Preface

Chase has long attracted readers with great credit card benefits, a strong UR transfer system, lots of airline and hotel partners, and generous sign-up bonuses. Once you get your first card, the rest seem to follow like water from a faucet. But Chase has always been ruthless: if it wants to shut you down, it shuts you down. Chase is rarely like AMEX, which may review you first (though the odds are not high); instead, it shuts you down first and asks questions later. And once you are shut down, the chances of surviving are usually slim. In the best case, you may have to wait 2 years; in worse cases, seven or eight years, or even for life. Add Chase's infamous 5/24 rule, and getting another card becomes even harder.

Let's first review the shutdown experiences and lessons we've previously published on this site:

Recently Chase made two big moves【here, here】. I’m taking this chance to lay out in detail my years-long Chase shutdown experience, hoping it may be useful to some readers or at least offer a glimpse into a different world. Besides being shut down by Chase, I was also hit with AMEX FR, but AMEX FR is usually very hard to die from, so I’ll cover that separately.

[Disclaimer] The following is only my personal experience and lessons learned. Please focus on the shutdown itself and the solutions. If you want more details, feel free to leave a comment and discuss～

Card approval timeline

I started building credit in August 2016. My card approvals were as follows:

  • 2016.08, first card: Discover it quarterly 5%
  • 2 months later, AMEX BCE [it happened to include Amazon 10% cash back at the time; I forgot the exact amount]
  • 3 months later, Chase Freedom, approved via recon
  • 4 months later, Chase United Explorer, from a UA mailer; approved the day after I applied
  • 7 months later, one day I first applied online for Chase Sapphire, then after recon approval I immediately went to the branch that same day and had the banker help me continue with a CFU application; the banker called on my behalf and got it approved, bringing me to 6/24
  • After finishing 5/24, one day I got BofA 123 and the no-fee BBR at the same time
  • 8 months later, I kept going and got Chase IHG, approved automatically the next day
  • At around months 8 to 9, I opened three AE charge cards in a row (Green / Ameriprise Gold / the 'junk' Gold card, not PRG), plus SPG and the old no-annual-fee Hilton
  • Triggered AMEX FR (I’ll cover that separately in another article)
  • 9 months later, I got Chase Hyatt and Chase AARP, both approved automatically the next day
  • I was taking a break from applications, so I didn’t get any more Chase cards; I think I picked up a PRG somewhere in between
  • 12 months later, I got the long-awaited Chase Ritz Carlton, approved through recon
  • In month 13, I applied for Chase Amazon, didn’t get approved, requested recon, still no approval, then tried recon again the next day and the specialist told me all my cards had been shut down

The shutdown process

How I found out

The way I found out I had been shut down may be a little different. Many friends usually discover it when their card stops working. In my case, it happened while I was applying for my 9th Chase credit card, the Amazon card. My first recon attempt didn’t go through, and when I called recon again the next day, I was told that all my credit cards had already been closed. My guess is that after the Amazon application got pulled, it drew the attention of the Fraud Department, which then led to the shutdown.

(The 8th Chase card, Ritz, was approved in late September, and it remained perfectly safe for quite a while after approval.)

By the third day, I tested all the cards and indeed none of them worked. A screenshot from that day looked roughly like this:

Then one day I received 8 letters at the same time, explaining the shutdown and the reasons for it. Below is a screenshot of the Ritz letter (AARP and Ritz have different header logos; the other cards all use Chase's standard logo). [These screenshots come from Chase's response in CFPB; Chase attached all the handling letters to me.]

The letter is from Cardmember Service, and the phone number on the side is important. It is said to be the Fraud Department number:

The first part of the body states the shutdown and the reasons for it:

The second part explains what you can do next, the usual routine: destroy the cards, stop using them, and how to transfer points:

The points-transfer section is what everyone cares about, so I’ll list it separately. If your account earns rewards:

  • If you redeem rewards through Chase, you have at least 30 days to use them or you’ll lose them.
  • If you redeem rewards through a partner loyalty program, we’ll transfer them to the partner.
  • Before your rewards are used or transferred, you can lose them for program misuse, fraudulent activities, failure to pay, bankruptcy, or other reasons described in the terms of your rewards program.
  • See the terms of your rewards program for details.

