Consumer complaint received 2018-09-21
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: VA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was applied to both Cha

se Sapphire Reserve and was approved. Since the lending APR and credit limits can vary between products, and to help organize my expenses, I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and was also approved. Two different credit card products, both with ***approved** credit lines*.

During the shipping itself of the cards, there were two fraudulent charges made on one of the cards. Somewhere, there must have been a database leak or the credit card number was recycled by the issuer and my account was compromised. I had to call Chase to report the fraud, and then wait for the closed account to ship a new card. This is one third of the complaint - fraudulent charges before the card even arrives in the mail. 


The next issue is that, after calling in the fraud and going on travel, I then received an account cancellation for the same card during my travel. Not only is my card unsecure and exposed through Chase 's systems before I have access to the card number ( maybe an issue with the shipper or electronic security? ), but now it gets closed as well. The account closure without recourse or warning is the second-third of the complaint. 


After returning from the trip, I called in to figure out the issue and work together on a solution to keep the accounts open and in good standing with the issuer. The first call I was put on hold, waited a few minutes, then was disconnected by chase before even speaking with somebody. Then, I called again. Again, I was put on hold after verifying my information before then being disconnected by Chase before being connected to a customer support agent. This is the third part of the issue, but the story continues ... 


Finally, on the third attempt, I was transferred around to three different people over the course of 45 minutes. Each time I explained that I was approved for both, already experienced fraudulent charges on the card before it even arrived in the mail, and that I would like to know what caused the account closure & a way to keep it open/reconcile. Instead, each told me that it was 'impossible ' to re-open accounts, and then admitted themselves that they don't have the authority to re-open them. I even asked one, quote : " So you're saying the CEO himself couldn't authorize this account '' and was told " no ''. The result of this exchange felt incredibly dishonest and unfair to me as a consumer. 


As for my attempts to reconcile, their reasoning was that their policy is against two products in the same credit line. However, I was already approved for both. It was through *their* system, using the same information twice. There is no fraudulent information in the applications. The only risk I can think of is the credit line exposures of two credit cards, so I offered a solution to lower the credit lines on both cards to match the original credit line of one of them ( since the credit lines are XXXX and XXXX, an example refactoring would be XXXX and XXXX respectively ). This would maintain the risk of a single approval, and keep both accounts open while I look for an alternative product to match their policy. 


Instead, I was lied to about authorization ( not even the CEO can approve an exception to the policy, despite their letter saying lending services could re-evaluate the decision ), and was told that it was 'impossible ' to have both accounts, even though they are different products and that I had both accounts at the same time for several weeks - very much possible indeed. The reason for the closure was not due to any fraudulent information, and I offered to lower credit limits to mitigate any unintended exposure / risk to Chase. It is not fair to consumers that lenders approve their applications for different products, then close the accounts after a few weeks due to policy decisions. They did not work with me in any measure on reconciling this issue, so I am submitting a complaint to the CFPB to have this handled fairly. I am not responsible for mistakes in the software of Chase, and have tried to handle this to keep the accounts open & in good standing with reduced risk to Chase.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation