Tbh, I just don't understand the churn and burn mentality so many have on this forum. It affects everyone and decreases the longevity of this adventure.

The tragedy of the town common is an old story that has long played in the MS theater. For every slow moving gekko who uses camouflage and ambushes his prey, you have a flamboyant Gordon Gekko who thinks greed is right, greed works.

As reptile keepers and breeders have noted "Your typical pet RAT, provided it is fully grown, can kill any lizard up to its own size, if it wants to." In a world infested with RATs, it is far safer to be a camouflaged gekko than a flamboyant Gordon Gekko who becomes RAT chow.

I understand it. I think the funnest thing about this game is coming up with somenthing new. I might go slow and easy on something I do not see anyone else doing it. Once I see it posted on a major site (here) or blog, I also push to the limit.

My understanding of 'churn and burn' was to churn credit cards and burn the points (for cash or trips).
I don't think the vast majority of people think of that as churn and burn entire banking relationships altogether.

My story is similar but without the returned payment or any MS to speak of. I had never used Apply Pay and thought I would try it and get a $500 Amazon card at Whole Foods. I generally don't MS and I might have maxed out my Freedom Bonus once in 10+ years having the card. The usage triggered a fraud alert and suddenly my account was under review. They closed down the Freedom and CSR that I actually left open after the first year. My FICO is also over 800. The bureau gave them too many credit cards (I have 10 open with the newest the CSR that was 1.5 years old) and sudden increase in revolving balance (I owed $2k across all accounts which is about average for my monthly spending). I have 30 days to do something with my UR points.

Exactly. I'm still stunned. There are plenty of people doing 10's of thousands of dollars in MS each month. I do nothing but try to buy a $500 gift card and I get shut down on all of my accounts.

It's just ridiculous! I think you may have a good chance of getting your accounts back if you call Chase. Best of luck!

You can try calling their executive office to ask for a reversal of the decision. If that doesn’t work, you could try filing a cfpb but not sure how much weight that’ll hold now that they removed all their powers.

I had filed a CFPB when it happened because I had no idea what a "review" was and no one would tell me anything and since the "review" department was closed I was out of luck until Monday. Ironically, since I didn't MS, I didn't know about anything about what a "review" was. I thought it was more fraud verification and I was already talking to them and could do any verification needed.

Basically, the response to the CFPB just parroted what the "review" decided. I was told the "review" just looked at your credit like you were just applying which is ironic since any other bank would take a microsecond to decide I was credit worthy based on income and FICO. The out of the country stuff is a lie, as far as I know. I wasn't told about it until this response and I wasn't out of the country. All of the declines happened within 5 minutes. They also changed their story. I was first told that a "review" was random, multiple times, and now, in their response, they are saying it was because of the suspicious activity. Although there is no clue what one thing has to do with the other.

This was the final response to the CFPB:

We’ve reviewed your concerns about the declined transaction on March 30 with Wholefoods for $500. We routinely monitor accounts for unusual activity, and this transaction was declined because it appeared suspicious. We sent you an email and a text message to confirm the activity was valid. On that same day, you were declined a second time for the same reason and you spoke to an advisor and advised them the transaction was valid. The advisor you spoke with determined there were several out of the country attempts to log into your online profile and therefore, we placed a security hold on the account pending a second level review. Once the review was completed, we decided to close your account for the following reasons: • Number of credit card accounts. • Rapid increase in revolving balances. The account cannot be reopened. Please review the enclosed Cardmember Agreement which explains we reserve the right to close accounts. We’ve also enclosed a copy of the closure letter sent to you on April 3. We’re sorry for the inconvenience you experienced and realize this is not the outcome you were expecting.

Speechless.

Conclusion is that at least with Chase, you might as well Ms and do it hard while you're at it since you could get shut down for nothing just as well as for Ms-ing.

I don't feel bad for a millisecond for the banks.

Yep, now more than ever don’t pass up great credit card offers for the sake of 5/24. Screw Ch@se.

In looking through just a few posts in this thread a big common element I see is use of Apple or Android Pay. So stay away from that with your Ch@s3 cards unless you have already been using it for a while.

That's the thing with fraud algos, is get the computer trained early and with smaller amounts. Like on my Freedom since January I've used it at WFM with Android Pay, then with the actual card in Q2, so their systems don't appear to think anything I do is suspicious. That's one of the things to remember with MS is start smaller and build up. Unless you're dealing with Citi. They both don't care and will send a fraud alert on like the 4th identical transaction...

Anyway sorry for your loss. Definitely try Chase and ask for them to reconsider your situation and ask that they reinstate your accounts. Don't follow up with the CFPB.

Had I known what was going on with Ch@se shutting down cards for no reason, I would have gone slower. I'm not surprised it caused a fraud alert but usually all you do is respond to a text message saying you have your card and redo the transaction and it's fine. Even when I have had to talk to a person about a suspicious transaction, it still never resulted in not being able to use my card and certainly not in my card being shut down. My credit has always been perfect, and still is, so I've never worried about bringing attention to my account. It's sad that now you do have to worry about that. It's like a carrot and stick. Chase is offering incentives to use Apple/Android Pay and then kicking you in the teeth when you do.

Im involved with a Chase Shutdown but...
 

