There are a few new interesting credit card offers from Chase, including an incredible 3x everywhere offer on Freedom Unlimited, and 100k bonuses on Iberia, Aer Lingus, and British. This is just a cautionary reminder that Chase has been difficult recently with regards to account reviews or shut downs when applying for new cards.
We wrote about this last year in the post Chase Account Freeze due to Financial Review. Briefly, Chase occasionally reviews accounts they deem suspicious. The result is an account freeze which typically leads to all your Chase accounts getting closed down.
It all starts when eyes are put on the account. This happens either when they pull your credit report due to a new Chase account application, or if they soft pull to check up on you for other reasons such as large transactions or sudden increases in spending.
Initially, there were an encouraging number of affected people who were able to get their accounts reinstated by calling, but more recently it seems that’s only sporadically true.
There are really two separate issues here. One is applying for any Chase credit card. If your credit report doesn’t look entirely ‘clean’, e.g. if you have many new accounts showing, even non-Chase accounts, or if you’ve had your credit report close with high balances, you risk getting a review or shutdown. The second issue is a sudden spike in spending. It’s sure tempting to hit the Freedom Unlimited card hard during the first year for 3x everywhere, but there’s a risk here, especially with sudden increases.
Try ramping up slowly for best results. and attempt to time applications when your credit report is at it’s best. Something to keep in mind.
You can read more shut down stories in the r/churning shut down megathread and this Flyertalk thread and in these Milesperday posts.Â
