Introduction
Call me paranoid, but I feel like the scrawny kid that somehow miraculously made it to the last few people standing in a game of dodge ball. One buddy I know has been banned from Chase, BoA, and just had his Citigold whacked. Another guy has been banned from Citi and Barclays. Another guy from Citi and Chase. This is what happens when you hang around “heavy hitters.”
Bank shutdowns
We don’t know what causes bank shutdowns. Could be a number of reasons – heavy MS, heavy churning, anonymous payments, etc. Some of those reasons I can control like how heavy I MS on a card – maybe ease up on my Ink for a bit. I could control churning, but if I’m not churning, then what’s the point? The last thing I could control is anonymous payments to my credit card. Now I know most of you out there think I’m delusional, but like I said, at this point, I’m super paranoid. I don’t want any additional reasons for a bank to shut me down.
No more Checkfree billpay payments
I know a lot of people who use CheckFree bill pay to pay credit cards at Walmart and/or grocery stores. Heck, I just did some last week. However, I’ve decided to stop doing it – at least to Chase and Citi. I just feel that these ‘anonymous’ payments is an unnecessary red flag on my account. If Chase is going to shut me down, I want it to be because I hit Ink too hard. Not because I’m too lazy to go the MO route. You can read this FT post if you need additional proof. I just think with all the fraud and anti-ML efforts going on, I want to send in payments from my financial institution.
No more debit payments
One of the most popular pajama points method is paying a certain bank over a phone. While this is a great liquidation method, I’ve started to stop as well. I know some people who still do it and do it almost daily. To me, once again, the risk isn’t worth the reward. I’ll be sad to let this one go, but I just feel in the long run, my future points with this bank outweighs my laziness.
Conclusion
Just because I’ve decided to stop doesn’t mean you should. I may be super paranoid these days, but I feel there have been an increasing number of shutdowns lately, so let me err on the side of caution. I’m okay with being banned from US Bank and Barclays, but a Citi or Chase ban would really hurt. Stay safe out there!
Hey Vinh! Did you payoff the account each month with Checkfree? It’s probably a good idea to pay from a bank account as well and not use Checkfree exclusively.
No I had regular bank payments as well.
I agree with proceeding with caution, but just want to point out that Citi does require name and address match to process
Good point. I think I’ll still stop though. Not worth the 1% risk.
I thought they had stopped that or was that the other C bank?