The last part is customer service hours:

If you have questions about this letter, call 1-800-290-1316. We’re here Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Reasons for the shutdown

From the screenshots above, you can see that Chase believed I had triggered the shutdown for three reasons:

  • Too many Accounts opened recently (I opened too many cards: in the six months before the shutdown, 6 Chase cards, 5 AMEX cards, 2 BofA cards, and 1 Discover it card; over 14 months, the total number of new cards was 18)
  • Too many requests for credit or/ reviews of credit (there were quite a few inquiries on my credit report, including the hard pulls from denials)
  • The accounts on your credit report have not been open long enough (this is basically the same as the first reason)

First things first: transfer the points

UR points on the statement

At the time, I had 200,000 UR points on the statement, and I immediately transferred them to my then-current UA and Hyatt accounts.

UR points not yet posted

There were a few pending charges on the statement, and I eventually got the points for those too. My approach was to transfer the money to checking as soon as UR points posted (if the points were under 1,000, I would lose a little cash each time and deposit it into checking).

Points on co-branded cards

No need to worry — Chase will make up every last point for you.

Reinstatement attempts

Trying to resolve it by phone

The number on the shutdown letter is supposedly Chase's Fraud Department number, and you can only call it during weekday business hours. That’s pretty inconvenient. I found out about the shutdown while I was calling recon about the Chase Amazon application, and the recon specialist told me about it. She also said she could transfer me to the relevant handling department, but since it was online, the transfer just turned into a voicemail message.

I then called the number on the back of the card. The customer service rep was very sympathetic and said she could try to reactivate the credit card, but unfortunately all attempts failed.

The next day during the daytime, I kept contacting customer service. I didn’t call the Fraud Department directly; customer service helped transfer me. But the department with the authority to reactivate it said, “NO, that's final decision.”

Secure Message Request

Back then, I saw a girl’s DP and, after my cards were killed, sent an SM to Chase. I listed five big points in detail. I roughly described my loyalty — frequent card usage, no risky behavior, often referring friends to Chase, having funds in Checking or Saving, a decent income, etc. — and asked for reinstatement, which worked. I followed the same pattern and sent an SM for Ritz, CSP, Hyatt, and IHG (hoping to keep these four cards). After I sent the message, Chase replied one after another the next day, but they were only forwarding it to the Fraud Department for review, and the cards were still dropping one by one.

Complaining to the CFPB

After the phone requests went nowhere, I browsed Doc and found that quite a few of Doc’s readers had also had their cards closed. They went straight to CFPB and were restored quickly. By then, three weeks had already passed since my cards were killed, so I rushed to file a CFPB complaint as well. But maybe I had missed the right window, or perhaps Chase’s processing efficiency dropped because of a sudden surge in complaints.

Introduction to the CFPB

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as the name suggests, protects consumers from being mistreated by financial institutions.

【The following content is excerpted from Wikipedia】The CFPB is a U.S. federal agency established by the Obama administration to address abuses in the financial industry after the 2008 financial crisis. It began operations on July 21, 2011, and is responsible for supervising U.S. financial institutions with assets over $10 billion. Its funding is provided by the Federal Reserve and it falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Treasury. The bureau is responsible for promoting fair and transparent mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer financial products and services. Its jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage servicing businesses, foreclosure relief services, debt collection companies, and other financial companies.

The CFPB often investigates financial institutions and imposes penalties, usually in very large amounts. So banks are generally afraid of receiving too many CFPB complaints from customers, and therefore take CFPB complaints relatively seriously. Chase’s CFPB handling unit is the Executive Office, and this office has quite a bit of power; many DPs show that they can directly ask the Fraud Department to help reactivate closed credit cards.

First Complaint

For the first complaint, I wrote the usual routine. I described how all my credit cards were suddenly closed, how inconvenient life had become, and how awful that felt. I hoped Chase would help sort it out. CFPB rules generally require banks to respond within 15 days and provide a final response within 60 days. (This does not force the bank to satisfy the customer; it gives the bank time to investigate.)

We've sent your complaint to the company, and we will let you know when they respond.

Their response should include the steps they took, or will take, to address your complaint.

