Chase Shutting Down Accounts After Periodic Reviews?
There is a report on Reddit from user morphogencc reporting that Chase recently shut down all of their accounts. Morphogencc says that they went to use their card recently and it was denied. Once they called Chase they were informed that they were shut down because their overall credit, with all banks, was too high and Chase deemed their accounts risky.
Morphogencc estimates their overall credit limit, with all banks, is about 2X stated income. They also said that they have not recently applied for any accounts with Chase. Chase said they came to this decision after doing a “periodic review”.
What Does This Mean?
This is only one data point so no reason to jump off the deep end as of yet. But, this is an overall theme coming from most of the banks these days. They are tightening the screws and overall credit is a logical thing for them to look at next.
In the past banks have been focused on how much credit you have with their individual bank. Chase could be looking at other ways to mitigate risk. Someone who has large amounts of credit available to them could be considered a risk if another recession hits.
Another thing worth pointing out is that Morphogencc reports having 6 personal and 1 business card with Chase. Did having so many personal cards with Chase lead to this somewhat? Morphogencc has filed an appeal which many people have been successful with lately.
What Should We Do?
I have been talking about closing down accounts a lot recently for a few different reasons. By closing cards that are no longer useful your life gets a little easier, it should lead to more approvals, and it looks like now it could potentially help avoid a shut down.
The other option would be to lower your limits on all of your cards. This will help some with average age of accounts since you wouldn’t have to close any going this route.
I still plan on closing down some cards and I will try to keep one no annual fee card with each bank. This will keep me as an active customer at no cost to myself. You are more likely to get approved as a current customer and sometimes it will stop a hard pull from happening. With some banks, like US Bank, it is mandatory to get certain cards.
Conclusion
This data point in and of itself does not mean we need to panic but it is a word of caution. I think some proper planning is important these days. Free and easy flowing miles and points are a thing of the past and we need to be smarter about how we handle our accounts.
What do you think of this development? Do you think it is a legit threat or just a one off.
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Something doesn’t smell right… I think we are only hearing 1/2 the story. If they had too much credit, and did nothing wrong… Chase would have decreased their limits, not close every account.
Logic says, something doesn’t smell right.
That may be the case but similar data points have been popping up since I wrote this article. Still isn’t a wide spread thing but something to be aware of. Chase rarely makes logical decisions these days imo…so them shutting down all accounts isn’t foreign to them. They usually shutdown everyone in the household.
Then I’ll be interested in hearing the other data points. I have a little over $100k in credit with Chase.
– Sapphire Reserve (my everyday card)
– United Club Card (never use)
– Freedom Unlimited (very minor use)
– Ink Preferred (All business and Utility charges)
I pay off all of my cards twice a month… So I never have very high balances or pay monthly interest.
I also have a personal checking & savings account as well as 2 business checking accounts… Since my credit utilization is so low, with such a high line of credit… am I at risk?
Logic tells me no… If they are changing the way they do business, they might not allow me to open another account… they may not give me a credit line increase, but I just can’t see them closing everything… What data point am I missing?
Well some of that is biz and some personal. I would imagine that would be looked at separately.
A lot depends on how much you make per year etc. And how much you have with other banks. If you have those limits and another 200K with other banks and make 50K a year then I could see them being nervous about it.
This is all very new and no one knows for sure what they are looking for etc. It may be worth reducing the limit on the cards you don’t use just to be on the safe side.
I bank mostly with Chase. I do have the Citi Double Cash card as well a an AMEX Blue Cash… Neither are used other than a “Keep Alive” $1 transaction once a quarter. That’s pretty much it other an AMEX Personal Savings account which probably don’t even factor in.
I’ll be interested to see how this all pans out. I’ve been considering switching to the AMEX Platinum card, but I feel since I only fly United, Chase is a slightly better option for me… With this uncertainty going on, I’ll defiantly hold off applying for that card.
