2017 Shutdown Thread
 

Moderator Note: This thread is a continuation of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...wn-thread.html


Five days into the year, and no shutdowns to report yet!

I assume the same is true for all of you since the 2016 thread has nothing for January.

Fantastic!

Let's keep it that way. May this be the only post in here for the year.

Sorry to break the streak here and I know this technically falls under 2016 but my Cap One Spark Biz got shutdown in early Dec 2016 due to activity "past or prior use inconsistent with personal, household or business-related purposes".

To be fair I had the card for about 2 years and was using it mainly to buy Simon GCs and Visa Buxx loading to maximize my 2% spending as well as normal spending that didn't fall into categories for the 2%. It didn't bother me too much since I was not using the Spark card much anymore due to the Fidelity Amex 2% card changing to a Fidelity Visa 2% card back in June 2016 which I now use to load Visa Buxx. Also my anniversary was in Jan so it saved me for the $39 AF.

What hurts the most is the hit to my CS since my CL was in the mid-5 figures for the Spark card and Capital One for some reason reports Biz Cards on your credit report. However the only good thing is on Credit Karma, it shows that Capital One reported in the Remarks section of "Account closed by consumer request" to Transunion and Equifax. Unlike Amex which reported in the Remarks section "Account closed by credit grantor" for my OBC shutdown back in Dec 2015.

Sorry to hear about that! Could you elaborate a bit on your OBC shutdown though (can't find anything in your post history) - was it an uncapped OBC or did it have the 50k cap? Just got "new" OBC with the cap - which I was planning to max this year - so curious if that would be any cause for concern.

I had the uncapped OBC back in 2014 which I had for about 12 months before the shutdown. I haven't looked at the "new" OBC since I was focused on some on some lucrative cards in 2015/2016 (ex: Ink, WF 5%, Fidelity Amex/Visa, CSR, CSP, etc). I may look at it in the future when things calm down with Amex.

In terms of concern for shutdown, I wouldn't worry about it because your max rewards is capped and Amex knows the maximum benefit it will have to shell out which I am sure they have done the analysis on it. With the uncapped OBC, people were going nuts on that card and I wouldn't be surprised if ppl were earning 5 figures in rewards/month back then.

Well, first "real" shutdown of 2017 - Citi checking - just received a noticed that they will close my account in 10 days.
I opened it in August 2016 (my previous Citi checking/CC account were shutdown in October of 2015) for $400 bonus. Deposited $20K and didn't do anything unusual - small purchases (~$1-$3), bill payments to my CC. Got a $400 last month, downgraded my account to basic checking with next move to close an account, but they did it before I did. The letter didn't say anything except they could do it anytime. What went wrong - I don't know. No MO deposits, no transfers. Probably, old history (last month I applied for the Hilton card and was denied due to bad history with Citi - may be it triggered?).

What was your previous "bad history" with Citi?

wat r u the bad history popo?

account were closed by bank (MS activity), i don't think there is need for explain.

Just had a recurring transaction on my Arrival+ declined. Logged on and discovered that both it and my Aviator Silver have been closed. :confused:

UPDATE: Just looked at my Arrival+ statement, which closed on the 8th. Revolving/Cash lines are listed as zero. However, there's nothing on the statement itself saying the account is closed or that there are any other issues. Meanwhile, my most recent Aviator Silver statement had news that I'd been awarded a CL increase.

Not sure if this DP will help, but I've long paid both of these accounts using WMBP (as generic MC with the $1.88 fee). However, I'd recently paid them under barclaycard ($1 fee). I had 3x$1999 payments on the Silver that posted all on the same day last month (before the statement where they awarded me a CL increase closed).

WMBP = Kiss of Death

Did you use WMBP frequently to make payments?

I just want to clear the air since I have been getting several PMs regarding frequent WM BP payments and Spark shutdown and I am getting tired of responding to the same posts. The answer is a big fat NO! especially if Cap One was looking at recent activity.

I have not done WM BP on the Spark card for over 1.5 yrs and even when I did do it, I probably only did WM BP 2 times ever on the Spark card. I highly doubt that was a driving force. I seriously think Cap One looked at my "business expenses" which did not fall under their interpretation of the usage of the card and closed it. I also wrote in my OP post that I have not used the card for like 5 months so it could also have been due to inactivity.

Appreciate the follow-up.

C1 quicksilver converted from venture years ago. 1 $5 charge last month, before that not much activities. Closed both sparks over 1 year ago when the fees are up.

Did some ms via AGC/portal years ago, not recently. Guess they are going back and looking up history.

Restricted...closed

at least they paid out my $0.05 in rewards before they closed it.

My arrival+ just got shut down along with my other cards from that same bank. I have done MS and maybe 2x CL per month. I have never made a payment with WMBP. Hope this helps someone.

Thanks much. Any explanation from the bank? I'm stunned since it seems like they're really hurting for customers in the US and wouldn't want to lose us. However, I guess they're funding Arrival+ themselves and want to cut their losses. Just wish they'd simply closed that card and not everything. Appreciate that you didn't use WMBP, which shows that they were looking more deeply at transaction history.

