Shell deactivate my card after 3 months

[Anonymous]

So I have a Shell Store card (drive for 5) CL $700. I used it once in a while.

Recently they deactivated it. I called and they said that due to their policy, they cannot provide the card who has invalid SSN (I'm International Student, and per what they said, my SSN is only for Tax purpose, not credit card application purpose). They refused to reactivate it.

What should I do? Close the card and contact the bureaus about it (so it won't affect my report?) or just ignore it?

[Anonymous]

Good riddance to it. It's a crappy card anyways..

[fltireguy]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Good riddance to it. It's a crappy card anyways..

---

I actually like mine - all of the stations around me charge 8-10 cents extra for credit cards. I get the cash price with my Shell card, plus 5 cents off per gallon on the statement... plus my fuel rewards , which is a minimum of 5 cents per gallon lately... In the end, I save around $4.00 per tank, times 3 tanks per week... lol

[Anonymous]

I read this as "She'll deactivate" and I thought, 'what a terrible relationship that must be'. Lol

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

So I have a Shell Store card (drive for 5) CL $700. I used it once in a while.

Recently they deactivated it. I called and they said that due to their policy, they cannot provide the card who has invalid SSN (I'm International Student, and per what they said, my SSN is only for Tax purpose, not credit card application purpose). They refused to reactivate it.

What should I do? Close the card and contact the bureaus about it (so it won't affect my report?) or just ignore it?

---

Does your Social Security card have any sort of stipulation below, such as "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION.", or "NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT."? I'm assuming that, as an international student, your card will probably have one of two. If your card has the first, I'm assuming you have temporary work authorization (EAD) or some other authorization, and Citi (I think it's Citi?) is essentially finding some sort of excuse to gut you because they don't see you as a profitable customer in the long term.

If your card has the second stipulation, then they're unfortunately right—well, sort of. When we apply for a card, the implication that we have income is there. If your SSN isn't valid for employment, then theoretically, you shouldn't have any income; as such, lenders are allowed to close or deny your card for that purpose.

Even so, I highly doubt even this must be the case, because they approved you in the first place. If your SSN wasn't valid for employment (and therefore holding income) then why would they have accepted you to begin with? That doesn't make much sense.

Personally, I would close it—if they haven't closed it already. If you close it before they do, it should say on your report 'Account closed by consumer.', and it won't affect your report in any way beyond the obvious utilisation shift. If they closed it themselves and it says 'Account closed by creditor/credit grantor/lender/etc.', then it still shouldn't affect your report other than the utilisation, but if you ever apply somewhere and they go through manual review, it might bring up a question about it. Even so, I still don't think it's going to harm you terribly.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

So I have a Shell Store card (drive for 5) CL $700. I used it once in a while.

Recently they deactivated it. I called and they said that due to their policy, they cannot provide the card who has invalid SSN (I'm International Student, and per what they said, my SSN is only for Tax purpose, not credit card application purpose). They refused to reactivate it.

What should I do? Close the card and contact the bureaus about it (so it won't affect my report?) or just ignore it?

---

If they are refusing to reactivate it, then why hang on to it?  It's better for it to be closed by you than them. I don't get their reason, especially looking at all the nice cards you got in your siggy.  I'm guessing that they realize they may not have any legal recourse if you skip out on them, so they are limiting the risk by deactivating it?  Do you have a balance on the card?  Personally, I would PIF and close it.  Good luck!

[Anonymous]

@Moussie:

My SSN has "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION."

And yes, I did ask them for reason, as it does not make sense to approve my application and then deactivated it. They told me that "Even though Citi approved for it, policy from Shell states clearly that they do not approve any invalid SSN (same status as mine). I did try to tell them that, it is not the case with any other big branches like Chase, BoA, Cap1, Discover, etc. They just straight out refused.

So yes, I did as what you advised. I asked them to close the account. I am thinking I may ask the credit bureaus to remove the hard inquiry, as it's their fault in the first place.

[Anonymous]

---

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous:

My SSN has "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION."

And yes, I did ask them for reason, as it does not make sense to approve my application and then deactivated it. They told me that "Even though Citi approved for it, policy from Shell states clearly that they do not approve any invalid SSN (same status as mine). I did try to tell them that, it is not the case with any other big branches like Chase, BoA, Cap1, Discover, etc. They just straight out refused.

So yes, I did as what you advised. I asked them to close the account. I am thinking I may ask the credit bureaus to remove the hard inquiry, as it's their fault in the first place.

---

Yeah, they're not making sense. Type 2 SS cards are just as valid as type 1 cards, so long as the work authorisation is valid. Did they ask you to present your authorisation/verify identity when they accepted you? I reckon it's worth knowing these data points for other people who have type 2 SS cards.

Whatever, that's their loss. Yeah, you can try doing that. They might not remove it (because you did seek new credit), but it's worth asking anyway.

[Anonymous]

I did fax them my ssn, ead as well. They did not approve it. They told me that it is only for TAX purpose, not for credit card application.