If you have a sock drawer full of credit cards, you understand the struggle it can be to keep every card you have active. While a particular card may have been desirable because of the signup bonus, it may not be worthwhile to use for everyday spending. Other times a previously valuable card can become useless because of better returns offered from newer additions to the market.
While you may forget that you have a certain credit card sitting in your drawer, the bank does not. If you don’t use a credit card for a while, the bank can close your account with no notice. That’s why I was particularly scared when I saw an envelope from Chase bank in the mailbox.
We have several Chase cards and while I try to rotate charges to each card, I occasionally forget to use a card for a while. That’s exactly what happened with our Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card. This card is discontinued but I keep this one because we can’t get a signup bonus for an AMEX Bonvoy Business card because we’ve both had one (and AMEX has a once-in-a-lifetime rule for getting signup bonuses).
I usually charged a random bill to the card every year to keep it active but this year I forgot. I went an entire year with the $99 annual fee as the only charge on the card.
Chase’s letter was very diplomatic.
Thank you for choosing Chase. We reviewed your business credit card account and saw that you have been spending well below your available line of credit.
To better match the way you use your card, we’re reducing your credit line to $5,000. This will happen from 30 days from the date of this letter.
You will still be able to use the account as you have in the past. If you have employees, this change will only affect those whose credit line is higher than your new line.
If you expect you may use the card more often and would like to keep the higher credit line, please call us at the number on the back of your card within the next 30 days. Otherwise, we’ll reduce your credit line as planned and will need to rewiew your credit report if you request an increase in the future.
I appreciate that they informed me about reducing my credit limit on the card instead of closing it outright. In fact, they even let me keep the higher limit if I call them within 30 days.
While I don’t think I’ll be using the card much, I don’t want to have Chase close it for inactivity. That’s because having a Marriott Bonvoy business card was the main reason Sharon was able to qualify for Platinum status for 2022.
There are many easy ways to keep a card open (like a recurring monthly charge for a newspaper or streaming service). I might add one of these monthly charges to this card to ensure Chase doesn’t close the account for inactivity.
So while I understand why Chase is lowering a credit limit on a card we’re not using, I’m happy that’s what happened instead of them just closing the card. While it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, once you lose a discontinued card, there’s no getting it back.
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1 comment
Actually you really can’t trust Chase or Commerce Bank on this sort of thing. It’s not unusual for them to review your credit files and cut your limit to your current balance even with good credit. It’s the weirdest thing. It’s also really bad because it takes a bite out of your fico score as well when they play these games.