topic Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity in Credit Cards

Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:03:11 GMT

I've had the account open since the 90's so I don't want to lose it. They used to just reissue the card upon expiration when I called them to say I want to keep it open. They say they no longer do that. This answer was from the Lending Services dept that used to put their phone number on the letter that said to call to keep it open.

Something sounded fishy so I called the number on another Chase card and inquired about a credit line increase to see if my credit has gone bad or something. My other Chase card increased my limit by $15k. The card that is expiring only has a $4.5k limit, so it's not that I'm at my limit. The person telling me she can't do anything to keep the card open also said it has nothing to do with my credit worthiness. She told me that by having the card open, Chase is using up its credit limit on a card that is inactive. I offered to decrease the limit on one of my other cards in order to keep my 90's card open. She said that won't work either. If I change the account to another product to keep the 90's start date, the new product will still close when this card expires.

I have been charging over $40-50k a year on my other Chase cards, so I'm surprised they want to risk losing my business.

Has anyone been able to get Chase to reconsider once the card is flagged as "reissue declined"? Has anyone gotten Chase to reopen a closed account and keep the original start date?

The Reconsideration department number said they only handle pending applications. Is there another number to try?

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

sr383 — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:06:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If I change the account to another product to keep the 90's start date, the new product will still close when this card expires.

This part doesn't make any sense. It's like they've decided to close it, regardless of what you do.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:07:46 GMT

If you don't use it why do you want to keep it open? If it's because it's an old account and you're worried about account age in your credit profile, that really isn't an issue. It will remain in your file as a positive tradeline for 10 years after closure.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:08:42 GMT

How long has your card been inactive?

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Pway — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:09:02 GMT

Chase is a tough lender. I am curious to know, how long has this account been inactive?

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:21:56 GMT

Yes, she told me once a card is listed as "reissue declined," it can't be undone. The card has always been in good standing. I have never been late on any of my credit cards. I have cards with Chase that were opened in (approximately) 2002, 2007, 2013 with limits at least $25k each. I have not been opening/closing accounts for the startup offers or anything like that. I haven't opened/closed any credit cards or loans since the last time this card was renewed after expiration.

I just keep the old account because of it's start date and for emergencies. They kept suggesting I just reapply for a new account, but then I lose the 90's account date. I offered to charge X $ amount or N number of transactions to keep the card open, but she said they can't tell people a minimum amount/number to keep an account open. I am really upset they couldn't be bothered to send a warning letter to remind me to use the card.

The card has been inactive for over ten years, but they have never told me it was in danger of being closed, just sent a letter to call them to keep it open if I want it. The Lending Services person told me the policy changed April 12th, two weeks before they mailed my letter. If my letter had been mailed a couple weeks earlier, the card would be continued with a phone call like before.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:22:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yes, she told me once a card is listed as "reissue declined," it can't be undone. The card has always been in good standing. I have never been late on any of my credit cards. I have cards with Chase that were opened in (approximately) 2002, 2007, 2013 with limits at least $25k each. I have not been opening/closing accounts for the startup offers or anything like that. I haven't opend/closed any credit cards or loans since the last time this card was renewed after expiration.

I just keep the old account because of it's start date and for emergencies. They kept suggesting I just reapply for a new account, but then I lose the 90's account date. I offered to charge X $ amount or N number of transactions to keep the card open, but she said they can't tell people a minimum amount/number to keep an account open. I am really upset they couldn't be bothered to send a warning letter to remind me to use the card.

The account date would remain in your files for 10 years after closure. You have excellent account ages among you other cards already, and they will be 10 years older by the time it drops off.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

redpat — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:27:05 GMT

Ten years inactive, not Chases fault. Need to use it or lose it, that simple.

Lessons the hard way.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

NRB525 — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:33:30 GMT

Ten years of no use? It was a nice run, you got them to re-open it several times already, and now it's closed.

Hindsight / Monday Morning QB says you should have used it at least once per year.

You have at least one card from 2002 which is already 14 years young. That will be 20+ by the time this one falls off completely. You won't see any impact, other than not having to contact Chase every few years to try to reopen it.

Just learn from this, and any other Chase cards you want to keep open, ensure you use them regularly so this doesn't happen again.

Thanks for sharing your experience. It is good info for all of us to understand.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:40:51 GMT

I like having a card that I have had since the 90's.

Has anyone else received a letter closing an inactive Chase account recently?

They told me using the account now will not keep it open. Before receiving the letter, I even set up account alerts on the card a few weeks ago to get ready to use it before expiration so I wouldn't have to call them to send new cards. I had planned to use it this week for over $1k in charges. I did use it yesterday to confirm it is still live.

Has anyone gotten Chase to reissue an expiring card after being told they are closing the account? If I charge significant amounts ($1k-$2k) now, do you think they will reconsider even though they say it won't matter?

Why would Chase be so intent on closing THIS card? I don't get it.

