FreakingFlyer

Continuing on from:

2023 Shutdown Thread

May all of your shutdowns be eminently worthwhile!

I'm hoping for few to no shutdowns this year because I'm not planning to push my MS hard enough to merit any. I hope the shutdown gods go easy on me in 2024. Or that a great opportunity arises . . .

cidcock

Any recent shutdown DP's? Both P2 and I hit it fairly hard last year with new accounts (inks). Finally got denied, so giving it a rest.

We each have 9ish Chase accounts (biz and personal combined) with 4 Biz accounts opened in last year; so taking a break from that just to reset. Have had no indication of a shutdown, but just trying to stay under radar.

Is there any reason for me to start strategically closing older business accounts? We have 6 CIC between the 2 of us and I plan on maxing out the $25k for each at office supplie stores (with giftcards). I try to balance it out each month (5-7k per person) each month.

I have a Chase Checking accout currently (which I directly desposit serve accounts into). I am stopping the practice of depositing directly from Serve into this account as I don't want to draw any extra attention. It seems that checking customers have had issues with shutdowns at a higher percentage. Should I close this checking accout all together or is that suspicious behavior as well?

In short, I plan on continuning MS, but would like to make any other adjustements that would make shutdown less likely.

MaxVO

I agree and no longer combine deposit and credit accounts in the same institution.

cidcock

Yeah, I wish I didn't have the account. Should I close it, or just let it sit while maintaing a few thousand balance?

dalmore62

Absolutely close it out and move the money away from Chase.

radonc1

Although closing it out may put human eyes on all of your banking relations, whereas an almost dormant checking account, (one or two transactions a year) with a thousand dollars in it will almost assuredly be ignored by any bank that is not paying anything for the deposits.

Write a birthday check to a relative once a year and make one small check deposit as well and leave it alone. The money is safe.

cidcock

This is more what I'm thinking. Thanks for the advice.

ETA: The debit card is actually decent, I got the Disney branded version which offers a few perks at WDW.

macast8061

Maybe a little early on my part but I got a call from Citi a couple of weeks ago regarding large grocery store purchases. MS about 10K a month on a Premier. They wanted me to explain the large purchases as well as large money order payments. So far I haven't been shut down but feel like a dead man walking.

radonc1

Citi is waiting to see just what you spent $10K on, which they will. While there may be people who spend $10K/month on groceries, those folks better own a very large B&B

AI isn't just for kids anymore. Credit card companies are setting up AI algorithms to ferret out anomalies in purchase patterns that will then need the gentle caress of RATs. Once human eyes are on an account, then bad things start to happen.

Your account is at high risk for being shuttered. Immediately move anything of value out of it and keep your fingers crossed. Needless to say, I would stop using that card or cards for your MSing activities

BTW, please keep us updated on the final outcome of this event. DPs are always helpful and appreciated.

littlewinglet

I would recommend pre-emptively closing all your accounts. If you continue this, you will get shut down. Citi banned me for moderate MS. If you close it yourself, at least you can lay low and escape the sh!t-list.

MaxVO

The timing is good too, as this bank is going through a major overhaul of their deposit accounts.

macast8061

Does this have any downsides? I've read about credit card issuers getting spooked by sudden closures but maybe that's not the case when it's the cardholder doing the closing. I only have 9 cards open and 4 are with Citi.

littlewinglet

You may take a slight hit on credit score for a month or two as your credit utilization goes up, but nothing serious. I got shut down with 3 or 4 cards closed and it was barely a blip on my credit score.

lowkeyflyer

Personal
CFF
CSP
Amazon Prime
WoH

Business
Ink cash
Ink unl
Ink cash
Ink cash

Just got shut down because I opened the WoH then tried an $8000 transx, had it decline, got on the phone, rep cleared the hold then told me to keep trying, triggered a manual overview, then shutdown.

Steve in Olympia

Can you share with us what type of MS activity that manual overview might have revealed?