Getting the axe for what exactly?

Ain't that discrimination when a bank closes credit cards for (MS) customers with excellent credit and repayment histories? I guess they prefer customers with poor credit and repayment histories so they can create another financial crisis like the one that lead to the Great Recession. Then these wise bankers can force taxpayers with excellent credit and repayment histories to subsidize their failures and gross management incompetence. :eek:

Stop in the name of the Grammer Police!

Churring is defined as:

"The sharp whirring or trilling sound made by some insects and birds, such as the grasshopper and partridge."

While Aesop's Fables suggest MSfolk are more grasshopper than ant and the bible suggests that we are like the birds of the air, our ability to MS by churring is a new one on me.

But if you really have figured a way to MS by churring cards please keep the secret to yourself as the evil bloggers will jump on it and soon kill this novel technique. :p

With reasonable FICO, they prefer customers who don't MS. Poor credit customers get declined for high rewards cards I suppose. Mortgage frauds committed by the banks were separate issue since the loan was derivatized and backed by the investors. I don't think CC loans are backed by investors....

I got my three letters today and they all say the same thing:

"We have recently conducted a review of our accounts. Following this review, we regret to advise you that we are no longer able to provide you with a credit card account because of your usage history. Your account has been closed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Cardmember Agreement that governs your account. A consumer credit-reporting agency was not used in making this determination."

So maybe they conducted the review since I asked them to waive the AF on one account and then they didn't like the MS (usage).

I immediately (when I discovered they closed my accounts) redeemed all my Arrival+ points for a statement credit (at a not that great $0.01 value) and they wiped the remaining (the ones I got back at the 5% redemption rate) amount the next day.

Any suggestions about trying to CFPB for anything or should I just be thankful I got something?

money orders i'm assuming. i barely did any volume with them and let the money sit for long periods, just to show activity, but i guess they didn't like that. shame.

Go into a boutique jewelers. Take out your favorite credit card and chur with it (practice first of course). After a few minutes, the server will say "Please, take whatever you want and just go. I can't stand that damn noise a moment longer" Not quite MS in the usual sense, but uses a credit card for no-cost valuable rewards

It's called TOS, but you knew that already


:rolleyes: I have it's called flipping houses, doing pretty good, I'm not going to waste my time running all over town getting money orders when on one house I can make between 30-50K worth of points, do that 5-6 times a year.

I'm not gonna waste my time flipping houses when I can just chirr my cards. ;)

Seems easier to flip a house than to spend an hour at Walmart, no?

After trying to ACH money in into UFB, got a flood of emails saying that my external connections were all suspended, and that the account was suspended. I only use this account for MOs and payments to 2 cards.

CSR said it was suspended because the names didn't match on the bank accounts (external was in my wife's name). Suggested that I could do the ACH from the other bank into UFB instead, that is never an issue. Said all suspensions should be lifted by tomorrow.

Got closed down in early 2016 and had success contacting the "executive team" or whatever it was called (just Google the number) and they cashed out any point balance I had left over. Can't tell if you still have points left to you or not. I felt good I at least got the 1 cent value - better than nothing!

when you get left holding the bag with a termite infested dump or a house that needs a complete remodel you might long for the days of walmart customer service lines.

I'm planning to go through arbitration with them (unless they come to their senses sooner) to get back my annual fees and value of points at a minimum. They didn't do themselves a favor by giving CL increases that basically say, "hey, you're a great customer!" immediately prior to shutdown and point seizure. I finally got my second snail-mail letter yesterday even though they closed that account (Aviator) weeks ago at the same time as Arrival+. I will not miss their horrible customer service. I had to wait an eternity to talk to a supervisor (apparently in the U.K.) who immediately hung up on me when I said I would have to go to arbitration if the annual fees weren't refunded.

How many cards do you do a year? I'll be getting Diamond with Hilton, I'll have PQD taken care of on AA, plus a Companion pass, also 20K EQM on AA. I know this isn't important to many but it is me, I travel in the US and having EXPLT helps a lot.

Or stepping foot into a wall mart of PO

Sounds like you know nothing about flipping a houses which is fine, it's not for everybody. Some people like spending hours at the PO and some do not.

I liquidate VGC in heavy volume at the PO all the time and i NEVER need to be there anywhere close to an hour. Can we stop the exaggerating nonsense?

I also know a thing or two about flipping and i agree MS is preferable, mostly because of the lower chance of disaster.

Being a flipper only works so long until you get too close to the trawlers and end up as bycatch.:p

I just got an email notifying me of an external transfer from my Barclays savings account. At first I thought it was phishing. Nope, it was legit. Wait, did someone somehow add a new bank account and take my money? Nope. Barclays closed my account and transferred the balance to an external account on file. Guess it takes a bit longer, but they don't just stop with credit cards.

out of curiosity, did you do a lot of billpay from walmart?

That is until your accounts are closed or frozen, and with the rate accounts being closed, I think MS is on it's way out BTW isn't this threat about shutdown thread, so how much time before your CC accounts are closed?

Yet there are some banks that take Matthew 6:3 to heart. They close bank checking accounts with their right hand yet their left hand never knows to close credit cards accounts. Ah, gimme that old time religion! :p

I wouldn't necessarily say a lot, but I used it regularly. However, numerous people were shut down this month without ever using WMBP, so it's fair to say the shutdowns were based on purchase history. Barclays apparently doesn't like awarding its own currency (A+ miles) for purchases it may not consider appropriate. I haven't heard any shutdown stories of other Barclaycard products unless they also had the A+.