I don't expect this card closing to have significant impact on my credit score, even after it drops off in ten years.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

MyLoFICO — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:41:27 GMT

Holy crap, inactive for 10 years. lol.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

redpat — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:43:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I like having a card that I have had since the 90's.

Has anyone else received a letter closing an inactive Chase account recently?

They told me using the account now will not keep it open. Before receiving the letter, I even set up account alerts on the card a few weeks ago to get ready to use it before expiration so I would have to call them to send new cards. I had planned to use it this week for over $1k in charges. I did use it yesterday to confirm it is still live.

Has anyone gotten Chase to reissue an expiring card after being told they are closing the account? If I charge significant amounts ($1k-$2k) now, do you think they will reconsider even though they say it won't matter?

Why would Chase be so intent on closing THIS card? I don't get it.

I don't expect this card closing to have significant impact on my credit score, even after it drops off in ten years.

They close the card because it wasn't being used for a 10 year period. They took that risk of the table for non-usage, why should they keep it open? They saw you were using their other cards and giving you CLIs, you should have moved the limit or used the card. Lenders close cards all the time for inactive accounts.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:44:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I like having a card that I have had since the 90's.

Has anyone else received a letter closing an inactive Chase account recently?

They told me using the account now will not keep it open. Before receiving the letter, I even set up account alerts on the card a few weeks ago to get ready to use it before expiration so I wouldn't have to call them to send new cards. I had planned to use it this week for over $1k in charges. I did use it yesterday to confirm it is still live.

Has anyone gotten Chase to reissue an expiring card after being told they are closing the account? If I charge significant amounts ($1k-$2k) now, do you think they will reconsider even though they say it won't matter?

Why would Chase be so intent on closing THIS card? I don't get it.

I don't expect this card closing to have significant impact on my credit score, even after it drops off in ten years.

There isn't much harm in putting use on it in an attempt to keep it open. Worst case, they close it anyway. Best case, it appears active and survives. However, Chase is active in closing inactive cards. You've mentioned that you've used the other cards regularly. However, this card doesn't get any use, which makes it a risk for them. If someone were to compromise it, you might not even notice it, which is bad for you, and if you did, they have to reimburse you, which is bad for them. While that's true for all cards, unused cards pose a higher risk of something happening relative to the money they otherwise get.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:04:30 GMT

I guess I'll try charging the items I was planning to charge already. The other thing that irritates me is they just emailed and mailed me a 0% APR offer on purchases made 4/2016 - 4/2017 which reminded me to use the card. That offer arrived in April, so I thought they wanted me to stay as a customer, at least not about to close the account. If I had taken advantage of the 0% APR offer already, I'd be really annoyed.

I like having a card that I don't use since I had to go through replacement cards after the Target/Home Depot breaches a couple years ago. It was nice to have this emergency card available while Chase was sending me card change letters and limiting transactions on the affected cards.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:08:10 GMT

You can try calling Chase's Executive Office (EO) and see if there is any way they can help you. I have also heard people have had some luck reaching out to Chase on Facebook, so you can try that too. I know everyone says it'll stay on your reports for 10 years after they close your card, but I also understand that if you can manage to keep your oldest card open, it will be even older in 10 years - so I say go ahead and keep trying to keep it open. If you do manage to get them to do it, I highly recommend you use your card once every six months to show activity. This goes for any card you don't want closed for inactivity.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:12:39 GMT

What is the Executive Office?

Has anyone been successful at keeping a card open after being told it will close for inactivity?

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:13:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
they just emailed and mailed me a 0% APR offer on purchases made 4/2016 - 4/2017 which reminded me to use the card. That offer arrived in April, so I thought they wanted me to stay as a customer, at least not about to close the account. If I had taken advantage of the 0% APR offer already, I'd be really annoyed.

I'm a little new, but this confuses me. If you take advantage of that offer today and have 0% APR on an existing balance, how will they close the card with a balance on it that they've agreed to keep at 0%?

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:18:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What is the Executive Office?

Has anyone been successful at keeping a card open after being told it will close for inactivity?

Chase: 888-622-7547 (Chase Executive Ofc. in IL)

I got that number from the Backdoor Numbers thread found here: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Backdoor-Numbers/td-p/408066

I am sure there have been others who have been successful keeping a card open. It sometimes just takes talking to the right person.

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:28:35 GMT

DaisyFly,

I don't know because if I had not been busy with work this week, I would have charged over $1,000 on the card a couple days after the date of the cancellation letter, but before receiving the letter, thinking I coud carry a balance at 0% APR till 4/2017 if I wanted to do so.

The letter includes:

"We appreciate having you as a Slate cardmember and will always do our best to make sure you're satisfied with your card. "

"...automatically with no enrollment required..."

What if I had started charging on the card for the offer?

Re: Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2016 19:34:25 GMT

JustMe3,

Thank you for the contact info. I am new to all of this.