Background

In January, I went to a Chase branch and found out I was targeted for the Chase Ink preferred. I was thrilled, because of Chase’s notorious 5/24 rule. If you’re not familiar with it, see Detailed Guide to the Chase 5/24 Rule. I had only applied for 2 cards in 2017, and I was just waiting to get out from under 5/24 so I could apply for the Chase cards I really wanted again. Since I was directly targeted in-branch, I didn’t hesitate and asked the banker to submit the application for me. During the process, I had to provide documents 2 more times, including address and ID verification, which was really a hassle. I finally got the long-awaited Ink preferred in early February. I also had plenty of spending coming up, so I figured meeting the 3-month $5000 requirement should not be a problem.

Around February 10, I went shopping at Walmart and expected to spend about 1000. Since this was a new card, based on my past habits and what I’ve learned over time, if you are going to make a large purchase on a new card, it’s best to call the bank in advance and give them a heads-up, so a large transaction does not trigger a fraud alert and cause inconvenience. So I happily called the number on the back of the card. After verifying my identity, the representative warmly said: I’m going to send you a one-time verification code; please read it back once you receive it. About 10 seconds later, the representative said: the system is not allowing me to send you the code right now; it says your account is under account review. Let me transfer you to another department. At that point I was furious—what kind of timing was this, right when I was about to use the card? After I was transferred, another representative answered, but her speech was hard to understand, which made the call even more frustrating. In the end, I was told they needed 24-48 hours to complete the review. I had no choice but to wait.

On February 14, I went to the grocery store near my home to buy some vegetables. I pulled out the Ink preferred to see whether it would work. Even though the charge was only 3 dollars, the transaction was still declined. When I got home, I immediately called the number on the back of the card again. They told me the account was still under review. I said, wasn’t this supposed to be done within 48 hours? Why is it still under review? The representative, sounding helpless, said it might take as long as 10 biz days... I was really angry, but there was nothing I could do, so I hung up. The representative gave me another number for the fraud department: 1-800-290-1316. Because I had other things going on, I never ended up calling that number at the time.

On February 15, I logged into my Chase online account as usual and found that all of my cards were showing in red: "You account has been closed~~". At first I thought it might be a system error, so I asked my LD to log into LD’s account, and everything looked normal there. After asking friends in a QQ group, I learned the bad news: I had been completely shut down (though my checking and saving accounts were still there). So I immediately grabbed one of the cards and called the number on the back. The representative said they had already made a decision. I then asked to be transferred to a manager, but I was instead transferred to a senior customer service rep, and the conclusion was exactly the same.

Investigating the Cause

Our site has previously listed many of the common factors behind Chase shutdowns. If you want more detail, see:

Looking back, I really did not fit most of those risk factors, and I had always been careful. For example, I did not deposit large amounts of cash, did not receive other people’s bill pay payments, had not opened a large number of cards in a short period, had not bought or sold UR points, had not paid my credit cards with cash, and so on. The only possible issue I could think of was that in mid-2017, I had nearly maxed out the 25000 cap on the office-supply 5X category on my ink cash card (including buying Visa gift cards at Office depot and Officemax—you know the rest). But I also know many people who maxed out their Ink plus cards, and I had not heard of them getting shut down.

In a bit of a panic, I started digging through Chinese- and English-language forums for data points to see whether there was any chance of coming back from this. I looked through Reddit(data points), flyertalk(data points), and several Chinese blogs. I found a few cases where people were revived, but most were completely dead.

On February 19, I received a letter from Chase—actually a whole stack of them, because I had 4 cards, and each card got its own shutdown notice. The stated reason was: Rapid increase in revolving balance. With a reminder from ymlulu, I checked my Experian credit report and, sure enough, Chase had done a soft pull to review my credit history. After calling 1-800-290-1316, I learned that the issue was that I had made quite a few large purchases during Black Friday and had paid them off very quickly. Those purchases were not on my Chase cards, but on my AMEX cards. Chase had picked this up through the soft pull on my credit report, which was pretty sneaky. So this shutdown was not directly related to MS, but rather to this surprising issue.

Once I found the reason, it was time to start trying to save the relationship. There are some successful recovery data points, but there are many more unsuccessful ones. In one successful case, I saw that sending a Secure messgae might be a good way to appeal.

The Reinstatement Process

After figuring out the reason and getting a general idea of how reinstatement might work, I wrote a long appeal letter through one of my card accounts. It included the following key points:

  • I was very sorry to learn that my Chase accounts had been shut down;
  • I had already received the letter, understood the reason given, and carefully explained the situation;
  • I had always been a loyal Chase customer and had enthusiastically recommended Chase to many friends and family members;
  • I had maintained checking and saving accounts with Chase, mainly because the bank’s professional image had always given me confidence;
  • If the bank believed I represented potential risk as a customer, I was willing to significantly lower the credit limits on each card;
  • Please forward this letter to the appropriate department, and I hoped they would hear my sincere request.

Very quickly, the next day, I received a message from Chase saying that the matter had been forwarded to the appropriate department and that I should wait patiently.

On the morning of February 26, I got a call from Chase. They reconfirmed the contents of my secure message and told me that all of my cards had been reopened. The “you account has been closed” message had already disappeared from all of the cards, and the representative said I should be able to use them again within 24-48 hours.

Analysis of the Process and Outcome

  • I’ve recently seen many new data points involving Chase shutdowns, and based on those, it appears that many were triggered by a financial review caused by applying for a new card;
  • This round of Chase FR seems different: they may review spending and payment activity on your other bank cards through a soft pull, so it is not enough to keep only your Chase cards looking clean;
  • If you get shut down, do not give up completely. First wait for Chase’s letter, see what issue they cite, and then decide how to respond;
  • This number, 1-800-290-1316, is for Chase’s fraud department. The customer service reps you reach through the number on the back of your credit card have no authority to reopen or close your account, so calling regular CC customer service is useless;
  • Secure message is a very good way to communicate and resolve the issue, because on the phone it is hard to explain everything in detail or fully express your sincerity;
  • After a shutdown, do not rush to file a complaint against Chase. It may do more harm than good and could get you put into the penalty box.

I hope everyone can learn from this and take steps to avoid getting shut down. And if it does happen, do your best to fight for reinstatement.