Originally Posted by
ComplexAnalysis
This actually happened to me for another Chase card (Hyatt). Similar to OP, had >$5K spend / month on the card historically ... but that was reduced significantly due to the pandemic (<$1K / month).
Due to refunds from COVID-related cancellations, autopay ended up not being needed as credits satisfied my total charges. Unfortunately for me, this was something I didn't realize was a Chase issue and I wasn't keeping too close of a track of my balance / Chase notices as everything was automated - had no additional pulls/pushes from my bank account so assumed credits were OK.
Then in August my card started to get declined, checked my Chase app, and saw account closed.
After my account was closed, I dug into my Chase notices and saw the below note. Note: it wasn't true that
only merchant credits were posted to this account (still had daily spend), but the large travel refunds more than accounted for food/coffees/etc. I tried reaching out to on the phone several times (managers, etc.) and via SM, but no avail - while some of the reps could empathise with the situation, it was an automated bank action and there was no way to undo the closure. Explained how it was due to COVID-19 and I still wanted to use card for daily purchases, longstanding history with good behavior w/ Chase, etc. ..... nada. Couldn't be undone.
Additionally, my annual fee was charged during this time frame and had to pay for the whole year, even though the account was closed 1-2 months afterwards. Reps couldn't help with this either. That was the most frustrating part to me.
I had various cancelled travel refunds come through to my cards in March-April so was curious if I was at risk of falling afoul of this rule as well so I went back and checked my old statements. It turns out I only had one month where my (CSR) statement closed with a negative balance, and my statement had this note on it:
"You have a credit balance, so no payment is required. You may make charges against the credit or request a refund by contacting Cardmember Service at the address above. If after 6 months the credit balance is $1.00 or more, we will refund the credit within 30 days"
Which ... seems like exactly the opposite of what the notice posted above was? Maybe you get this notice the first month and then the opposite notice the second month, which seems like a real problem? Or possibly the rules are different for different accounts for some reason?
(Granted, personally I keep an eye out for fraudulent activity by monitoring my account activity on the website and rarely look at the full statement anyway, so I would have missed both.)