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.

1 18mos ago
4 22mos ago

This is new accounts overall, not just with Ch@s3? If so, it doesn't doesn't bode well for the rest of us either.

Anyhow, worth trying to contact them to see if they are willing to reverse their decision. Have your SO be prepared to give some hopefully satisfying answers to their questions. I'd look on that DoC thread to see what others have done with success stories, also search r/churning for similar situations.

[MENTION=743175]lumangoy[/MENTION] is the usage pattern any different from prior Qs? I can't imagine any of us use our F cards for anything but the rotating cats. I have to say I'm quite happy to be hanging up my C Manhattan Bank shingle. With like 6 or 7 personal and 1 biz, I'm content and will continue to max the cat bonuses and the up/downgrade flexibility. But hell if I'm applying to more new cards at this point, especially since I'm so long past 5/24...

When Ch@s3’s system deems you as a possible risk, they will pull your credit report without you requesting it. Then when they see you are well past 5/24, they will shut you down. It’s the new BAU with Ch@s3. Get what you can with Ch@s3 and move onto other banks, and never look back.

It's a soft pull right, so even if you lock your report they will have access to that info? Ch@s3 randomly pulling our report w/o formal consent (e.g. signing up for a new card or requesting a CL increase) is definitely alarming for many of us who MS and may have frequent spikes in utilization.

They soft pull reports without formal consent with some regularity.

Soft pull wont show up on the report?

I don't see it on my Experian report.

When can my SO apply for chase cards again? We were so close to being under 5/24.

I'm not sure we are there yet, though it's possible they are phasing out these newer drastic measures to cut us MSers & churners off. I still don't think they will shut down people for merely being over 5/24, it's possible other risk factors need to be met and this seems more plausible to me than the theory that they will cut off anyone over 5/24 but do so gradually. Unless they've put together a new small team and they can only do manual reviews so fast...who the heck knows, but I guess we'll see a pattern eventually.

Having said that, it's worth complaining about them doing a hard pull without a consumer asking for credit. Whether or not it is in their legal fine print to do so, I'd still complain, to them first and if they don't reverse it to CFPB. All banks can--and many do--periodically pull soft reports to evaluate customers for risks and promotions. I don't believe they gain more info by doing a hard pull instead and if that is indeed the case, makes me wonder why the hard pull.

No, soft pulls don't show up.

I still think there's more to your story than what you've posted. Until we know those details it's hard to answer any questions regarding opening accounts.

I wish there was.

The fraud alert might have triggered the soft pull.

Another place to look for shutdown data points is the r/churning thread, I took a look at most of it and it seems there's always something that triggers the review before the shutdown, mostly applying for a new Ch@s3 card.

I took a look at the recent comments of the DoC thread and on 1/8/18 someone reported that the reason for the review was (they seem to think) adding Freedom to Samsung Pay and using it via Samsung Pay twice.

So [MENTION=743175]lumangoy[/MENTION], can you think of anything like that, or anything out of the ordinary at all that your SO did in the last month or two before the shutdown? I say a month or two because someone on r/churning reported that a Ch@s3 rep had shared with her (after reinstating the accounts) that her accounts were marked for shutdown 7 weeks prior to them actually being closed.

What card was your brother using to MS?

That "someone" sounds like lumangoy, the OP.

yup!

Well, that explains the flag/trigger for the review. Not comforting to you at this point, but good to know for all of us, you included, that that is what triggered the review. Good luck with trying to reinstate it and let us know how it goes, seems many people have had success.

I was apparently shutdown by Synchronee on my c@thay card.
All I did was make minimum purchases to get bonus...mostly via kiva loans, which I'm realizing might not have been as safe as I thought due to paypal/synchrony relationship I didn't know about.
Shut down when 3rd statement should have arrived.

Not very familiar with this bank, but I should be entitled to annual fee back or something, no? Not sure if can access points either which posted a month ago on credit card login site.

Your already posted miles would have went to your AsiaMiles a/c so should still be able to get them even if the CC is shut down

Not getting very far, but it looks like my credit card was shut down because my asia miles membership was terminated. It looks like I'm out of luck?

Why was your Asia Miles Membership terminated?

Sounds like someone was selling miles / award tickets and got caught ...

That's what it sounds like to me too, however making it more interesting is that this is the first time I've ever had points in Asia Miles, and I didn't attempt to sell them, so clearly my reputation precedes me?