Chase cancelling all accounts of recent card applicants whom they deem risky

[sarge12]

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@sjt wrote:

I would love to see more data points of the people that were shut down. It would be interesting to know if those folks had a thin file, what their overall utilization % was, and what their Chase balance was at the time of the shut down. 

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DoC gave the links to them reported on reddit...All of them appeared to have been restored best I could tell. Seemed they all had multiple cards attained recently.

[sarge12]

I just googled it and found out that the average consumer has 3-4 credit cards. If you compare that to the average number of cards the average person on these forums have, I think you would find that most of us have more cards than average...some, many more. I expect you might also find that we have more than the average number of AA against us as well. I, myself have 16 credit cards, that is 4-5 times the average. With the recent news reports about the sharp increase, compared to last year, of credit card defaults, it might not be the best time for a spree. That is just my take on things, and my concern might be unfounded, but that default rate was not some post on social media. It was real increases, reported by the issuers, and after what happened in 2008 in the banking industry, I do expect some adjustments by credit card issuers.

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

I just googled it and found out that the average consumer has 3-4 credit cards. If you compare that to the average number of cards the average person on these forums have, I think you would find that most of us have more cards than average...some, many more.

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*Raises hand* I've only got 4!

And while I expect to slowly acquire more, I have yet to go on any sprees and don't currently plan to. I'm wondering if they might see app sprees as risky behavior in general.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

I just googled it and found out that the average consumer has 3-4 credit cards. If you compare that to the average number of cards the average person on these forums have, I think you would find that most of us have more cards than average...some, many more.

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*Raises hand* I've only got 4!

And while I expect to slowly acquire more, I have yet to go on any sprees and don't currently plan to. I'm wondering if they might see app sprees as risky behavior in general.

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I don't know, but I think flying under the radar now might be smart. You are average and as such are probably safe for now.

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

I just googled it and found out that the average consumer has 3-4 credit cards. If you compare that to the average number of cards the average person on these forums have, I think you would find that most of us have more cards than average...some, many more.

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*Raises hand* I've only got 4!

And while I expect to slowly acquire more, I have yet to go on any sprees and don't currently plan to. I'm wondering if they might see app sprees as risky behavior in general.

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I don't know, but I think flying under the radar now might be smart. You are average and as such are probably safe for now.

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Makes very good sense. I really wish that Cap One would graduate my secured Platinum so I could combine it with my unsecured and bring my total credit card count (at this time) down to 3; aside from "flying under the radar", it'd simplify bookkeeping! I think myself one should look not just at what keeps issuers from getting jittery, but at how much/many one can handle reasonably at any one time; I think half a dozen or so is about my limit right now (until my next salary increase anyway), and I might settle for 5 if need be since getting a Visa is pretty much my primary credit objective for this year.

[Loquat]

My co-worker made the unfortunate list this weekend.  This morning me told me that he tried to use his newly aquired IHG and Ritz cards Friday night only to find out that both were declined.  He called in after trying to use one and then the other and found out that not only were both of his new accounts closed, but his year old Amazon was closed as well.  He was told a letter is forth coming.  He asked if they were just suspend (hoping for a verification issue) but was told that they couldn't explain over the phone.  When he logged into his account he was greeted to "This account has been closed" on all 3 cards in his online profile.  They had already issued a credit refund for the overpayment on his IHG card (he made some charges and paid them...but overpaid by .37 cents).

Amazon card is just shy over a year old.  IHG and Ritz were app'd a day after each other (roughly 3 weeks ago).  IHG card worked fine from the time of receieved until Friday night apparently.  He had yet to attempt a purchase on Ritz but tried Friday only after the IHG was declined.  He didn't think try Amazon, only found out that was closed when he called in about the other 2.  Lots of inquiries on all 3, scores between 650-670 at last months CCT pull across all 3.  Lots of cards newly aquired in the past 12 months and 2 old PRs from 2011.  EX currently 661, he can't pull his current scores from the other 2 reports for another 9 days when he's allowed the monthly pull from CCT. 

IHG was approved at $2,500, Ritz was approved at $10k, Amazon was approved at $500 just a little shy over a year ago and has remained there.  He said his Amazon card hadn''t been used for months and had a $0 balance.  will update when he gets the letter and lets me know what it says.  I did tell him at least they're all closed with a $0 balance...better to be closed that way than to be closed while still owing them.  

[sarge12]

@joe8185....The number of cards you have does not matter on handeling them if you always PIF all of them....5x0=0...15x0=0...

[Creditplz]

My Ritz card AF was charged by the time I received the card (along with other members) if he was charged the AF and paid it, tell him to call and ask for a refund. They refunded me when they closed my United Club card last year.

[Anonymous]

Hello all.  It's interesting that even in the comparatively small group of people reading this thread (a tiny TINY sliver of Chase users) we already have people chiming in and confirming that they know of people to whom DoC's story has happened to in the last week.

That said, I think we'll know more about the scope and impact of this Chase development in the next few weeks.  It's only been  couple business days so far.

Here is a post I added to the DoC thread, asking the author if he'll consider doing an update to this story in a week or two.  I wrote:

Is there any way we can get an update on this story a week from now? (Or perhaps two?) Posted at the top of the article? It would be interesting to find out if the five cases mentioned were just the beginning of hundreds, or whether it was just a handful of outliers.

It would also be interesting to see (when he does that update) if the commonality identified by Chuck could be fleshed out a bit more:

*  They had several new credit cards across various banks in a short timeframe.
*  They had numerous recent hard pulls showing on their credit report.

Curious to hear more about what several and numerous and short and recent might mean for these people. For example, does numerous/recent in the second bullet mean (in most cases) 6+ inquiries in the last month? Is Chase ignoring Auto and Mortgage inquiries (which can often lead to dozens of hard inquiries in a short time frame)?

Also curious (as were a couple other people) about how many of these victims of Chase’s zeal had money in checking and savings accounts.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Also curious (as were a couple other people) about how many of these victims of Chase’s zeal had money in checking and savings accounts.

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You know, I have no clue whether or not this is related but Chase actually called me out of the blue the other day, solely for the purpose of trying to get me to open a savings/checking account with them. An actual rep left a voicemail on my phone about it, praising the bonuses and wanting to tell me about it.

I thought it was a bit weird. I had been getting mailers for it, like, several over the course of 2 months. But calling my phone?

Thing is, I usually keep my cards zeroed out or mostly there, but the past 3-4 months I had been carrying a balance with Chase. It was up to around 1K of a balance on a $3500 CL card. And while the timing could be coincidence, they started pushing for me to open a checking/savings account after two statements cut like that.

Of course, you only get the bonuses if you meet certain criteria for the accounts, which I am currently incapable of doing.

I'm thinking their strategy was to try to suss out just what means I had to pay back the debt I was accruing, and getting a checking/savings acount with them (which a lot of poeple would do for $350 in bonuses) was a way to do it. And by simply calling me on the phone saying "You could get free money from us" they want me to call back, talk to a rep, find out how, and for the rep to personally hear whether I lose interest in opening the accounts once i hear what's required or not.

It's all conjecture based on timing, but I'm suspicious.