Its me who is doing the shutting down. Chase (like Bof A) refuses to offer any meaningful interest paying accts. while Citi had 1.25% on 8 month CDs and now 2% on 13 months Chase will still pay .00? Even HSBC and Santander are paying 1.5 - 1.7 So Goodbye Chase, acct wise at least, they know how to raise the % we must pay on loans or not paying your CC bal n full, but are just so GREEDY in they wont pay the depositors anything decent, leading to their record profit earnings

DollarSavingsDirect offers 1.80% on savings account. 100% liquid.

A similar thing happened to me using chase pay for the Best Buy in December, but thankfully they "just" locked my accounts instead of shutting down. Spent close to an hour on the phone with them to resolve. That experience ruined any interest I had in using either chase pay, Walmart pay or Apple Pay for any non-trivial amount of spending. It just doesn't seem ready for prime time still from your recent experience.

LOL. Good luck. Wife and I sent a letter to Chase EO, spoke to someone at EO who said they would help, and still weren't able to reopen accounts with no reason given. Wife put business and GCs (all non-bonused spend) on SW Visa 14 months ago and got the ax six months later. I got axed two months ago b/c of her closures.

It's not that the payment methods are not ready for prime time, it's that's Chase seems to believe anything associated with them is fraudulent. They wouldn't even let me add my card to Apple Pay without calling them. Even a text message with a code apparently wasn't good enough. I had to CALL them and get a text message with a code. And then they wanted me to call and get another text message with a another code 5 minutes later when I tried to add the same card to my Apple Watch. Then, when I actually dared to use it, they sent a fraud text message and despite the fact that I responded that I was doing the transaction and they said to try it again, they still blocked it and made me call in AGAIN. And then they closed my accounts permanently, despite the fact that I answered every question correctly.

That's ridiculous! Anyone can steal my credit card and use it before I notice it is stolen, but no one is using my Samsung Pay unless they chop my finger off to scan my fingerprint.

Fake post - no one can use your Samsung Pay because the bank will shutdown all your accounts if it is used. This is for your protection so nobody will be tempted to chop off your finger.

Right?? Makes me wonder what Apple and Google would say to Chase about how customers are being treated that are trying to use their payments...

Exactly.

Found a solution to banks killing your account when you use their services - try an Australian Bank! Even if their clients are 10 years dead, they refuse to kill the account and will let it use services and be charged. If we merge Wells Fargo with an Australian bank we could have dead customers opening new accounts that can't be killed. Could give a whole new meaning to the term Zombie Bank!

"Commonwealth Bank of Australia told a government inquiry Thursday that the practice of billing deceased customers for financial advice stretched back years. In one instance, an adviser at the bank's financial planning business was collecting fees from a client more than a decade after they had died..."

Australia: Commonwealth Bank says it charged dead clients for advice

Just found out that Chase closed my wife's IHG card, she got in February. Minimum spending was done organically (in March), then stopped. Unbelievable.

Did she at least get the signup bonus?

yes, but still.

yes. to be honest, she was a long time Chasecustomer, but last year Chase closed her accounts. She didn't do MS, just had 6 cards with them. Year later she reapplied, but was axed 2 months later.

I don't think it was a reason. Myself, I was shutdown by Chase many times, but always got back few months later. I realized two things: don't do ms with them and get into situation when somebody look into your account. Since her IHG card had quite a high CL and minimum spend was just $1K, I don't see what could trigger manual review. Her last CC application was in January with Amex, and had only 2 inquires in the last 6 months.

Hi, I opened 1st account with chase 2 months back (Business card) and was approved after recon call 3/24 - No previous history with Chase. Stupidly enough used 1st purchase on gc.com for purchase over 1k. Got fraud alert and account was closed after being reviewed by fraud team and just being opened for 5 days. What are chances of applying and getting approved for another business or personal card with Chase. Am I banned ?? I called twice but rep said - they can't open back account again with large purchase and new credit history 2 years old. Am I blacklist or how do you know if you are blacklisted from chase ?

He can't win. It is very bad that he opened a business credit card and purchased gift cards with the very first purchase. I do not think he is banned, but there has to be a note on new account cool-downs. Not sure how long, at least two years IMO.

Thanks for Feedback, not sure how to confirm if I am on "Do not approve list". I checked with Chase and they say you are welcome to apply anytime, but for now we can't reopen this account because of secondary review and credit not worthy enough. Well lesson learned hard way.

Yeah, he barely got his beak wet with chase!! Not sure about 2 years - you mean don't start MSing on a new card until after 2 years of ownership? I got my CIC in late August and only started MSing a couple months ago at low amounts (~$700-900 per month at OSS).

They always encourage to apply - I've had CSRs welcome me to apply when I absolutely knew it was in violation of 5/24, 2/30, etc.

Yeah always part of the script, almost certainly a trap.

I was shutdown by Barclay 12/2017. I MS'd on the card quite a bit but never cycled limits. My statement for approx $9000 was due 12/14. On 12/6 i sent a payment from the wrong account and the payment bounced. On 12/9 i sent the payment (including their fee's for the bounced payment) and my card was paid in full before the statement was due. 12/14 they closed my account and i forfeited 180k points.

I called a dozen times and talked to managers and the managers managers. I filed a CFPB complaint and nothing. I have thought about filing suit in small claims court over the 180k points, but not sure how to even do that, or if its worth it. Anyone here have any success stories about this with barclay?