Bank of America closed my credit card accounts after adding authorized users

[Anonymous]

I am going to make a guess on this one. I am guessing banks are looking at things like authorized users with heavy scrutiny because of the current economic climate. I generally disagree with this since they should not extend a line that your income could not support fully advanced. But I can see a lenders perspective that adding a few authorized users at one time could be worrisome. They may think you are allowing family members to float their expenses on your accounts to cover bills with finances strapped for many families, add in the risk of losing work and the way lenders are becoming stricter in these times since there is a risk of just about anyone losing work. I am really sorry to hear about your cards being closed and that is extremely unfortunate. My advice to everyone is to just let their accounts age, avoid anything that triggers a manual review and do not do anything out of the ordinary. This includes cash advances...etc things that make you look strapped for cash or like you are struggling. Many lenders are taking AA so just keep doing business as usual and don't raise any flags! 

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you,

It's no big deal, as I do have more accounts with other great lenders. I just hate to see my credit age take a potential hit.

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And please dont start adding AUs to those cards or the same thing might happen. Just my 2cents. 

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am going to make a guess on this one. I am guessing banks are looking at things like authorized users with heavy scrutiny because of the current economic climate. I generally disagree with this since they should not extend a line that your income could not support fully advanced. But I can see a lenders perspective that adding a few authorized users at one time could be worrisome. They may think you are allowing family members to float their expenses on your accounts to cover bills with finances strapped for many families, add in the risk of losing work and the way lenders are becoming stricter in these times since there is a risk of just about anyone losing work. I am really sorry to hear about your cards being closed and that is extremely unfortunate. My advice to everyone is to just let their accounts age, avoid anything that triggers a manual review and do not do anything out of the ordinary. This includes cash advances...etc things that make you look strapped for cash or like you are struggling. Many lenders are taking AA so just keep doing business as usual and don't raise any flags! 

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^^^^ this

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Glad to see that I am not the only one this has happened to. It's their loss, I rather do business with companies who honor great customers instead of throwing them out like trash!

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It's never their loss. 

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I think adding AUs can always be a risk with any lender because it definitely can prompt an account review. At this point I don't see BoA as any more "dangerous" than any other bank.

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But why do they even care about an AU being added to your credit card? The AU is not in any way responsible for the charges...you are. If you trust them enough to add them as an AU, and take responsibility for paying for those charges, Why do they care. The only thing I can think of is perhaps they think you are selling AU access to boost the AU credit score. I did recently add my Neice as an AU on my AMEX card even though her credit is bad. I called them to do it, and explained that with me being disabled and in poor health, I need her to do my grocery shopping for me, and her having the card makes it easy. I can manage her access though by setting the limit on that card, or even freezing it. I really like that feature on American express, and set the credit limit to 400 dollars a month, which I can change online at any time. That is very helpful during this virus pandemic. Her and her Husband are also both out of work, so it also allows me to help them with their own groceries for a while.

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Someone else has already given some suggestions and I agree.   While Amex allows you to set a CL for AUs, many other cards don't, and adding AUs will presumably increase spending, which in normal times is what the banks want, but now they may be concerned about your ability to pay.   Yes, it's all your responsibility, but that''s also the danger.     Sort of similar to me having say a $10K limit, and I've usually been PIF with a statement balance of $100.   Now Ive started carrying $5k month to month.   By the above logic, you could say "What's the problem, the limit is $10K and he is way below"   but obviously some issuers are going to take note.

[Jnbmom]

Unless I missed it, exactly how many AIs did you add and what was the usage with the card ???

[KLEXH25]

I'm curious about whether the new AUs had even gotten their cards by the time the accounts were closed. If she verified the additions on 4/7, and they closed the accounts by 4/15, that's only a week. What kind of charges could they even have made by then? 

[Anonymous]

@KLEXH25  I don't think they would have been able to make any charges. With banks being backlogged it could have taken time to review and approve the request. I am thinking the chain of events could have been request 4/7 verification needed and then a pending status for approval. Aus do need to be approved to be added to an account through manual review most of the time. I saw op never mentioned these were approved just that their card was cleared for personal use as in the fraud status was lifted and would allow charges to be made. Now I am thinking between 4/7 and 4/15 it got to manual review and was decided to be closed either from a file perspective an aggregate risk perspective (too much cl in uncertain times) or questions regarding why the family needed to be added. Banks are backlogged and it is unfortunate but they aren't really taking explanations. As a lender getting a request for 2 or 3 or a few aus added at once would raise a ton of red flags for me on how much these customers would be charging and whether op was allowing them to have access to his income to pay bills. It is really unfortunate and sad many lenders are cutting people out. However, they are already cutting out customers using cards for strictly personal use they don't want to be funding a whole family of expenses risking default. Unemployment is skyrocketing and it is definitely a concern that the employed members of the family will be allowing unmonitored use of credit to help others out. The line was established for op based on their income their spend patterns and maybe they felt uncomfortable in this climate to allow multiple users access to the line. Again very sorry this is happening just trying to provide some more information and theories. 

[Mahraja]

@Anonymous 

sorry to read about your card closure my advice is do not do anything that leads to account review especially these days when the Fraud is at its peek .. even adding and AU can put you in trouble these days because high tech thieves are fully awake taking advantage of COVID-19 ..this is the best time for them to make money and banks are fully aware of that but aren't prepare ...

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I had two credit card accounts with BoA. One I've had about 3-4 years and the other about 2 years. On 4/4 I added some authorized users to one of my credit cards. On 4/7 I recieved a called from BoA fraud department asking me to verify that I had added the users. I gave them every piece of information that they asked for and the representative said that he would clear my account, and I could go back to using the account as normal.

Three questions:

1.  How many authorized users did you add?

2.  You say they were family members, but did they reside at your address?

3.  Did any of the authorized users have any baddies that would show up if BOA did a soft pull on their credit?