It happens that a credit card gets closed due to miscommunication with a customer service representative. Other times a person might decide to close out an account, only to change their mind later. And sometimes banks will close a card for inactivity. Can the account be reinstated after it was closed?
You can always go through the process of applying again for the card, but that will result in a hard pull and a new review.
Some credit card issuers will allow you to reopen the old credit card account upon request soon after it was closed. This is especially true if the card was closed by mistake, and certainly if it was the bank’s error.
A reinstated credit account should keep the original account opening date which will help the Average Age of Accounts for credit score purposes.
Note that banks will rarely reopen cards that were closed due to delinquency or suspicions of fraud. This article focuses on cards that were closed in good standing.
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Alliant
Alliant will only reopen a closed card if it’s been more than six months.
American Express
Amex allows reopening a closed card without a hard pull and with the same account number (1), even a card that was voluntarily closed (2). This can be done for 30-days after closing (3), or possibly 90 days (5), or possibly even up to a year (citation needed).
They seem to have added a $25 re-open fee, though it’s possible that’s not always enforced.
Bank of America
According to this MyFico poster, BofA will reopen a closed account within six months. However, they’ll pull your credit before doing so.
A couple of posters from some time ago (1, 2) had success even after a couple of years.
Barclay’s
Barclay’s will agree to reopen an account, even if it was closed voluntarily (1, 2). Others did not have success (1, 2).
Capital One
Most don’t have success convincing Capital One to reopen a card that was closed voluntarily (1). There is one report of success, however. Update: Another successful reopening.
Chase
Chase allows you to reopen a card soon after it was closed, even if it was closed on purpose, and certainly if there was a miscommunication.
Most people are told that it can be reinstated for 30-days, but others were able to reopen at 45 days (1), three months (1) or even 6 months (1). One person had success getting their Chase cards reinstated almost a year after they were shut down; their account number remained the same, and no hard pull was done.
Note that if you transferred over your credit line to a different card when closing, you won’t be able to get the old account reinstated. Worth leaving $500 credit line if there’s a chance you’ll want to reopen later.
Citi
Citi will reopen a closed credit card. You’ll keep the same card and card number. We don’t know exactly how long after it’s closed it can be reopened, but we know people who have done it successfully a week after closing.
There are conflicting data points (in the comments here and elsewhere) regarding the hard pull for reopening a closed Citi card. From what I gather, if the card was closed ‘by mistake’ (e.g. you didn’t know about a certain benefit) you should be able get it reopened without a hard pull, although it might need a supervisor and the correct department to process this reinstatement. If you decided to close the card and then changed your mind or if the card was closed for dormancy, it will often result in a hard pull to get the account reinstated.
A friend of mine closed his Citi AA card voluntarily and later changed his mind. He was able to get the card reinstated with no hard pull, but it did come with a new card number. In his experience, the close/open of the card reset the 12-month period necessary to be able to product change the card.
Discover
Some had success reinstating a Discover card after a few months, but a more recent report indicates the reverse.
Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bank will reopen a closed card within 30 days, but not after. (1)
Store Cards
Regarding store cards in particular, it seems to be prevalent that they’ll be willing to reinstate a closed account even after it’s been long closed. Here are reports regarding a Lane Bryant card and a VS card. Sam’s Club (Synchrony) is reported as not being willing do reopen. Similar report on the Banana (Synchrony) card.
[Related Post: Sparing your Credit Cards from Shutdown]
We don’t have any information on some other banks, like US Bank, or Well Fargo. Hopefully, we’ll have this post updated soon with more info from the comments. Please share your experiences in the comments below.
Barclays said they couldn’t reopen my closed account b/c of inactivity (no annual fee Arrival).
I thought this was funny. A credit card I had was closed. (Bank got upset cuz I skipped two payments.) I didn’t care. I had to move. The apartment manager was a dope fiend who robbed me, while I was at work. And I mean she took Everything…also abusing my cat in the process.
Ever since I got moved, the bank is persistently nagging me to reopen my account, both online and via postal mail. It’s possible that reopening the account would increase my credit score. But at this time, it’s already good. So I am stubborn, as if the bank is some random cowboy. Nope, you wanted to break up. So we are never Ever getting back together!! LOL!!
BOA no longer reinstates or reopens closed credit card accounts. I made mistake closing one of mine in 2017 and I’ve tried to ask them since to no avail. Just simply saying they can’t reopen closed accounts. Mine was in good standing, just inactive and closed per consumers request.
Just called AmEx to attempt to reopen a card that has been closed for just shy of a year. They told me in no uncertain terms that they cannot re-open a closed card after 3 months. Tried to escalate the issue but no go.
Got a letter today saying that BofA closed my Credit Card due to inactivity. Called them and I was told that the card was inactive for 24 months and CANNOT be re-opened. I have both Savings and Checking accounts with them and unfortunately this has been my oldest card (Aug 2012). Now the oldest is July 2013. My current credit score is 810+. Any point in trying to reopen this BofA card?
