Miles per Day, the king of getting cards shut down, is back again—this time his Fidelity FIA credit card was closed. The reason: he spent $10,000 in a short period of time, which triggered multiple Fraud Alerts, but he did not promptly call to clear those alerts afterward. The bank also tried to contact him by phone but was unable to reach him. So, to control the risk of credit card theft, the bank simply shut down his card.
Generally speaking, banks will not directly shut down your card without reason. But the risk control department will evaluate your risk profile and recent activity to determine whether the card should be closed. Multiple fraud alerts with no follow-up can make it look, from the outside, like the card has been stolen. So if a Fraud Alert is triggered and your credit card stops going through, you can switch to another card for the purchase—but remember to call the number on the back of the card afterward or respond to the Fraud Alert email. It is also best not to trigger Fraud Alerts repeatedly.
