It happens that a credit card gets closed due to miscommunication with a customer service representative. Other times a person might decide to close out an account, only to change their mind later. And sometimes banks will close a card for inactivity. Can the account be reinstated after it was closed?
You can always go through the process of applying again for the card, but that will result in a hard pull and a new review.
Some credit card issuers will allow you to reopen the old credit card account upon request soon after it was closed. This is especially true if the card was closed by mistake, and certainly if it was the bank’s error.
A reinstated credit account should keep the original account opening date which will help the Average Age of Accounts for credit score purposes.
Note that banks will rarely reopen cards that were closed due to delinquency or suspicions of fraud. This article focuses on cards that were closed in good standing.
Contents
Alliant
Alliant will only reopen a closed card if it’s been more than six months.
American Express
Amex allows reopening a closed card without a hard pull and with the same account number (1), even a card that was voluntarily closed (2). This can be done for 30-days after closing (3), or possibly 90 days (5), or possibly even up to a year (citation needed).
They seem to have added a $25 re-open fee, though it’s possible that’s not always enforced.
Bank of America
According to this MyFico poster, BofA will reopen a closed account within six months. However, they’ll pull your credit before doing so.
A couple of posters from some time ago (1, 2) had success even after a couple of years.
Barclay’s
Barclay’s will agree to reopen an account, even if it was closed voluntarily (1, 2). Others did not have success (1, 2).
Capital One
Most don’t have success convincing Capital One to reopen a card that was closed voluntarily (1). There is one report of success, however. Update: Another successful reopening.
Chase
Chase allows you to reopen a card soon after it was closed, even if it was closed on purpose, and certainly if there was a miscommunication.
Most people are told that it can be reinstated for 30-days, but others were able to reopen at 45 days (1), three months (1) or even 6 months (1). One person had success getting their Chase cards reinstated almost a year after they were shut down; their account number remained the same, and no hard pull was done.
Note that if you transferred over your credit line to a different card when closing, you won’t be able to get the old account reinstated. Worth leaving $500 credit line if there’s a chance you’ll want to reopen later.
Citi
Citi will reopen a closed credit card. You’ll keep the same card and card number. We don’t know exactly how long after it’s closed it can be reopened, but we know people who have done it successfully a week after closing.
There are conflicting data points (in the comments here and elsewhere) regarding the hard pull for reopening a closed Citi card. From what I gather, if the card was closed ‘by mistake’ (e.g. you didn’t know about a certain benefit) you should be able get it reopened without a hard pull, although it might need a supervisor and the correct department to process this reinstatement. If you decided to close the card and then changed your mind or if the card was closed for dormancy, it will often result in a hard pull to get the account reinstated.
A friend of mine closed his Citi AA card voluntarily and later changed his mind. He was able to get the card reinstated with no hard pull, but it did come with a new card number. In his experience, the close/open of the card reset the 12-month period necessary to be able to product change the card.
Discover
Some had success reinstating a Discover card after a few months, but a more recent report indicates the reverse.
Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bank will reopen a closed card within 30 days, but not after. (1)
Store Cards
Regarding store cards in particular, it seems to be prevalent that they’ll be willing to reinstate a closed account even after it’s been long closed. Here are reports regarding a Lane Bryant card and a VS card. Sam’s Club (Synchrony) is reported as not being willing do reopen. Similar report on the Banana (Synchrony) card.
[Related Post: Sparing your Credit Cards from Shutdown]
We don’t have any information on some other banks, like US Bank, or Well Fargo. Hopefully, we’ll have this post updated soon with more info from the comments. Please share your experiences in the comments below.
