Cbass98

I had my USBank account for 14 years until they shut me down in April. I was depositing around 5-10K in cash/mo per month from their buxxx cards. Then in February, a buddy gave me cash to deposit, I wrote a big check, and sold my condo. Just too much happening at one time. They called me to ask me how much I expect to deposit every month. Then a couple of weeks later, I got the same letter. They closed my personal and biz checking account. I thought my cc was safe until a month later, they decided to close my cash+ and Carlson card too. Expect those to be shut down next. Now I don't deposit anything that comes close to MS into my Chase account.

flyertalkingallday

Well, that doesn't bode well for my Flexperks points. Did they confiscate any unredeemed Cash+?

Cbass98

No they didn't. When I received the cc closure letter, it said the cc's were closed immediately. No future date. I logged onto my account, took out all my cash+ points. Then I called to cancel both cards (I wanted it to be reported to agencies that I closed instead of them closing). I had just paid the annual fee on the Carlson card too; I was outside of the AF refund window. The girl said I could probably call back and get it refunded if they closed my account, but I wasn't going to let them ding my credit for $75. Chalk it up to cost of doing business. I had just made a b1g1 redemption at the Martinique in NYC; I don't think they can pry that rsvp or promo back.

RFDMinnesota

Oh goodness... My guess is 12-15 years old-ish. It's been my main checking account for as long as I can remember. And I cycle HEAVY volume through them. I'm talking lots of money orders and regular AP and Paypal deposits. I even earn a bit of interest on it

TheDapperDon

Your signature is awesome.

I have US Bank, and have only done the occassional MO through there. I just opened an account at a local bank to prepare for any heavy volume I might do.

I thought it was already a rule of thumb for folks to spread these deposits around a bunch of banks. I guess not.

MasterCharge

it is, however some folks dont follow rules as a result of it being inconvenient for them...

P.S. sorry for the shutdown op, especially with that tenure you have with them.

f0xx

Good luck OP trying to open another account.
Especially because they'll report the closure to Chex.

Andy2

I think that is a little over the top.

Most banks do not deny a walk-in customer an account based on a bad Chex history. They might place a longer hold time on the availability of deposits and deny overdraft courtesy.

The problems with opening new accounts should be confined to online banks that do not actually see the customer.

airstairfear

I was on Chex for 7 years. I beg to differ. When your Chex says "Closed due to abuse", you have a hard life for a while, trust me.

For what it's worth, according to Wells Fargo what counts as "abuse" is closing the account and refusing to pay the cascading overdraft charges they added after the fact.

aegt123

Expect your CC to get closed too. Happened to me. If any of you lost your Club Carlson points and plan to start a class action lawsuit PM me. There is a lawyer suing Chase for it and I am sure we can get her to take this case too.

BTW, I am interested how soon will shutdown my Charter One account now that they acquired them.

f0xx

Google up about people trying to get rid of negative Chex inquires etc.
They'll talk about how they're not able to get accounts etc because of what's on them. Negative closures etc.

At least you know what you're talking about.

MasterCharge

BOA, ALY, CHS, WF also report to EWS, might want to take a look at them(http://www.earlywarning.com/consumer-information.html)

whitesol

You realize that it doesn't hurt your credit at all and it really makes no difference if it shows closed by creditor vs you closing it?

Andy2

There have been a lot of bank account closures as a result of dollar coin deposits and money order deposits. I have a feeling a great number of those people have successfully opened new bank accounts at other institutions. I have read the Google search accounts of people with bad Chex reports having difficulties opening new accounts, but those generally involved customers who were accused of owing money to the bank that closed the account.

Lemma

The big banks tend to be pretty risk-averse when it comes to deposit accounts and don't really care if they have to fire a bunch of innocent customers along the way. It's like a rental car company choosing not to rent to someone under 25 even if they have a good driving record. Someone running large amounts of money through their account, especially relative to their average balance, is a much greater risk to the bank than the average person who gets their paycheck direct deposited and pays bills, plain and simple.

I'd try a small community bank or credit union, be frank with them about your plans for the account, and take your business somewhere else if they don't like it. Every financial institution is different, but you should be able to find one that is willing to work with you. Smaller financial institutions tend to know their customers a lot better, so they have more ability to take a closer look instead of just shooting first and asking questions later. I don't know why anyone uses the big banks for deposit accounts honestly. Both the deals available and the customer service seem to be much worse than at the average small community bank or CU. And they often/usually rebate other banks' ATM fees, so you actually have easier access to cash.

As far as I know banks generally don't report to Chex unless you owe them money. If they just didn't want to do business with you anymore, the form letters they send to tell you the account is being closed will warn that you may be reported to Chex/EWS, but everyone I have talked to who had a checking account closed for MS-type activities who then checked their Chex report (free once a year) saw nothing reported there. They can't report you to Chex for depositing too many MO, or withdrawing it too rapidly after they make it available, and something like suspected fraud would be way over the top without any evidence to support it. The worst consequence would be if any ACH payments or checks bounced and caused adverse action from other banks. Luckily when a payment is returned there is a code that gives the payee the reason, so they will know it wasn't because of NSF but because the bank froze your account, so a phone call to explain followed by prompt payment from another account is likely to clear things up if you are an otherwise good customer.

If anyone has a counterexample of someone who was actually reported to Chex for MO deposits without owing the bank money, I'd be very interested to hear about it. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd think that reporting to Chex in this situation would cause the bank all kinds of legal issues. If they report something false to Chex, refuse to correct it if the customer disputes it under FCRA, and as a result the customer can't open a checking account, it seems like the customer would have a good libel case. Seems like it's in the banks' interest to only report solid facts to Chex and not mere suspicion based on a customer's pattern of transactions looking similar to customers who caused the bank problems in the past. If they are not sure if you are a risk or not, and they don't really need your deposits, it might be a wise business decision to axe you, but that same risk aversion would discourage risking lawsuits and regulatory complaints. What if they thought there was a 10% chance you were engaged in some kind of fraud that could cause them a big loss? It might be an easy decision to close that account if they aren't making much money on checking accounts anyway, but I can't see how they could go around reporting people their risk model said had a 10% chance of defrauding the bank to Chex.