Companies generally respond in 15 days. In some cases, the company will let you know their response is in progress and provide a final response in 60 days.


On the thirteenth day, I received a call from the Chase Executive Office. After confirming the complaint details and situation with me, they said they were investigating and told me to wait.

You can simply understand this as: “Hey, we’ll handle it soon, just wait for me!”

Second Complaint

After waiting for a while, Chase still hadn’t replied. Around the same time, I deposited a $15,000 check at a Branch, which caused my Checking to be temporarily frozen (to make things worse), but after a few days of review Chase lifted the freeze automatically. I was very angry, and since the first complaint still had no result, I went ahead and complained to CFPB again. 【It was later proven that filing an additional complaint was a stupid move】

Complaint Outcome

Three days after the second complaint, Chase replied immediately and said, sorry, Your account will remain closed.

They repeated the closure reasons from the earlier envelope, attached all of the Cardmember agreements for my cards, and mailed everything to me by USPS. Just the postage alone cost about $6-7.

At that point, I had come to terms with it and stopped pushing for reinstatement. After all, I had already squeezed everything I could from the cards, and transferred all the points I needed to transfer. The only loss was the one annual free night certificate from Hyatt and IHG. Move on, and switch over to AMEX. By then, AMEX had just lifted my FR three months earlier, so I treasured AMEX even more.

Follow-up Requests

Three months after the closure, still unwilling to give up, I tried calling customer service again to get the cards revived, this time calling the Fraud Department directly (the number listed in the closure notice).

The agent was very friendly and said he would handle it right away, but after a few minutes he came back and told me: “I’m sorry, your case is already over 90 days old, and I can’t help you anymore.”

What? There’s a requirement that it must be handled within 90 days? I was shocked and asked further, and learned that all closed credit cards must request reconsideration and reactivation within 90 days; otherwise, even the Fraud Department cannot help reactivate the cards.

I kept asking: surely there must be some department that can handle it, so who should I be transferred to? The guy really didn’t want to say, but I refused to hang up. In the end, he mentioned a department, but his accent was too heavy and he only said it once, so I didn’t catch it. In the end, I had no choice but to end the call.

【At this point, I realized my sequence of handling things had been all wrong, and I hope readers can learn from my experience】

The World After All Cards Were Closed

Come to think of it, getting everything closed was actually pretty interesting, so I’ll share a bit here:

Credit Card Benefits

The benefits of the United co-branded card disappeared at the same time. Basically, by the next day, I could no longer enjoy the extra 25% MPX bonus anymore, and I guess checked baggage benefits were gone too. But the UA co-branded card still exists in my online banking interface to this day, just with a 0 CL, and my credit report shows that the card has already been closed.

For a long time — at least a year and a half, and I haven’t tested it recently, though I guess it still works — the card number for the Chase Ritz Carlton card still allowed me to go onto the visa-infinite website and buy flights with $100 off. Just because you can get in doesn’t mean you have the available credit to buy anything.

For IHG/Hyatt co-branded card membership, any cards that were due to expire later did expire one after another. IHG was first downgraded to Gold, and eventually went to zero.

Before the UR system was officially suspended, you could still use UR transfers and 1.25/1.5 for Travel

Allowed to Transfer Points

The closure letter from Chase clearly said I was allowed to transfer UR points within at least 30 days. In practice, I found that it was one additional statement cycle after the current statement ended, so it really was at least 30 days. The UR system remained the same as before the closure, and you could do whatever you wanted. If you missed the window, you could consider filing a CFPB complaint and have the Chase Executive Office transfer the points for you; there are DPs for that.

AARP points (Cash) were also allowed to be checked later and transferred later, roughly for another 30+ days.

Card Status in Online Banking

After the closure, all credit card available credit in online banking showed as 0, first on the website and then later in the mobile app. The card images and services remained for quite a long time, and you could still continue making mini payments. If you moved, these credit cards would also send you an address change letter. About a year later, the card images gradually disappeared from your account, though a few cards would remain indefinitely. My United Explorer is still there, for reasons unknown.

