Chase axes reader’s accounts and he’s not sure why

In his own words:

My Chase closure: current state of affairs. As I reported before, all my 7 Chase personal CCs were closed early July 2020 (while I was on the road). Later I received a letter which did not give a reason, only “We have decided to close your accounts”. I called the number and was told Chase will not give a reason, no reconsideration is possible and the decision is final. Let’s call this a hard closure. I received another letter that my checking and savings account will be closed on August 5. Fine, I emptied the accounts. I also have a Starbucks account which still works though I drained it today to avoid problems getting my money out, and I have an “You Invest JP Morgan” account. No closure notice on that one but when I inquired, I was told by JP Morgan side that the Chase side had “restricted” the account. He could not figure out why but told me that I needed to move the account out before it would get liquidated (not good because I had appreciated stocks in the account). This was confirmed by a Chase branch (as far as they understood what an investment account is).


I also called the Chase reconsideration line (I know, intended for CC refusals), hoping that someone might disclose something but no luck, and I wrote a letter to Jamie Dimon, asking for clemency (“the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime” was my argument). More about this later.
Now my 1 million UR points. Chase gave me 30 days to use them. I was pretty worried because I didn’t have a sapphire personal card to transfer points out. The rep tried to transfer the points but told me the computer wouldn’t allow it. Instead, a case was created and I would hear within 7-10 business days

Re: the letter, I received a call last Thursday from a Jeanine at the Credit Card Executive Office who told me she would investigate and let me know. She left her phone number in case I wanted to talk. I called yesterday morning and left a message but have not heard back. At this point, I’m ready to let it go. Chase refunded most of my annual fees (even a prorated amount for an AF I paid last December). If Jeanine ever calls me, I’m going to ask her if there is any way a negative flag like “unsatisfactory relationship” can be removed from my name.


Just FYI, I don’t think I abused Chase in any way this year. I did do 2 x $1500 on Freedom Cards and I did 1 x $5000 on a Marriott card in “groceries” but that is it. I used the Freedom Unlimited at Simon Mall 3 times earlier in the year (Jan-Mar). Never missed a payment, no MOs in the checking account; I only used it to pay Chase CCs. Sorry for the long story but I wanted to be as complete as possible. Chase is done with me but I am also done with Chase, at least for a while!

Even I’m a bit puzzled as to why Chase axed him. It didn’t seem like he abused the cards and he told me he didn’t have high balance closures recently. I think everyone uses up the 5% Freedom stuff so I don’t know. He did say maybe the sudden $5K surge on the Bonvoy Boundless card (opened in May 2019, met min spend and sock drawered until this May.) Or maybe it was the ramp in the entire Chase portfolio in May/June. Even so, those numbers are paltry compared to all the shutdowns I’ve heard from.

11 comments on “Chase axes reader’s accounts and he’s not sure why

  1. “1 x $5000 on a Marriott card in “groceries”
    Does that mean a bunch of GCs from your local grocery? Possibly to meet some SUB with no other transactions?
    And a million points: can we assume that, of course not “this year” that some of those points were a result of similar MS strategies?
    Personally I’m not puzzled as to why.

  2. The same thing happen to me they told me they will investigate and when they finished there investigation they will return what belongs to me little do I know they send me my monthly statement stating 0 balance they are thief Chase no good

  3. Plenty of people say stuff like this and then leave out that they are an AU on someone else’s account who was shut down for doing stuff that Chase doesn’t like. Did you ask the original person about this?

  4. There isn’t a lot you can do with 1 million UR that you can’t do with 500k, or even 300k. Letting your balances accrue like that makes for a cool screenshot, but cashing them out or transferring them keeps them safe. Earn, burn, churn. There are always more opportunities.

  5. A lot seems similar to my situation last December. The reader can expect the Chase Executive Office representative to call back in a few weeks with a very different tone, reading from a script, and providing no help.

    Mentioning the Starbucks card is an interesting parallel. I had the Starbucks card, too, had not used it beyond one load from my Chase checking and a regular purchase with it. The other uses I had hoped for it never worked. There was a humorous moment in that the $25k+ in my checking and savings that they closed they deposited to my Starbucks account and told me to use an ATM. Eventually they decided to close to the Starbucks account without any kind of notice and sent me a cashier’s check.

  6. I think the important part of his story is – I don’t think I abused Chase in any way “this year”. I wonder what his usage of CCs were last year. As we know now (from AmEx RAT experiences) that banks are willing to look further back into your history based on certain present triggers.

  7. Sounds similar to my story when chase shut me down. As we all know, all it takes is eyes on the account for whatever reason and the shutdown can happen. In my case I made a $2000 purchase out of state that triggered a fraud alert, and the shutdown came about four weeks later. Maybe that was it, maybe it wasn’t, but it’s the only explanation I ever came up with. Once eyes are on the account, and they see a huge number of cards and points, thats all it takes.

    1. Personally I think the reason you got shut down is using the money orders to pay your credit card. I did the same thing you did but with Citi and they shut me down when I asked for an explanation it was the money orders that I mailed in every so often. Now I run all money orders through a bank then pay my cards off it is the safest way.

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