I've had the naïve hope that the people who answer Chase secure message questions would check when they are not sure of an answer, but experience has disabused me of that notion. I've had much more luck with front-line phone people, some of whom actually do check (or at least put me on hold) when they don't know the answer.

Wasn't there recently a wave of tightening, such as reducing credit lines and closing little used cards (perhaps at other issuers)? I may be misremembering or overinterpreting anecdotes.