Another reader’s Capital One shutdown story

Introduction

Yesterday, a reader told me he was shut down by Capital One.  They told him his checking account was shut down and was asking if he should close down his credit cards preemptively.  Since this happened to me recently, I told him that canceling them won’t do anything because it’s already in the process of getting shut down.  Even though I preemptively cancelled mine, I still got a letter a week later saying that they will be closed them down.  However, I was able to proactively cancel my Kohl’s and still hanging onto hope that I’ll get it back.

Checking or credit card did him in?

Almost all of the shut down stories that I’ve heard about have been shut down due to the checking account, but my suspicion is that it’s the credit card activity that is prompting the shut down, but they choose to close the checking account first (let me know otherwise.)  The reason for that is because this reader wasn’t really abusing his checking account.  The reader thinks he was shut down to all his ACH ins he was doing.  He was also using them for his main bank, so it’ll be a bit of a pain for him to redirect his payroll and automatic payments.  He created a chart on his ACH ins.  Seems like he had been doing it for a while and so the system should have been “trained” in his usage pattern.  It seems he was doing about 20K per month give or take.

Credit card side

I asked him about his credit card side.  He was cycling his CL about 4x from January to May but hasn’t had activity since. Doesn’t mean they didn’t get him for past activity though. Some minor debit payments too.

Lessons Learned

I mean, what’s there to say?  We all know the risks of MS’ing on the credit cards.  I’m honestly not sure if it was the ACH ins that got him or the cc activity.  It’s almost a chicken and egg story.  The only true lesson learned here is – he shouldn’t have been using Capital One as his primary bank.  The process of changing your payroll and all those automatic payments suck!  And you may miss a random department store bank card and get hit with an NSF if you don’t go through ALL OF THEM.

14 comments on “Another reader’s Capital One shutdown story

  1. I’m wondering if any of us have made posts Or comments about a particular political party On social media platforms ? I know it sounds out there it’s just a theory I’m working on after I got my account closed for absolutely no reason that I can think of.

  2. DP: My Spark business card and Venture card show “This account is currently restricted”. I don’t have any checking or savings account with CapitalOne. In the past 90 days. I had around $10k MS on each of the card which is the 1/3 of the credit limit. I also had total about 3.8k of organic spending on these two cards. I did the BillPay most of the time. Why???

    1. Sorry to hear that Wei. Call in to the number on your card and the system will tell you they’re closed, that’s the same thing my account said at first.

      1. I don’t think they’ll give you the exact reason Wei, but I’m pretty sure it was the bill pays that did you in.

  3. Any DPs on MO deposits leading to shut downs? I don’t have any any CCs with Capital one just a checking and savings. Been doing 5k to 10k of MO deposits for 5 or 6 months now. Now I’m worried that i might get the ax eventually.

  4. I didn’t even have a checking when my CC got shut down… (just an ancient 360 savings acct). Seems like the team looking into this stuff has pretty wide visibility.

        1. Ah that’s right. Okay this proves it then. They notify you of closing down your checking account although cc was the culprit. Thanks.

  5. I used my CO360 checking for MOs a year+ ago, very minimal since. Got AF waived in mid-August, two weeks later both my CCs were shutdown. Preemptively closed checking/savings, have not gotten any letter on them. So I’m sure it was CC usage.

      1. Strictly MS. Up to ~0.5x on 30k CL, approaching but never >1x on the 10k CL. Definitely not HH. Shrug, that’s how it goes I guess.

        1. I think its strictly related to MS and Bill Pay. Thats what happened to me few months ago. Gift Card order of 5K per month and Walmart Bill Pay. Shutdown Card first and few days later 360 Account. Made a complaint and got letter that violated rules that cannot be disclosed. Called their escheatment department and was told I am banned from opening any account with Capitol One. Will see in 1 year and see if i can get CC again!

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