It always starts the same way: someone applies for a Chase credit card and is approved. Subsequently, they see their card isn’t working/activating, they are told the card has been closed by Chase. Soon after, they find out that all their cards have been closed out by Chase.
I’ve seen at least five recent data points with virtually this identical story (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 a friend). It seems Chase has a team review recent card applicants. This team works separately from the approval system; they look through recently approved cardmembers to see if any of them are ‘risky’ members. If they are deemed a risk, they shut down all of their Chase credit cards.
The following factors seem to be common among those shut down:
- They had several new credit cards across various banks in a short timeframe.
- They had numerous recent hard pulls showing on their credit report.
It does not seem to be MS related, just cards/inquiries related. In a lot of the cases, they had newish Chase cards as well (besides for the card they had just applied for).
Amex introduced a RAT team, well, maybe we should call Chase’s the BRAT team. Whatever.
Silver Lining
Luckily, we can end on a positive note. Most of the time, it seems that Chase agreed to reopen their accounts upon review when they spoke to the lending department. I’ve seen multiple such reports.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that there’s a new animal in the room. Before applying for a Chase card, make sure you’re report is relatively clean. When applying for a Chase card, don’t do other applications the same day, not for other Chase cards and not for cards from other banks. And try applying with a relatively clean report if possible, i.e. you haven’t applied for anything in a few months.
Remember also that card issuers soft pull our credit reports all the time, and it’s hard to say anyone is entirely safe. But the BRAT team seems to be reviewing specifically those who recently got a new Chase card, so that’s where we need extra vigilance.
See our follow-up post Chase Account Freeze due to Financial Review for some more information in the Chase shut down process. We’ll also add this to the list of how to Spare your Credit Cards from Shutdown.
Any information or opinions about going forward with Chase cards after getting shut down? Are we blacklisted permanently or is there a certain amount of time to hold off applying again?
Yeah, I’m hoping for some data points on this as well. I’ll try again every 6 months, I don’t really care about the hard pull if I don’t get it. I don’t however care enough to be on my best behavior and stop getting cards from other issuers.
Just got shutdown.
1. Applied and approved for an IHG card less than a week ago.
2. Had 5 new non-chase cards in the last 6 months.
3. Bought 2 vgc at my local grocery store since they were on sale (2 days ago).
I guess it could have been any of those.
I’ll give them them a call when my IHG card arrives in the mail and see how it goes…
No go. Just tried to escalate over the phone. No movement whatsoever. They stated the decision was final.
Did they initially approve you?
They did initially approve me.
Hey chuck, have you ever heard of a card being shut down do to “credit abuse.” I added allot of friends during Christmas time to take advantage of rewards and Citi shut me down. Do you think there is any chance of reinstatement?
Cards shut down ;
macys
Dividend
Simplicity
Best Buy
Sorry to hear.
There have been stories of shutdown with just about every issuer. I guess you did something they didn’t like. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/saving-your-credit-cards-from-shutdown/
They said I added to many authorized users to my account. Never knew they shut down an account because of that.
Hello chuck. You have any advice on how to go about the cfpb against chance for the best chance to get my accounts reopen
@guest_534287 I think it makes sense to try avoiding triggers such as opening a few Chase accounts at once
All 7 of my sister’s Chase accounts got shut down:
3 older accounts (Chase Freedom) from 2013-2014
An IHG and a British Airways account from Mar2017
Chase Amazon and Chase AARP from Nov-2017
All-in-all, she got 8 new accounts in Mar2017, 1 in Jun2017, 6 new cards in Nov2017 (also got 2-3 denials in each apporama).
Suddenly in December, she got letters from Chase about each of the 7 accounts that they are being closed. She has yet to call for recon, I am hopeful that they will reinstate it once she offers to send pay stubs, job letter, tax forms etc. She has 90k income in 2017 onwards and had 60k in 2016.
DP
Applied AARP earlier this month. All CC got shut down before the new card had arrived.
Tried to send a letter through Secured Message, didn’t approve reinstatment (Letter arrived in mailbox)
Talked to Fraud Department on Friday last week. All cards are reinstated on Monday.
