topic Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity in General Credit Topics

Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:50:09 GMT

Good riddance, I say! If you search on this board, you'll find that this was my first foray into rebuilding my credit back in December 2014, nearly 3 years ago. I was also excited when I got the "graduation letter" advising that it would become a regular card in November 2015.

BUT, I started with a $500 secured limit, got refused on reconsideration once it graduated. Then got a couple of $200 unrequested increases over a 2 year period. Not to mention, a couple of HPs for my troubles.

So today when I got the innocent looking letter telling me they'd closed my account for lack of activity in a 6-month period, my limit stood at a mighty $900. Mind you, the MAJORITY of my other major credit cards limits are of $10k to $25k CL variety, which is pretty standard for me these days. And they actually bring me tangible benefits (airline miles, hotel points, cash back, etc.), unlike that chintzy "rewards points I could never figure out with Wells Fargo. (I think I earned 2.13 points towards a10,000 pt hostage-holding WF online store of junk.)

At the time of my "graduation", I think my lowest major card limit was $3k.

Now you have to understand that I've banked at Wells Fargo for some 16 years; hubby even had a refi-mortgage with them. I've NEVER burned them. And never been late or over-limit on anything with them.

Besides the nearly 4-year-old BK7 on my CRA, there are NO Derogs. My scores hover around the mid-700s depending on when things report. I've not applied for new credit in 12 months. And all tradelines are reporting at 100% on-time, low-ish to $0 balances. I've PIF 1 of my 4 student loans (tax advantages, plus used Discover BT check for 0%), and the remaining 3 are showing good standing, no missed payments.

I'd be pissed at Wells Fargo just on principle, except that first measly card probably stoked my rebuild effort to where my total revolving credit went from $500 to over $160k. And since the tradeline was closed in good standing (and at such a tiny limit), I will reap the benefits of it's AAOA effect for 10 more years. I dare say it won't even make a blip on my CRA.

So tomorrow, I'm marching myself to the branch and closing out everything else. Never fear, I'd moved most everything else, (including business accounts) to Chase years ago. Wells was just a "habit". Ironically, my neighborhood WF and Chase are next door to each other! I still have accounts at HSBC (for international), and now also Navy Federal Credit Union. Wells was about to go up on piddly fees that used to be free, anyway.

So, Adios MofoS!!!!

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:56:32 GMT

Closing my WF accounts next week as well. Ragequit over a $15 fee they applied incorrectly and refused to remove.

Such a bizarre bank -- losing customers left and right but they won't adjust a $15 fee.

Only kept them open during my rebuild thinking I'd go with their secured card since it offered a $5000 max deposit and hints it could have rewards added to it. Soooooo thankful I never had to go that route considering that I started getting unsecured cards with prime banks just 2 months into my rebuild.

Just waiting for next Monday when I will be half a block from a branch anyway. That way I can close it out and get my $1500 minimum checking balance paid in cash -- the balance that was supposed to prevent a $15 fee. The balance that pays 0% interest.

The only thing of value I got out of them was the free FICO 09 score monthly, but that's not worth any amount of frustration.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:36:19 GMT

Hello LadyAng. Can you tell us when the last transaction date was and the date of the last payment?

Wells Fargo tends to close cards due to inactivity a bit sooner than some other issuers.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:37:05 GMT

Yes, I used to like WF because they seemed easier to deal with and more forward thinking technology-wise. It was very easy to transfer money to relatives' accounts for presents or reimbursement, which other banks lacked the capability.

But now with Zell and such, it's a snap with just about any major bank. So "ba-bye" WF. I hardly knew ye.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:38:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello LadyAng. Can you tell us when the last transaction date was and the date of the last payment?

Wells Fargo tends to close cards due to inactivity a bit sooner than some other issuers.

Honestly, I had to remind myself to buy a stick of gum no and then, but I sure it's been since Jan/Feb 2017, so about 9-10 months since I used it. The letter says it was closed on Oct 25, 2017.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:55:41 GMT

That's interesting. The letter specifies six months as the period of inactivity, right? But as far as you can see, it was nine months?

I wonder whether that means that six months is their official policy, but that they typically give customers longer.

