Chase had shut me down in early 2016 and a few months later, got my wife as well (most likely due to my shenanigans.) Eventually she opened up a Starbucks card in summer 2019, which was eventually shut down as well. Then in mid November, at 0/24, she opened up the Chase Ink Preferred (the one where you got 80K on signup and would get another 50K if you spent $50K within 6 months or so. They approved her for a CL of $21K.
We spent about $2K in the first December statement. Then another $10K in January and another $10K in February. This was organic-ish spend (no giftcards.com, GCM, Simon.) Think where was maybe $2K of GCs from Best Buy Cashstar. Nothing EGREGIOUS in my opinion. Then on the March statement, I charged $22K (4.5K of GCM, rest was “organic,”) and I did make a $10K mid-cycle payment. The statement closed with a balance of $12k. I then went to use the card the other day and got a decline. Went home and checked online.
So what caused this shutdown?
- She hadn’t applied for any new cards lately, so that’s not it.
- She did close her CNB card by accident, but that was re-opened (don’t think that’s it.)
- It could be the ramp up in spend from $10K, $10K to $20K, but it was hitting the CL and I’m not sure how Chase expects you to spend $50K in 6 months if you don’t spend that much.
- Did they finally realize she was supposed to be axed? POSSIBLY.
- Looking at her other cards, I did notice that her OBC closed with a balance of 6.6K on a $4.5K CL; this was a week before the Chase statement cut. That COULD BE IT.
As of right now, I’m not totally sure what caused the shutdown. Could be any reason 3-5. Your guess is as good as mine.
What’s the lesson learned here? I got careless and let her OBC close with that high of a balance. However, her total credit card utilization has got to be <10%. I also wonder if I should have just stuck to spending $10K-$15K a month and not ramp up to $20K by month 4.