15 cards in 9 months. No MS
Hello everyone. Have a Data point after being shut down on both my accounts and my wife’s. My accounts had it coming. I was around 15/24 even though Chase claimed I had over 22 (Several AU’s) as I needed some card for work for travel, some ms, etc. I did some transactions using Samsung pay as well as some big purchases at Walmart that I believe drew attention to my account. I also transferred my wife’s UR to my CSP account. I think a combo of all of this caused the review. I called and talked to anyone that would listen. Finally found some people talking about reaching out to their risk department to have a second review. They called me the next day and said that they would not reinstate my accounts (Freedom, CSP, IHG, and Hyatt). I asked for a supervisor callback, which pretty much the lady told me that all of my reasons (New accounts for work, responsible spending, etc. ) did not change/impact the decision……. That stung a bit but I was able to transfer 160k UR to Hyatt, THAT HELPED!!! But the real kicker was my wife’s cards. She had the good accounts (Ink Cash, Ink Preferred + pending 80k UR bonus, 2xFreedom, and 2 new SW accounts). Especially with me meeting the spend for the Ink Preferred and the hanging 80k UR that I thought I would lose (These points actually cleared and became available once the statement closed even with my accounts being shut down – Supervisor told me that I lost those points….). I was bummed because we used the Ink cash for our phone bills, and I was planning to do a lot of travel for work which I was going to use the Ink Preferred for. I called the Risk team and explained the situation on 11/14. One of the “risky” things they saw was that I had charged like $2000 to one of the freedoms. This was a mistake as Walmart charged me twice for something and then paid me out in cash 30 days later (long story, but don’t try to split payments at Walmart….). I explained that, they never really questioned the two new SW accounts (the reasons were too many new accounts, and rapid increase in revolving credit). I asked the gent to send my wife’s account for a second review which he hesitantly agreed to even though he said “the rapid increase seemed very risky and he did not want to reopen the accounts”. Just checked my wife’s accounts today and the “closed account blah blah blah” is gone!!!!!!!!!!!! I LEARNED a very big lesson with all of this. Thankfully we were able to keep the better accounts that we had with Chase! Be careful, they told me that they periodically pull people’s reports and can shut you down whenever they want. I will add that my wife’s report is pretty clean. She had like 4-5 new accounts in the last 24 months + some… Read more »
Does this also apply to “pre-selected” offers? I’ve opened up four accounts since September. But very recently I was “pre-selected” for a few Chase cards. I applied and was approved (despite being over 8/24).
DP: It seems the Executive office is not able to reopen the accounts closed by the risky department? I filed the first complaint, they called me the day after, after 15 days they reposed to CFPB that they need to wait for more days and are still working on it. Filed a second one (maybe this one make the Executive specialist unhappy?), didn’t called me. 3 days later. Chase closed the second complaint and said they didn’t want to reopen the credit accounts again.
Did Chase give you a reason why the accounts were closed and why they do not want to reopen the credit accounts again?
Chase did this to me on October 18th 2017. The CSR who I spoke to was very rude and with no explanation told me that this decision has been made due to bank’s policy and will be final. Funny thing is I am a Chase private banking client and this course of action stuns me even more. They have left my checking/savings accounts open. Filed a complaint with CFPB that night, and the morning after, someone from Chase executive office called me and told me that she is gonna research into it and try to reinstate my accounts. Hopefully, I will hear back soon. I am really anxious since chase cards were my oldest cards and I have 7 active cards with them and 3/4 closed cards from before…
Same here, already been waiting for several days after filed a CFPB. Hopefully, our accounts will be reinstated.
Let’s keep each other updated through the process.I hope they reinstate our accounts really soon.
I received the dreaded letter in the mail. The reason they have decided to close all my accounts is due to my failure to protect my cards from unauthorized use and placing chase at undue risk. i.e., they have closed my accounts due to negligence. My wallet was stolen a while ago and there were 4 chase cards in it, and there were a lot of unauthorized charges made with these cards in the few hours that took me to realize my wallet was not with me. Does anybody have any idea whether chase can actually do this? Terminating their business relationship with me due to the fraud that occurred on my cards? Any comments/suggestions would be really appreciated.
I have not heard back regarding my CFPB complaint yet btw.
Interesting DP. Mine is because open too many accounts recently and many accounts are new. But I had a very good payment history and not negative marks. Not MS history at all. Chase executive office are much more busy these days than before, I guess.We need more days.
Hey guys,
I am on the same boat. Accidentally found out that all of my accounts have been closed, as well as my wife’s. I was an AU on some of hers, and she was an AU on some of mine. I did a like 5 Samsung pay transactions across each of our accounts and I think that triggered the manual review. Do you have any updates on how and what was done either by the CFPB or did you have any luck with calling Chase and asking for reinstatement (what number did you call?) I just got off the phone with a supervisor, she pretty much told me to wait for the letter and that nothing could be done, and that I could fax/mail the Chase executive office in Ohio. What’s the latest on your cases?
Thanks
I do not know what is wrong with Samsung Pay. Manual review happened to me right after I made a $5 purchase at Subway with my Sapphire reserve, and after that I noticed all my chase credit cards are being removed from Samsung Pay, and then I logged into my account and noticed the closure. File a complaint with CFPB for sure. I think if they receive more recent complaints all at once, CHASE is gonna be more under pressure. For me, I filed my 1st complaint on OCT 18th, and on OCT 25th, I contacted the lady at chase executive office in charge of my complaint and she just told me that the risk department has told her the same things as in the letter they had sent to me and she is not going to be able to reinstate my accounts. However, in the response they provided to CFPB yesterday, they are asking for more time to look into the issue and the case is still open. I also filed a 2nd complaint with the closure letter attached and a more threatening language on OCT 31st… Still waiting to see what is going to happen. You can also contact the JPMorgan Executive office at 800-242-7399 and file a complaint directly with them. IMO, do both and not be afraid.
Hey any news on your case? What steps have you tried? I am in a similar situation as of 11/1/17. All accounts closed. My wife got a Ink Preferred, and after about two months, got 2 SW cards. One business and one Plus. The shut down all of hers, and all of mine. Any advice?
I suggest you to choose Amex, not Chase again.