were paid - and the fees were significant) there was no real impact, but if another rental company (or mortgage processor) contacted us for a reference, the number of NSF payments was provided. It was up to the other party as to if the information had an impact or not.

I agree that in the case you've described it shouldn't have an impact, but this is one of those situations where what 'should' and what 'is' doesn't match, so we just have to work around it. I'll also note that it has been mentioned that other lenders have similar policies (I think Synchrony and Comenity have been mentioned in this thread alone) so this treatment isn't unique to Target.

There is a 'silver lining' to this situation; if you do choose to get a new account with Target, you'll be starting over with 'fresh' history, so if something were to go wrong in the future it would be a 'first' occurence versus being one of many.

Good luck whatever you decide!

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

masscredit — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 19:38:33 GMT

Thanks for the info. This account started off with a high limit ($3K). Don't know why that happened. It was my highest limit card when I started rebuilding. The limit was still respectable 3 years later but it became my lowest limit store card. I like the store and the 5% discount though. Don't think I'll apply for another one.

I see that the account is reporting that it was closed by the credit grantor. Will this have any negative impact on other credit?

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 19:49:10 GMT

Thanks for sharing that, OP. Stories like this can help us remember that some of our goals can get sidetracked by minor details, somewhat similar to the final track on the epic Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

masscredit — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 15:46:26 GMT

It's been a few weeks and I have to say that I actually miss having their card. I like their store, it's only a few minutes from home and it's easy to grocery shopping there. Prices are pretty good and there is an additional 5% savings for using their card. More than I get from using my other cards. Thsi experience gave me a reminder to be 100% on top of things and don't put it off correcting a potential problem.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 16:05:07 GMT

That 5%, coupled with the Cartwheel app, and the redperks? It all adds up so fast!

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

UncleB — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 17:41:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That 5%, coupled with the Cartwheel app, and the redperks? It all adds up so fast!

I don't have the REDcard, but I have used the Cartwheel app... and last Christmas I got some really good deals!

I think of Target as being similar to Publix... if you don't look at prices, in some cases you might pay more than other stores. If you shop their sales, though, and in the case of Target use their store coupons and Cartwheel, you can really do well!

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

CreditUnionFan — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 05:21:19 GMT

Believe it or not, with some use over the last year, my Target has gone from $500 last December, to $1k earlier this year, to now $1500 a few days ago. Mind you, at 9ne point it was $10k and they slashed the CL years ago during the large financial crisis to $500. It spent a long time at $500.

Re: Bye, Bye Target card...

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 05:36:28 GMT

@masscredit wrote:
It's been a few weeks and I have to say that I actually miss having their card. I like their store, it's only a few minutes from home and it's easy to grocery shopping there. Prices are pretty good and there is an additional 5% savings for using their card. More than I get from using my other cards. Thsi experience gave me a reminder to be 100% on top of things and don't put it off correcting a potential problem.

Get the Target debit card (or, if you live in the right states, the Redbird Prepaid card). Ideally link it to a small bank account for safety, (or just load a small amount onto the Redbird). Debit is chip&pin, offers the same 5% off, free shipping and extended return at Target.com