I think you should be fine then. Unless you have a Centurion lounge at your airport I would say Chase is probably the better fit as a United flyer. Amex is great for Centurion and Delta but I don’t think you would use either enough if you are mostly flying United.
Hi Mark, I have some cards with high credit limits with Chase. I’ve thought about lowering some but read elsewhere that lowering credit limits with them might put eyes on your account. What are your thoughts?
I like your strategy about being proactive. That’s my task for the week.
I don’t think it would but if you have seen DP then that may be the case. Whenever I have sent a secure message to adjust limits a front line employee does it pretty quickly so I don’t think it would make a difference. But I can say for sure.
If you read the Reddit poster’s credit profile, I can see why Chase shut him down (not that I agree with Chase). Most of their accounts were opened within a one year time frame and they obtained credit limits totaling two times their annual income. Their AAOA is only 1.5 years. It sort of falls into the Bust Out pattern.
I just checked my total CL and found out it’s almost 2x my income….didn’t even think to check that before. I am considering to lower the CL on many of my cards since I barely use them. However, I read other articles saying that lowering CL would hurt your credit score and not suggested to do so……SO what can I do now?
It should only hurt your credit score if your utilization ratio goes up. But unless you are running up large statements on your other cards it shouldn’t change much. If you keep it under 10% on any given month you should be fine.
I hadn’t thought to even check what my total CL is in comparison to my income until seeing this…it’s around 1.5 times income. That will decrease by a chunk when I close my Prestige this week though. But now I’m thinking I should be more proactive in managing.
I’ve been starting to focus a bit more on Amex lately, especially biz cards. I get approved without a hard pull with Amex, and Chase won’t see the new account, CLs, or usage (unless they specifically go looking for biz CR info which can be done, but hopefully not normal as part of these “periodic reviews”?). And frankly I don’t see myself applying for more Chase cards for a long time.
My plan is to be more proactive…can’t hurt.
Given Chase’s heightened vigilance and increasingly aggressive account review and shutdown behavior, I wouldn’t be surprised if Chase didn’t also begin looking at business credit reports of business account holders and applicants.
I wonder what percentage of their credit limit they are regularly using, even if they are paying it off….
From the comments on Reddit they didn’t MS or anything etc. so I don’t think that was an issue.
No MS, but they did mention in another comment that they’ve been doing more freelancing and have increased overall spending as a result.
I don’t think that was a part of it. Ryan below said usage was around 3%
I think the post said total usage was around 3%
I always try to lower my credit limit and never move my available credit when closing an account with all banks. Half my chase cards because they hardly see any spend are at $500 limit each.
I couldn’t even buy my monthly ice cream if I limited myself to a $500 credit limit
That is a good way to play it!
If total credit limit was indeed the only reason why the account was shut down, then I think Chase should stops automatically raising limit for its CC holders. Chase has automatically increased my credit limits at least 1 time, mostly 2 times, for my credit cards in the past 2 years.
I’ve also noticed, now that I think about it, that the Chase website frequently pops up a prompt to “update your annual income”. It notes something to the effect of “this may qualify you for CL increases”. Seems like this started to show up more over the past ~6 months maybe?
Wonder if it’s also to get you to input your income data point for these “periodic reviews”?
I think what everyone would want to know is, what happened to any accumulated points? Forfeited or allowed to transfer out?
I have never heard of Chase NOT giving 30 days for shut down accounts to transfer points.
File a complaint with the CFPB?
I don’t know if that would do anything – that is more for when they don’t pay out what they are supposed to etc. I think they are within their rights to close your accounts for what they deem to be risky behavior.
I had Chase approve me for the United Explorer card and then a week later sent me a letter lowering the credit limit on my Chase Disney Visa the same $1 for $1 amount. Assuming that means I’m tapped out on personal cards now (4) – Southwest, CSR, Disney, United.
That usually means you are tapped out with your credit line from Chase. It would probably be best to close a card or two with them before applying for another one versus just lowering the credit limit on one of their other cards like we did in the past. They seem much more sensitive lately.