Has your credit score taken a big drop recently?

I feel like all of these shutdown always have one thing in common, and that's cycling CLs. Why do people continue to do this?

So you are telling me if got approved for a CC with just a 3K limit, you are not going to cycle more than 1x especially if its a 5% card? Of course if people had $30K CLs, there would not be a need to cycle CLs but we know of course that each person has a different financial profile.

I've cycled my A+ 18k limit 8-9x a month for the past 2 years. They even were nice enough to give me a 4k limit bump recently :)

You must be a points millionaire by now!

There was/is a reason why the CC issuer gave $3k CL...either you didn't optimize your FICO before you applied or income reported on the application was low for them to give much CL or the combined CL across that institution reached max, etc...I'm not much of a risk taker, so I would hope for the auto-CL in 6 months or hopefully less (depends on the issuer)...if the auto-CL is not enough, take a HP for a CL increase or move CLs around if the issuer allows that....good luck.

I'm not so sure my 2x CL cycling did me in. I did have the AF waived on another card and that may have been what did me in, if they decided to look at all my card accounts.

I cash them out soon as the points post so I rarely keep a balance for more than 1-2 days. I have plenty of miles but cash is king for most travel still.

*sigh* I wasn't talking about my personal situation nor am I actually even close to this position. Re-read the OP post for a reference asking why anyone would ever dare do more than 1x of their CL. I was merely using that as an example as to why it silly to think that cycling 3x on a limit of just $3K per month is worst than doing $25K on a $30K CL even though that is just 1x of their CL. I was merely expressing that people who have such a low CL of say $3K is not unusual to cycle more than 1x their CL.

The fact is card issues can still frown on you even if you don't even do more than 1x CL.

My c1 card was also shutdown due to inactivity and I didn't even know it until I was gonna travel oversea (since they have no foreign transaction fee) and couldn't find my card. Called C1 and they re-opened it. For those whose C1 cards were shutdown, have you tried to re-open them?

COne must be cleaning 'house'. I didn't even realize they closed my QS account for months of inactivity until I received the letter in the mail sometime last week. Seems like they closed it sometime Nov 2016. It is the most painless closure we've experienced since I have forgotten we had that card. Although there was collateral damage since they also closed our dormant CO360 accounts for both DH and me citing inactivity.

I checked our credit reports and it was closed by subscriber. I didn't notice a drastic change in our reports especially with our overall CLs since we applied and got approved for several cards in December.

Seems odd. You had a bunch of other accounts? Must be more to it than you are letting on. I'm cycling about 3-4 times a month and running all of the payments through BP. I do put some occassional normal spend on it. Only reason I'm doing this plus a few other 2%ers is that its easy and don't have to deal with many MOs anymore.

And, I wasn't responding to your personal situation either. I was merely answering to your example.

It's really obvious MSing if you have low CL and recycle. Majority of the population don't recycle CL. It is unusual, Sir.

Agree that CC issuers do that. Unusual spending would make CC issuers question the cardholder what's going on. The current situation with Citi for me, they have not closed my Double Cash and other cards I have from them at least yet. If I have recycled the CL, probably they would have closed by now.

Gotta cycle to hit goals

This wasn't directed to me, but I'll add my 2¢. When I got what was the USDM MC (that became Aviator Red and then Silver), my score was pretty low and I hadn't gotten new cards in years. I added Arrival+ just over a year later and have consistently gotten CL increases as my score has climbed (helped primarily by larger CLs at other institutions). And now, gone. So I also wonder if it relates to having opened what they consider to be an excessive number of *other* cards overall.

One of those goals to become a bug on the windshield?:p

Its not the number of cards that will do anyone in, its the overall utilization of available credit.

If you cycle enough you're bound to eat a few bugs along the way :D

Some banks aren't exactly fond of those who open numerous accounts with multiple institutions (seeing potential churners as unwanted customers), hence my comment (completely unrelated to utilization).

"I added Arrival+ just over a year later and have consistently gotten CL increases as my score has climbed (helped primarily by larger CLs at other institutions). And now, gone."

I'm unclear of what's gone. Did you close the Arrival+ or auto-CLI or your high FICO score is gone?

As mentioned multiple times in this thread, all Barclaycard accounts were closed. Barclays had done this to multiple people this month regardless of other recent positive actions.

Well, majority of CC issuers don't like MSers. If one card get closed by MSing, they generally close all. They just don't want to do business with MSers regardless of other recent positive actions. The question would be if one has been blacklisted or not. If one has, how long will it take to get off of the blacklist...generally speaking....and this is nothing new....

I don't think I've heard stories about CC churners getting their account closed...churners have difficult time opening new accounts I rather hear...I don't play with Barclay much, so I haven't cared however....unlike other CC institutions, they might care...but I have heard people having 20-30 inqs still fine with Barclay....

This is why MSing is dyeing the banks have caught on and don't want to play. Churring cards seems to be work but not as easy as before.

....ing ..... Think I'm getting the axe from Schwab. They want me to call in and beg tomorrow but I got the email that my signed letter is coming via UPS tomorrow.