Would you guess that the last payment was in March? I wouldn't be surprised if CC issuers set the "inactivity" clock at the last point of activity of any kind, whether a payment or a transaction. In most cases that would be a payment.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 22:07:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That's interesting. The letter specifies six months as the period of inactivity, right? But as far as you can see, it was nine months?

I wonder whether that means that six months is their official policy, but that they typically give customers longer.

Would you guess that the last payment was in March? I wouldn't be surprised if creditors set the "inactivity" clock at the point of activity of any kind, whether a payment or a transaction. In most cases that would be a payment.

I'll quote it (with comments)

"We closed your account because of one or more of the following reasons:

One or more credit inquiries in the last 2 years on credit report (are you kidding me? There've been NO inquiries in a whole year, and 3 of the HPs in the previous 24 months are by WF themselves.)

Total monthly payments(s) due for bankcard or line of credit account(s) on credit report is high (that's not it as I KEEP my overall UT at 10% or under, and no card has more than 14% UT as I pay several times monthly BEFORE statement report and PIF. My income is also 6-figures as reported in their own records. Nevermind that they can see the cash and checks coming and going.)

Over Six Months Account Inactivity (BINGO!)"

So if I used the card as late as February and it didn't report until March, then that's 7 months until it was closed in late October. So, as usual, it's if the moon is in the 7th house, or the planets align in a particular way, or if the wind blows.

Compare Wells to Cabela's who sent me a letter 2 months ago saying I hadn't used the card in awhile, (it may have been 6-11 months) and since it was up for renewal, I only needed to use it for one transaction, and all things (on CRA) considered, I'd get a new card. I did use my $10k limit Cabela's at the gas station, and sure enough got the new card yesterday. Now, THAT's the way you do it, WF.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 22:26:39 GMT

Yeah, I was guessing from your first post that you felt that WF had behaved in a pretty unusual way by closing your account without warning. But actually that's pretty common. When a closure due to inactivity is being contemplated by the issuer, I think it is a bit more common for them to do it without warning than to send you a letter or email in advance and let you correct the problem. If I had to guess I'd say maybe 60/40 in favor of without warning -- though I couldn't be sure.

At any rate, since you seem to like your other cards, I would plan on using each one at least once every six months, to prevent the same thing happening to you again.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 22:38:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, I was guessing from your first post that you felt that WF had behaved in a pretty unusual way by closing your account without warning. But actually that's pretty common. When a closure due to inactivity is being contemplated by the issuer, I think it is a bit more common for them to do it without warning than to send you a letter or email in advance and let you correct the problem. If I had to guess I'd say maybe 60/40 in favor of without warning -- though I couldn't be sure.

At any rate, since you seem to like your other cards, I would plan on using each one at least once every six months, to prevent the same thing happening to you again.

Actually, the main reason I think WF behaved pretty badly is that they stuck to their stingy $900 limit for nearly 2 years while ARs, HPs, and SPs easily showed that I handled 5-figure limits effortlessly while earning their competitors profits on a regular basis. I failed to use their card regularly because I'd be bumping up at least the small limit weekly if not daily; even danger even of the dreaded "over-the-limit". I told them that when they'd contact me with BT offers. They could see it for themselves. Go figure.

The lack of notice has no effect on my credit, no my daily life, as well, I don't use the card, don't need the extra $900, have already gotten the benefit of its AAOA.

As for Cabela's, I suspect that notice had more to do with World's Foremost Bank's assets being sold to Capital One and them actually wanting to transfer as many active accounts as possible than with them actually wanting to close the card. At any rate, I've set alarms in EV to rotate usage of my cards. WF is the only one I didn't care about. The others are fit for purpose.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

rmduhon — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 01:20:02 GMT

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.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 14:30:02 GMT

@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.

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!

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Dec 2017 16:51:20 GMT

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.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 11:11:00 GMT

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.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 14:31:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

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

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.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

UncleB — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 11:24:56 GMT

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.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 17:30:23 GMT

@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.

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?

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

UncleB — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 17:57:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@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.
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?

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!

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 18:14:22 GMT

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...

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:56:07 GMT

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.

Re: Wells Fargo (Formerly Secured) CLOSED for Lack Of Activity

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 22:14:02 GMT

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?