Help - Chase is cancelling my card for inactivity

[MyLoFICO]

Holy crap, inactive for 10 years. lol. 

[redpat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I like having a card that I have had since the 90's.

Has anyone else received a letter closing an inactive Chase account recently?

They told me using the account now will not keep it open.  Before receiving the letter, I even set up account alerts on the card a few weeks ago to get ready to use it before expiration so I would have to call them to send new cards.  I had planned to use it this week for over $1k in charges.  I did use it yesterday to confirm it is still live. 

Has anyone gotten Chase to reissue an expiring card after being told they are closing the account?  If I charge significant amounts ($1k-$2k) now, do you think they will reconsider even though they say it won't matter?

Why would Chase be so intent on closing THIS card?  I don't get it.

I don't expect this card closing to have significant impact on my credit score, even after it drops off in ten years.

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They close the card because it wasn't being used for a 10 year period.  They took that risk of the table for non-usage, why should they keep it open?  They saw you were using their other cards and giving you CLIs, you should have moved the limit or used the card.  Lenders close cards all the time for inactive accounts.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I like having a card that I have had since the 90's.

Has anyone else received a letter closing an inactive Chase account recently?

They told me using the account now will not keep it open.  Before receiving the letter, I even set up account alerts on the card a few weeks ago to get ready to use it before expiration so I wouldn't have to call them to send new cards.  I had planned to use it this week for over $1k in charges.  I did use it yesterday to confirm it is still live. 

Has anyone gotten Chase to reissue an expiring card after being told they are closing the account?  If I charge significant amounts ($1k-$2k) now, do you think they will reconsider even though they say it won't matter?

Why would Chase be so intent on closing THIS card?  I don't get it.

I don't expect this card closing to have significant impact on my credit score, even after it drops off in ten years.

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There isn't much harm in putting use on it in an attempt to keep it open. Worst case, they close it anyway. Best case, it appears active and survives. However, Chase is active in closing inactive cards. You've mentioned that you've used the other cards regularly. However, this card doesn't get any use, which makes it a risk for them. If someone were to compromise it, you might not even notice it, which is bad for you, and if you did, they have to reimburse you, which is bad for them. While that's true for all cards, unused cards pose a higher risk of something happening relative to the money they otherwise get.

[Anonymous]

I guess I'll try charging the items I was planning to charge already.  The other thing that irritates me is they just emailed and mailed me a 0% APR offer on purchases made 4/2016 - 4/2017 which reminded me to use the card.  That offer arrived in April, so I thought they wanted me to stay as a customer, at least not about to close the account.  If I had taken advantage of the 0% APR offer already, I'd be really annoyed.

I like having a card that I don't use since I had to go through replacement cards after the Target/Home Depot breaches a couple years ago.  It was nice to have this emergency card available while Chase was sending me card change letters and limiting transactions on the affected cards.

[Anonymous]

You can try calling Chase's Executive Office (EO) and see if there is any way they can help you. I have also heard people have had some luck reaching out to Chase on Facebook, so you can try that too. I know everyone says it'll stay on your reports for 10 years after they close your card, but I also understand that if you can manage to keep your oldest card open, it will be even older in 10 years - so I say go ahead and keep trying to keep it open. If you do manage to get them to do it, I highly recommend you use your card once every six months to show activity. This goes for any card you don't want closed for inactivity.

[Anonymous]

What is the Executive Office?

Has anyone been successful at keeping a card open after being told it will close for inactivity?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 they just emailed and mailed me a 0% APR offer on purchases made 4/2016 - 4/2017 which reminded me to use the card.  That offer arrived in April, so I thought they wanted me to stay as a customer, at least not about to close the account.  If I had taken advantage of the 0% APR offer already, I'd be really annoyed.

I'm a little new, but this confuses me. If you take advantage of that offer today and have 0% APR on an existing balance, how will they close the card with a balance on it that they've agreed to keep at 0%?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What is the Executive Office?

Has anyone been successful at keeping a card open after being told it will close for inactivity?

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Chase: 888-622-7547 (Chase Executive Ofc. in IL)

I got that number from the Backdoor Numbers thread found here: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Backdoor-Numbers/td-p/408066

I am sure there have been others who have been successful keeping a card open. It sometimes just takes talking to the right person.

[Anonymous]

DaisyFly,

I don't know because if I had not been busy with work this week, I would have charged over $1,000 on the card a couple days after the date of the cancellation letter, but before receiving the letter, thinking I coud carry a balance at 0% APR till 4/2017 if I wanted to do so. 

The letter includes:

"We appreciate having you as a Slate cardmember and will always do our best to make sure you're satisfied with your card. "

"...automatically with no enrollment required..."

What if I had started charging on the card for the offer?

[Anonymous]

JustMe3,

Thank you for the contact info.  I am new to all of this.