2018 Shutdown Thread
 

Happy New Year to everyone!

I'm starting a new thread as the year change seems like the logical breaking point. Please pick up the discussion here, or, let's hope, no shutdowns this year!

Good luck on staying under the radar people!

am I the 1st to get a shutdown this year?

my SO's Ch@s3 Fr33d0m got shutdown. It's not the unlimited one, but the one with rotating 5% categories every quarter.

I'm not quire sure what caused the shutdown. I don't use it for everyday spend and only maximize the categories if I can with MS.

I added to Samsung Pay and was able to make a few small purchases at grocery & gas station. Then I tried to use at grocery for around $200 I think and it was denied. I tried a few times and it was denied.

The following day,I think there was some message on the online access that the account is suspended. When we called Ch@s3, they said the account is under review and it will take 10 days for the decision. After 10 days or so, we lost online access and we got a letter in the mail that the account was closed.

They said I we can claim the pionts within 30 days, but we don't even have online access. Is it safe to transfer to my account or just cash it out?
Is there a way to reverse the decision by calling?

Sorry to hear. Does your SO have other Ch@s3 accounts? If so, what kind of activity re possible flags, like churning checking and savings accounts, VGC purchases, etc?

I'd probably advise your SO calling them to see if they can redeem the points via gift cards or any other way without having to transfer the points to you, especially if you aren't each-other's authorized users within Ch@s3.

no other accounts.

I have the same card that I added to SP that also got a fraud alert, but it was not shutdown.

Go over to Doctor of Credits site. He has had a couple of posts recently about Ch@se shutdowns and there are DP's of people who reversed it

External DP's can be quoted here with appropriate reference. This is the dedicated thread on the subject.

You can call up ch@s3 EO and request to get it reversed or fill out a CFPB form to have them reconsider reinstating. If you’re being completely honest, nothing sounded egregious enough for a shutdown.

which 'thread'?

what's EO? Executive Office? how would I call them?

This one.

thanks.

The letter regarding why the account was closed says:
The said they used Experian for the consumer reporting agency.

I will admit, SO has a lot of credit card accounts, in the low 20s according to Experian.

Utilization is very low, most are in the 1%, there an amex that's in the teens that I forgot to pay before the statement closed.

I'm trying to get under 5/24 so the last account was opened on 7/2016.

Did your SO try to open a new Chase card, that's why they pulled their credit file again?

The "account not used as intended" seems like your SO was maxing out the 5x bonus every qtr? But then again a lot of ppl do that and don't get shut down and it's only limited to $1,500 each qtr. Was that really the only Chase card your SO had?

no, SO didn't try to open any card.

We're trying to get under 5/24.

yes, this was the only card my SO had and we were maximizing the 5x bonus every quarter

How many of those accounts were opened in the last 6/12/24 months? This probably matters more than just number of overall accounts. With or without a high utilization at the moment, a lot of new accounts are seen as a risk factor, correlating with behaviors of people who do this to max the cards and try to evade paying them.

As to not used as intended, it'd be helpful to find out from data points if there are people being shutdown primarily for maxing out 5x and not using the card for regular spend, but also not MSing with it beyond 5X. I'd guess mos of us max 5X and don't use it much beyond that.

It's also possible that something else triggered the review and they then considered either of these two factors that they have stated as reason. That is, a bank doesn't have to reveal to us the real reason why they looked at our account and decided to shut it down.