topic Re: Chase closing account for no reason? in Credit Cards

Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:07:41 GMT

Hi All, I'm dumbfounded right now. Received a letter from Chase today indicating that they are closing an account because of one of the threee principal reasons:

Recent past due(s)

Total bankcard balance has grown too fast

Bankcard balance grew too fast compared to credit limit and time on file

What???? The particular account they are closing has been at a zero balance for over 3 years, not ever a delinquency in payment, never an overlimit balance, zippo. They indicate I should check my credit report from Experian if I had questions about their decision. Which I have done, nothing is showing outstanding, no derogatory history and balance is still zero. Will this now make my score go down? Should I just allow it to close and be done with it? Or do I call them on it based on the incorrect principal reasons they list? I can understand if they are closing it because of non use, but say it if that is the case. The account was opened in 2005, if after 4 yrs do they automatically close? Based on the reasons they outlined will this ding me on my score?

Has anyone else experienced this with Chase and/or on other cards?

Thanks

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

FocusOnFICO — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:15:40 GMT

Bewildered,

Welcome to the forum. There are many who are, and have been, in your position. Please search the forum for threads re: Chase--there will be plenty to answer all of your questions. You will have a lot of posts to review, but I would recommend those that posted their results from recons, etc.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:25:31 GMT

bewildered wrote:

...Recent past due(s)
Total bankcard balance has grown too fast
Bankcard balance grew too fast compared to credit limit and time on file

bewildered, what do the balances on your other cards look like? That bit about "total" bankcard balance made me wonder.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:36:53 GMT

The closed Chase is zero balance, limit $1700. The other Chase account is at zero balance, limit $5700. Discover Card is at zero balance, limit 8500. HBSC is at zero, but just today put $123 on it, but will PIF by next statement, limit is $5000. AMEX card current balance is $3333, no limit, I usually pay each month what they ask for. Part of the charges go to the flexible spend category. That's it for revolving CC.

Thanks

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:40:40 GMT

OK, then, that's just Chase being insane. It looks like you're in good shape.

This wasn't a WaMu card in a previous life, was it?

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:47:07 GMT

no, definitely not a past WaMu account. it is insane, it's all right there in my credit reports, nothing illogical about what is there, but Chase I swear is trying to make people second guess themselves and make them feel they are the ones insane. I am just worried that my score as of today will be dinged by this closure.

thanks.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:53:34 GMT

Since you have $0 balances on your credit cards (excluding the AmEx charge card), the closure shouldn't affect your scores. The designation of "closed by lender" is not part of scoring, and the way things are going, everyone will have at least one of these on their reports.

The closed account will continue to be factored into your age and scoring for 10 years, or until Equifax gets bored and deletes it, probably still 10 years on the others, though.

You might want to read fused's "Closing Credit Cards", linked in my siggy below. hth!

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

nathan — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:56:40 GMT

Hmmm. It looks like it is not a bad idea to start looking for a replacement cc. Chase hasn't closed mine yet, but I will be prepared when they do. I wonder when chase will eventually stop this erratic behavior.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:58:03 GMT

Seem to be standard operating procedure for most of the banks now. Don't use your card at least once in 3mo or 6mo? Bang, you're cut off. Doesn't matter how great of a customer you are. Or how long you've been with them. The banks knee-jerk reaction to economy right now and all their bad debt. Either chase credit limits down or cut off unused open ones.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:58:10 GMT

I will check it out. Thanks so much for your help!

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

ShowCredit — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:54:18 GMT

Bewildered,

Don;t feel bad, chase did that to me too. They gave reasons that made no sense, but I am not asking them to reconsider. It's like whatever. I am going to apply for another CC through my credit union.

Chase is ridiculous.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:59:37 GMT

Do the search here. These decisions (particularly the more psychotic ones) have been apealled sucessfully. I would file complaints with the OCC:

http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/

and the BBB in Delaware. Also call Chase and send a letter containing the referenced EX report where they direct you to. Remain optimistic!

Message Edited by creditwherecreditisdue on 08-29-2009 08:59 PM

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:28:30 GMT

I haven't applied for a new card sice all this started. When I read this stuff I get furious. I'm sitting this one out; when all is said and done, I will remeber the banks that acted like decent people and snub the rest...for the rest of my days.

Fact is, you have too much available credit for the new credit world and they just drum up q-card one liners at random to give for reasons. How would you feel if they just said, "sorry, we don't have the funds these days to back the massive amounts of credit limits we used to back so we are shaving 20% off the credit limits of those people who never use their limit." You'd be a little disturbed but just go on with your day. The behavior of big banking is nothing short of filth.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:47:16 GMT

I had each of the cc's up and just recently paid them all down to zero. so i've been using them for the past 5 years. the account that closed was the one I hadn't used for some time. I'll be watching my Chase Freedom to see what they "decide" to do with that one. thanks.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

ocheosa — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:08:45 GMT

bewildered,

I would call and talk to an analyst. Something seems wrong here. You may have been caught in a computer generated closure. It could not hurt to call in and speak to a human. I only say this because you've had your accounts open for 5 years.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

athensguy — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:45:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Do the search here. These decisions (particularly the more psychotic ones) have been apealled sucessfully. I would file complaints with the OCC:
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/
and the BBB in Delaware. Also call Chase and send a letter containing the referenced EX report where they direct you to. Remain optimistic!
Message Edited by creditwherecreditisdue on 08-29-2009 08:59 PM

Indeed, giving false reasons for AA is illegal.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:57:22 GMT

It looks to me like the account in question was simply closed because of inactivity, but the reasons stated on the letter were bogus, which is getting to be routine for Chase these days. I'd blame a poorly-written reason-generating software program.

Banks' reasons for adverse action seem to be similar to Fico's list of factors which help/hurt credit scores, in that they fall into two categories - the "reasons" are either extremely obvious, or are unexplainable mismatches. If any (or all) of the reasons don't make sense, they should just be ignored. A cardholder can figure out the real reason with common sense, or can check a credit forum like this to find out what widespread actions their bank is currently taking (across-the-board rate-jacks, CLDs, closures, etc.) that they have been caught in.

These days, bankcards which are inactive for more than a year are very likely to be closed, and some issuers will close credit card accounts after shorter periods of inactivity. My 12-year-old HSBC account was closed last year after 6 months of inactivity ...

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:17:07 GMT

Once you slide past three months of disuse with HSBC you are living on borrowed time!

Even if Chase closed for disuse they did not so state. The closure must be challenged and their feet held to the fire. If my Chase account is closed it will be challenged no matter what the reason stated is. They seem to very readily able to reverse themselves as long as you protest properly and present a reasonable argument.

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:26:45 GMT

this is why chase uses Ex if you buy your report direct from Ex you will see they keep hisstory of you credit card balances

Re: Chase closing account for no reason?

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:28:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
this is why chase uses Ex if you buy your report direct from Ex you will see they keep hisstory of you credit card balances

At least by month as reported. They also provide a history of your CL as well. That said the format is kind of lame.