I've been increasingly worrying about WMBP. I use a Suntrust debit (earns skypesos) and pay chase accounts in full each month (anywhere from $500 -$3500 per account). Been doing this for a couple of years. No MS on these cards and only occasional payments prior to statement closing (but not b/c cycling...I'm just there and so get the payment over with). My only other payment source is ACH from Suntrust checking via Chase website.

This hobby can really become an addiction. I think I need someone to just tell me to stop. Be firm.

I've been digging through the shutdown threads and haven't really found a definitive answer, so I want your input.

I've never MS'd, as I've always met my min. spend organically. However, I will have to fly out a lot soon for interviews, and I want to save some dough. I've been recently approved for Ink+ with a CL of $7k. I've put internet, cellphone, and other stuff on it which will be ~$250/month. Gas will also be ~$100/month. In all, probably anywhere from $500-1k in organic spend/month. I want to MS ~$3k/month by buying and converting VGCs into MOs, and using $1500 for rent and the other $1500 to deposit into a credit union checking account to pay off my balances. I also put my stated income for this tutoring business as $10k/year.

I'm planning on staying away from depositing MOs directly to my Chase checking, as well as from using the WM billpay. I guess my only concern is whether the relatively high utilization (esp in the 5X category) compared to my stated income will lead to any red flags, although it's not like i'll be cycling through my CL. Sticking to $1500 deposits/month into the CU will also seem less sketchy than hitting $10k+/month and getting shut down. Thoughts?

It sounds like you have done your homework and figured out an acceptable level for yourself. I think your plan is very solid. :)

I got the shutdown notice from capone and it didn't hurt a bit. I guess they close it due to inactivity but I'll find out when they send me the official letter. I'm sure my 360 c/a is next on the chopping block so I zeroed it out so they don't have to send me a check for less than $1 :D

When a card closes, several opportunities open ;)

CaesarsCasino
 

Shut-down on CaesarsCasino after two loads/unloads. Have yet to get money back. They have a prepaid debit card, but I didn't receive it. It appears you can't do any billpay with their debit card though.

You will never find a definitive answer because there isn't one. Shutdowns can seem arbitrary sometimes. But I can say, based on what others have posted, and my own experience, that your plan will probably be okay. I MS well over my stated business income on my Ink cards and it hasn't been an issue.

I've only recently started to use WMBP but aft reading this thread will probably go back to MO only and do the extra steps of ACH-ing the money from churnable checking accounts to permanent ones so I can billpay the CCs.

Those of you who have followed the shutdown thread longer, does there seem to be a bank & volume of WMBP that seems safe to do, or is it not worth toying with it?

Refreshing to see this being your first post here and you having actually done the research :) I've been moderate with my Ink+ usage for VGCs/MS and 5x in general, but I see comments here of people going pedal to the metal with 5x for years in a row and are still fine. Cha$e has some of the best CCs so it's a good idea to steer clear of other things that might trigger suspicion and shutdown, like depositing MO to their accounts, which you say you won't do. I think I've only deposited a couple of MOs to my Cha$e accounts altogether and have only paid their cc bills from checking accounts.

I've been reading a lot of shutdown reports related to WMBP not just here but even private groups. I will heed the warnings. I also know MSers IRL whose accounts got shutdown from doing WMBP so I have decided I will not venture into it since Chase and Amex are too valuable for me to lose. It's working well for others, I may be in the minority that stays away from WMBP.

Not sure if you'd even need to do the final step. I've never had issues in doing a single BP a month from my MS checking account, plus a second one from my main account for legit charges I've made. I prefer to keep my normal checking account as far away from MS as possible. Granted, I don't cycle CLs, so if you do, take my advice with a grain of salt.

Fair point. I do this to minimize the nr of different payment accounts for the same credit card. I don't know based on data points whether there's a need to do this even with actual checking accounts, I do it trying not to trip any algorithm programmed for this which might invite a human to review the account, at which point they might find other things worth scrutinizing.

I used to do a mix of WMBP and MOs and was fortunate not to have any issues. For the last year or so I've gone strictly MO after hearing about so many WMBP related shutdowns. Not worth toying with in my opinion. Find a good credit union or two. I've been depositing north of 100k in MOs to a single CU for the past 8 months or so. My recipe for avoiding CC shutdowns is to avoid WMBP and cycling my credit limits. So far so good.

*North of 100k per month just to clarify

I thought my 25k a month was yuge and then I read your comment...

Wow. Sounds like that CU is just waiting to be targeted by money launderers. They have no systems in place to warn them about unusual activity re risky patterns, like like a ton of MO deposits/month, month after month.

Just curious, is the MS worth your time? I'm guessing it's mostly online purchases of $500 VGCs? It seems your local WMs are just as laid back as that CU :)

Im sure it is, either for cash back or miles/points

I stopped with FBs because it wasnt worth my time.

It sounds like some ppl are shutdown doing BP and some are shutdown for purchasing gcards. If you buy from Simon, gcm or giftcard dot com it is obvious what you are buying.

I haven't followed the previous shutdown threads regularly, but I haven't seen many data points of people saying they got shut down for buying GCs online, not sure if there are many of those.

Also, the data points caveat in general is assuming people reporting them are not forgetting to mention something else they were doing with that bank that might have triggered the shutdown.