Still Allowed to Refer

Chase’s official referral terms say that the referrer’s card must remain in good standing in order to receive the final reward. But in practice, for a short time right after the closure, referral still worked smoothly:

After the card was closed, your card’s referral link was still valid. Even after closure, the referral bonus would show up in the next statement

  • For UR-series credit card referral bonuses, if timed well, you can still redeem them in time.
  • If the UR system has already been shut down, and you referred someone a few days before the shutdown, you will see that bonus as pending, but after that, well, it’s over.
  • Co-branded card referrals are unknown. All I know is that I still have a dead UA Explorer showing in my online banking interface to this day, and I can still refer it; I haven’t tested whether it actually works.

Shut down in October, used the CFU link to refer a friend in December, saw a pending bonus in January, but unfortunately never got it.

Checking/Saving are not necessarily shut down

This was my situation. After the shutdown, I specifically called to ask the Checking department, and they said the two departments are separate, so Checking is safe. I’ve kept using it to this day — a fallback account! As long as you have a Chase account, you may have a chance to get targeted again!

Shutdowns and Prequalify offers

After a shutdown, as long as you still have Checking or Saving, you may still be targeted with some pretty good offers, and some can even bypass 5/24.

  • Ad-style offers, like the one I received 11 months after being shut down, under Selected For You, Exclusive Offer, variable APR, and I wasn’t even 24 months out yet — I just treated it like an ad.

Some personal advice

The following are just my personal suggestions. I’m a pretty aggressive card churner, so I don’t recommend copying me. Of course, card application policies are nowhere near as lenient as they used to be.

What to do after a shutdown

First, stay calm and rationally analyze why you were shut down, then wait for Chase’s letter before deciding what to do — that’s also the best approach. Of course, transfer your points first. [Note: Chase now sends the electronic letter to your online banking on the same day, as shown above.]

I suggest handling things in the following order (counting from the shutdown date, you only have 90 days to bring it back, which is plenty of time, so take it slow):

  • Transfer your points right away! Even though there’s a 30+ day grace period, transferring points is still the most important thing! Hyatt is the best option right now; UA, lol.
  • If you have any outstanding balance on the card, pay it off immediately (to remove Chase’s concerns).
  • After you receive the letter, call 1-800-290-1316 first to appeal. Try to call during business hours, Monday through Friday. If the agent won’t give you recon, ask whether they can transfer you to a supervisor; supervisors have more authority. If that doesn’t work, hang up and call again the next day. Keep trying a few times.
  • Send a Secure Message to ask for help as well. SM will eventually route you to the responsible department, and there’s a chance it can help you get reinstated. Write a clear rebuttal based on the reason you were closed, keep the tone calm, and the odds of reinstatement are YMMV.
  • If none of the above works, then consider filing with CFPB.

If you ultimately still remain closed:

  • Look forward (to the money) — there are still plenty of good cards out there, with lots of AMEX bonuses up front and Citi AA behind you (you know what I mean).
  • If you still want a chance to apply for Chase credit cards in the future, keep Checking or Saving as your fallback and use it regularly; you may still get a chance. If your banking is closed too, try applying once; if that doesn’t work, it gets much harder.
  • If you’re really angry and want to “blacklist” Chase, you can try suing Chase. Of course, Chase usually wins a lot. But if you’ve given up completely, there’s still a chance to claw back a bit of money. (Not recommended.)

Card-churning advice

As someone who has been through AMEX FR, been shut down by Chase, has only 2 years of credit history, and has opened 40+ U.S. credit cards, I have a few suggestions:

  • Small-scale churning is fine; going too hard hurts; forcing it too much ends in disaster
  • Understand slow and steady; don’t apply for too many cards in a short period of time
  • Don’t rush, and don’t apply casually; read more of our blog’s guides
  • Use fewer hacked links to apply, especially for Chase. Chase is more sensitive to this than other banks, and it shuts things down without hesitation. (Have you ever seen major Chinese and English blogs scrambling to delete posts and add passwords after a link leaked? That’s how powerful Chase is!)
  • Remember! Banks are not charities! Use your cards more so the bank can make a little money. Don’t open a card and then stop using it; an occasional swipe is necessary
  • If you’re FR’d, frozen, or shut down, don’t panic. Communicate patiently with the bank and explain the situation. As long as you’re not an excessive Gammer, the bank will still like you