Consumer complaint received 2018-04-24
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (TX)

On XX/XX/2018 at XXXX XXXX CT I contacted Chase concerning a sudden complete closure of all of my credit card accounts. I went to make a business purchase and was shocked to see that my card was declined. I followed up with Chase and they said it was due to me having several returned payments, overly-aggressively seeking credit, and multiple hard inquiries on my account within the past year. 


I proceeded to explain that I only had one returned payment due to the fact that I pay off my account at least 5 times per month to keep my balances low and this one time I overpaid and ended up having the payment bounce. Furthermore, this was not a situation where there was payment due on my account and I failed to pay it, this was just me making multiple payments above what was required and miscalculating on one of them. I explained that I called in to explain the details of the missed payment and the representative complimented me on how meticulously I managed my account and stated that since it was clearly a one-off mistake that had never happened on any of my accounts, she would even reverse the fee as a courtesy. Right after, I resubmitted the payment and everything went through as usual. 


Naturally, this is a source of shock, since 2 months later this is what is being stated as one of the key reasons Chase decided to shut down all of my accounts. At the time, I was given no indication that this honest mistake that the Chase representative made seem like no problem at all would be perceived so negatively against me. 


In addition, it was mentioned that I had a credit line of $ 400,000+ and that this was a serious red flag for the bank. The agent said that it might be a typo, but the fact that she seemed to initially believe I had multiple returned payments and a credit limit over 4 times my actual total credit limit ( {$90000.00} ) leads me to believe that this decision was based in part on hastily thrown together and partially erroneous information. For a decision that immensely affects my XXXX XXXX and work as a XXXX XXXX, it is very upsetting that their decision might have been based on faulty information. Furthermore, I even informed them that I've reduced my credit limit significantly ( over 50 % ) in the past few months on my own and that my objective was clearly not amassing a huge credit limit that posed any sort of fraud risk. In fact, just a few months prior, I lowered the credit limits on 5 of  my Chase cards myself. 


I also explained why I had so many new credit accounts over the past few years. The representative I spoke with even said she understood why I sought the particular type of credit cards that I did given that I travel frequently. I also offered to provide information on my various accounts, credit limits, and why I opened them since I believed once they saw that many of the cards I opened were for particular hotel chains or airlines that I travel on, it would decrease the perception that I was recklessly applying for tons of credit. They declined to accept my offer, but said they took notes. 


Ultimately, Chase reviewed my request and decided that they would maintain the total closure of all of my accounts and would not allow any of the remedying action I offered such as closing accounts, lowering credit limits further, or refraining from new applications. I understand that as a bank they can do virtually anything they feel protects their interests, but as a long-time customer and advocate for them and their programs, it is very disheartening knowing that they were completely uninterested in salvaging the relationship. It is also frustrating that I received no indication throughout the entire time that my actions put my banking relationship with them at risk in any way.