topic Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa! in Credit Cards

Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

Credit-hoarder — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 22:48:08 GMT

Closed by grantor for non use I presume. Found out on CK this morning. The last payment I made on it was January of 2020 so I guess after 2 years of no use Comenity shuts you down. It started out as Total Rewards Visa back in Spring 2015 with a $2k SL. Wouldn't be a big deal except it had a $20k CL--but it also had a sky high interest rate--25.xx%. I had been using some of my cards to renovate another house I own and it took my overall UTL from 5% to 6% by the end of last year. This closure might explain why it jumped to 7% so quick after the first of this year.

Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

FinStar — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 23:35:44 GMT

Yup, non-use will definitely do it. A variety of Comenity CCs can last for up to ~2 years with inactivity before they automatically close them, but others have reported getting closed a little after a year 🤷‍♂️

Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

Credit-hoarder — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 01:37:58 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
Yup, non-use will definitely do it. A variety of Comenity CCs can last for up to ~2 years with inactivity before they automatically close them, but others have reported getting closed a little after a year 🤷‍♂️

Yeah--just wish I would have seen this coming else I would have thrown a couple of swipes on it. Took a lot of work to get it up to that $20k. I just took my Good Sam card out of the SD and put it in my wallet b/c it's approaching that 2 year mark also.

Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

FinStar — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 02:09:13 GMT

@Credit-hoarder wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
Yup, non-use will definitely do it. A variety of Comenity CCs can last for up to ~2 years with inactivity before they automatically close them, but others have reported getting closed a little after a year 🤷‍♂️
Yeah--just wish I would have seen this coming else I would have thrown a couple of swipes on it. Took a lot of work to get it up to that $20k. I just took my Good Sam card out of the SD and put it in my wallet b/c it's approaching that 2 year mark also.

The way I see it, if it took a decent effort to get it to that higher CL, especially since Comenity is known for relatively easy SP CLIs, I would've placed some usage on it the moment you received each CLI -- or at least put a reminder on your mobile device to keep it active every 6 months. So, a lesson learned, but try to follow a similar activity pattern with the other one -- rinse and repeat.

Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

4sallypat — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 04:20:45 GMT

Sorry about the closure, but at least we are all reminded to put some us on all our cards instead of SD.

This is a reminder for me - I have to pull out of the SD and put a bit of use on cards I have not used.

Does anyone know if these cards need "excersing" a bit of use ?

Chase co-branded cards: IHG, British Airways, Amazon Prime

Barclays: View, Frontier, and Wyndham

Discover

Citi: Simplicity, Double Cash, Shop your way

Petal 2

Sync: Mattress Firm, Mathis Bros, eBay & PayPal

Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

FinStar — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 05:09:18 GMT

@4sallypat wrote:
Sorry about the closure, but at least we are all reminded to put some us on all our cards instead of SD.

This is a reminder for me - I have to pull out of the SD and put a bit of use on cards I have not used.
Does anyone know if these cards need "excersing" a bit of use ?

Chase co-branded cards: IHG, British Airways, Amazon Prime
Barclays: View, Frontier, and Wyndham
Discover
Citi: Simplicity, Double Cash, Shop your way
Petal 2
Sync: Mattress Firm, Mathis Bros, eBay & PayPal

All of them need to have some sort of activity to prevent any potential closures. It doesn't have to be monthly so you would need to determine and/or decide what periodic usage needs to be on any of them to prevent any imminent closures. It can be as simple as automatic reminders to keep them in some sort of rotation with low/nominal transactions.

Barclays, Discover and Chase seem to be pretty good about sending 'use it or lose it' reminders. But, I wouldn't rely on a reminder as a fail-safe scenario since they can change internal policies at any given time. Case in point, HSBC and 5/3 changed their inactivity guidelines and lots of folks learned the hard way in 2020/2021, as an example.

That said, Chase, Barclays and SYNCB are also known to CLD for prolonged inactivity without warning.

Re: Oh Well--So Long Caesar's Rewards Visa!

4sallypat — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 16:55:59 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
@4sallypat wrote:
Sorry about the closure, but at least we are all reminded to put some us on all our cards instead of SD.

This is a reminder for me - I have to pull out of the SD and put a bit of use on cards I have not used.
Does anyone know if these cards need "excersing" a bit of use ?

Chase co-branded cards: IHG, British Airways, Amazon Prime
Barclays: View, Frontier, and Wyndham
Discover
Citi: Simplicity, Double Cash, Shop your way
Petal 2
Sync: Mattress Firm, Mathis Bros, eBay & PayPal

All of them need to have some sort of activity to prevent any potential closures. It doesn't have to be monthly so you would need to determine and/or decide what periodic usage needs to be on any of them to prevent any imminent closures. It can be as simple as automatic reminders to keep them in some sort of rotation with low/nominal transactions.

Barclays, Discover and Chase seem to be pretty good about sending 'use it or lose it' reminders. But, I wouldn't rely on a reminder as a fail-safe scenario since they can change internal policies at any given time. Case in point, HSBC and 5/3 changed their inactivity guidelines and lots of folks learned the hard way in 2020/2021, as an example.

That said, Chase, Barclays and SYNCB are also known to CLD for prolonged inactivity without warning.

Thanks @FinStar for the great reminder and DP.

I am going to pull out my SD cards and put on organic spend...