Chase customer service supervisor says no way to re-open a card closed for inactivity. Has anyone had success with Chase recently? Who do you talk to within Chase to get this done?
I had the same experience unfortunately. The rep was at least able to move the points to another account though.
I recently closed two Chase Business Accounts (Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited) in an attempt to reduce my Chase CL and get approved for a CSR. It, unfortunately, didn’t work, so I decided to try reopening my business accounts.
The back of the card rep told me I could only reopen my Business accounts if I called up on the same day I closed them. Via SM, they directed me to call up lending services. The rep there told me they would have to do a full review with credit pulls, etc. as if it was a new credit application, and then it would be reviewed by a supervisor. They also said I had had 60 days from when they were closed to go that route.
Had a number of older accounts closed for inactivity so i wanted to reopen:
1. Kohl’s: (hard no, asked him to check with supervisor, hard no. this aligns with other datapoints i saw online, other people werent able to reopen, so i gave up
2. Talbots: its a comenity store card, when i called in on the closed account, there was an unprompted explicit automated message stating closed accounts can be reopened. i took this as a firm no
3. Ann taylor / loft: again a comenity store card, same explicit automated message as above, so i took this as a hard no
4. ll bean citi (formerly barclays): this one started as barclays when i opened, but citi acquired the book, so its now managed by citi. customer service representative refused to reopen, swore she worked there forever and its impossible, said not even worth speaking to supervisor. there are multiple reports of citi reopening for inactivity so i am not convinced. maybe ll bean has different rules, but i will call back and speak to a supervisor. this one had been closed less than 3 weeks at the time i called, which according to another comment is well within the 60 days required to open a card closed for inactivity. will update with final result
I just spoke with a Barclay’s rep after I got a letter out of nowhere stating they were closing my 7-yr-old account ($22,000 credit line) due to inactivity. I called and they told me there was no way to reopen. Spoke to a supervisor who said the same thing, no budging, no explanation. Just kept saying it’s part of the cardmember agreement and that since the account hadn’t been sufficiently active, the bank closed it and there was no way to reopen. This tanked my score at a time when I’m looking to buy my first home so I am LIVID.
Same thing just happened to me with a Citi Best Buy card I’ve had for 10 years with perfect payment hx., over $12,000 credit limit. Just as I’m looking to buy a home. Very disappointing.
This shouldn’t tank your score at all. It takes 10 years for the closure to hit.
BoA just closed a card I had with them for 14+ years. I’m assuming it’s because I had two missed payments with them. For some reason my payments due notifications both text and email had turned off, during the covid crisis I had totally spaced and not checked. Then boom! Credit line of 14K dropped to 1K for the 3 year old card that the missed payments were on. And 14 year old card closed! I called to request a show of goodwill on their part to removed the derogatory marks, they said late fees had to stay, but submitted a request for the marks. They said the cannot re-instated closed cards. Unreal. Perfect history with them for 14 years.
That sucks
I closed a BoA PR card. Then I got an insurance refund back to the card used, which was this card, and BoA re-opened the card with a negative balance due to refund! I am absolutely shocked, and extremely pissed off that they did this. When I say close the card, it should absolutely stay closed no matter what. If a charge or credit comes in, they should reject it, and not re-open the card.
What happens now?!
To make the datapoint clear:
1 Customer closed card and did not want the card to ever re-open under any circumstances.
2 Activity came in (a refund).
3 Instead of BoA telling refunder that card was closed, and rejecting the transaction, BoA accepted the transaction and unilaterally re-opened the card without the customer’s knowledge or consent!
Ha. I just tried calling BoA 3x to reopen a credit card that I’ve had for over a decade. They closed it 3 mo ago, due to inactivity, and said it was their policy NOT to reopen closed credit card accounts. Of course, they offered a new credit card, but I’m only interested in reopening this one because of longevity and impact on credit score. With that said, I have a credit score over 800 with no credit card debt so I guess it’s not worth fighting any further. However, I’m surprised that they’ll reopen a credit account for a business who wants to charge a payment, but not for a decade long customer. Perhaps, I should try to charge something using my old credit card number just to see if it’s accepted and they reopen my account that way. smh/lol.
A closed account still helps your score… until it falls off in x years. But I would be upset too… I’m keeping my oldest card alive as long as it’s free to do so.
Edit: correction. Just saw the other comment stating it didn’t get reopened. Anyway, I have heard of that happening with checking accounts too, but never had it personally, knock on wood. A DD or another deposit/charge reopens a closed account.
I just wish banks wouldn’t take these kinds of actions without communication… but instead, they act now, and sometimes only talk about it if you notice it. Give the customer a chance to do something about it should be the obvious answer.
I called them. So even though the card popped back up in acct login, they explained that it is nevertheless still closed – it did not re-open. It is closed, just with a (negative) balance. They will transfer the -$X on the card to +$X in checking, and presumably the card will then disappear again from acct login.