Trying to recover active but unused credit card account

[Question_man]

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@Remedios wrote:

If you haven't used it in years, what's being credited?

If you called the issuer, they would see where the credit is coming from. There is no way issuer doesn't know where the money came from. 

If you know issuer, you have access to website/app. If you have access, transaction would be there. 

It's been a while since I got this confused

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Thanks, I will try again. 

This is a credit issued by my insurance company to the credit card I had on file with the insurer.  Since I have not been notified by the insurer that the credit did not go through, I assume that it did go through.  Unfortunately the issuer of this credit card does not send emails regarding transactions to the card.  The card I use most does send me notices of all transactions.

[Question_man]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

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@Question_man wrote:

Aaah, thanks, I will try that.  I assume the account must still be open, because if it was closed, the issuer would have been notified that the transaction was not completed.

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Not necessarily.  Your insurer likely does this through an automated batch.  If the account is not open, the merchant's credit card processor may simply mail them a letter in 2-6 weeks stating that the credit failed due to an invalid account number.

Go to annualcreditreport.com and pull your  credit reports.  Even if the account is closed it may jog your memory.  The last 4 may not match the account numbers listed on your reports, however, as they are not always identical to card numbers.  If you can log into your insurance portal and see the stored card as mentioned previously the BIN number (first 6 digits) of any credit card can be decoded to a particular issuer, and for larger issuers, even a specific subset of cards.

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Thanks, will try that, but if my memory is accurate, when I logged in to that insurance account, all I saw was the last 4 digits of the card.

[Question_man]

ARGH!!!!  I just did that and on every line entry the last 4 digits are missing!!!!!

[longtimelurker]

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@Question_man wrote:

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Thanks, will try that, but if my memory is accurate, when I logged in to that insurance account, all I saw was the last 4 digits of the card.

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Yes, that's a common security measure for stored cards.   Sometimes even on bank websites it's hard to find the full number.

[SoCalGardener]

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@Question_man wrote:

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This is a credit issued by my insurance company to the credit card I had on file with the insurer. 

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But you're not able to see it on your insurance company's website?

As others have said, check any of your credit reports--anything will do, whether it's Credit Karma or Wallet Hub or Nerd Wallet--they'll have all your credit cards' histories. Scan the list for the last 4 digits matching what you have. If you can't find it that way (as noted earlier, the number could be different now), look for which card has had recent activity on it. That may not work either--I recently found out that when cards have a credit balance, that is *not* reflected on my credit reports--they're just reported as having $0 balances. So, in your case, the card that received the credit may not reflect any activity.

Don't worry, though, this is not impossible! Let us know what you do or don't find out and we'll take it from there and try to help.

[FinStar]

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@Question_man wrote:

I have an active credit card account, but I have not used it in many years and I discarded the card.  My insurer issued a credit to this account, and I have the last 4 digits of the account. How can I learn the name of the issuer of this card?

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Not sure if you tried this or not, when you go to your insurer's website/portal, are you able to add/edit/remove any currently stored payment methods? Obviously, it would depend on the UI or platform, but there are instances in which one can edit a stored payment method online (such as expiration date/CVV) which can reveal the full account number, but if it's a UI or portal where the digits are masked (for security reasons) then that may not work.

Do you have any other records, documents or other places where that particular account was used or stored -- besides the insurer?

[Question_man]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Question_man wrote:

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Thanks, will try that, but if my memory is accurate, when I logged in to that insurance account, all I saw was the last 4 digits of the card.

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Yes, that's a common security measure for stored cards.   Sometimes even on bank websites it's hard to find the full number.

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If I could identify the bank that issued the card I could then find the account.

[Question_man]

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@FinStar wrote:

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@Question_man wrote:

I have an active credit card account, but I have not used it in many years and I discarded the card.  My insurer issued a credit to this account, and I have the last 4 digits of the account. How can I learn the name of the issuer of this card?

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Not sure if you tried this or not, when you go to your insurer's website/portal, are you able to add/edit/remove any currently stored payment methods? Obviously, it would depend on the UI or platform, but there are instances in which one can edit a stored payment method online (such as expiration date/CVV) which can reveal the full account number, but if it's a UI or portal where the digits are masked (for security reasons) then that may not work.

Do you have any other records, documents or other places where that particular account was used or stored -- besides the insurer?

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I have no records that I can find.  And unfortunately whatever company issued this card, does not send emails regarding every transaction.  As I mentioned elsewhere, even though I have not (knowingly!) used this credit card, I saw no point in closing the account, since I've read that that will reduce your credit score

[Question_man]

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@FinStar wrote:

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Not sure if you tried this or not, when you go to your insurer's website/portal, are you able to add/edit/remove any currently stored payment methods? Obviously, it would depend on the UI or platform, but there are instances in which one can edit a stored payment method online (such as expiration date/CVV) which can reveal the full account number, but if it's a UI or portal where the digits are masked (for security reasons) then that may not work.

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It would be easy to change the credit card info on file, but if I did I think I'd never again hear from the credit card company that has the credit!  I think now I will wait till the next charge on that card from the insurer, and then maybe I'll get some sort of notice--either of a new charge, or that payment is due.   I again contacted the insurer and it was unable to give me any info at all.

[Question_man]

OK, will do.  I suspect it is no accident that I have not received any notice from the credit card company--if I don't pursue this, eventually it will take the money.  It is also very "peculiar" that I have not received any statement from this company in the 4 months since the credit was issued.  I can understand not receiving any statement for a $0.00 balance--but why not a statement showing my credit?