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Darn. Discover’s Closing My Account Due to Inactivity
By JLP | June 6, 2009
From Discover:
Dear JLP:
At Discover® Card, we are committed to working with you to manage your credit needs. This includes periodic account reviews.
Our latest review of your account shows that it is not currently active. we are sorry to see tha tyou have not taken advantage of what Discover Card has to offer.
Due to this inactivity, we are closing your account. Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please call us at 1-800-DISCOVER.
Sincerely,
Discover Card Customer Service
Good riddance! I never liked Discover’s two-cycle billing during the period in my life when I carried a balance. My guess is that I’ll be getting more of these letters from other inactive credit card accounts.
Have any of you experienced having your credit card accounts closed for whatever reason?
Topics: Credit Cards | 18 Comments »
June 6th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I recently had a Chase Visa closed for inactivity. Little disappointed, based on the years that I had it open and the ridiculously high limit (that I obviously never used)
June 6th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Hey, don't dis my Discover! I love that card and it's paid me handsomely thru the years.
June 6th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I had my WaMu card closed for the same reason a few months ago. I would have preferred that it wasn't closed for credit score reasons. After that happened I went to the local gas station and pumped $1 on my four credit cards that I don't use. Hopefully they will consider them active for a while. Then I'll return to the gas station and repeat the $1 purchases.
June 6th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I've never had a credit card canceled for any reason (other than deciding I didn't want it anymore). I use Discover for most of my purchases, and an Amazon/Chase Visa for some online purchases, but I pay both off every month, so this "billing cycle" business is all new to me. Only once have I not paid the balance off in full in one month (took two that time), and that was many years ago.
June 6th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Just more of my 2 cents on my Discover card…since 2004 we have "earned" over $2400 in rebates. Since I've had my card since 1988 (one of my firsts, thank you very much!) the number is undoubtedly several thousand higher…I just don't have my Microsoft Money records from that long ago…)
Tax free moolah + float on our money 'til credit card payment date = a very good thing.
June 6th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I'm wondering what people think about this new practice of closing credit card accounts due to inactivity. It seems to me that the way it's supposed to work (or maybe ideally) is that you have control of your finances, and using your credit card is more of an emergency thing. So in some ways what they are doing is punishing responsible people for NOT living on credit. It just seems like an interesting conundrum. Anyone know how long the "inactivity period" is for until they close accounts?
June 7th, 2009 at 5:51 am
I had a WaMu account closed for inactivity. Kinda would have wished they would have warned me. I would have done the $1 charge thing.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I've had several cards closed for inactivity. These are cards I haven't used in years (5 or more). I'm glad they closed them. I never did it cause I didn't want to mess with my credit score. In some cases I didn't even know they were still open unless I looked closely at my credit report. I have 2 cards – a Discover and a Mastercard – both give me nice rewards and that's why I use them. I don't think I have used another card besides these two in over 4 years.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Be careful. Closed credit card accounts can adversely impact your credit score!
June 7th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Capital One gave me the boot in May 2008, but never told me about it. In October 2008, I was checking all my online financial accounts and noticed that I couldn't log in to the Cap One site. After a call to customer service, I was told that it was canceled in May. Funny thing was I had checked my credit report at all three bureaus before the call to customer service and saw that the Cap One account was still open. So, I asked Cap One to send me a letter notifying me of the account closure. It's June 2009, and I'm still awaiting the letter from Cap One and the account continues to show on all three reports…
June 8th, 2009 at 2:46 am
"I'm wondering what people think about this new practice of closing credit card accounts due to inactivity. "
There are reasons for it. 1) keeping accounts open cost them money by just being in their system. With mounting losses in the business, extra money is important. 2) the banks have restrictions on how much they can lend vs how much capital they have in reserve. Since they don't know how much money they will still lose, they put more money in reserve than they need to ensure they'll have enough capital against future losses. This leaves less money for lending. An open card creates uncertainty – when and how much will be borrowed. Especially with mounting job losses, someone who hasn't used the card may just max it out. So they may end up with insufficient reserves.
" It seems to me that the way it's supposed to work (or maybe ideally) is that you have control of your finances, and using your credit card is more of an emergency thing."
Not really. It's more of a convenience – if you spend it on stuff you buy anyway, then pay in full. They do have an automatic payment in full option.
"Anyone know how long the "inactivity period" is for until they close accounts?"
I think it's a few years – I haven't had this experience with my personal cards though, only with a corporate card. It's easy to get around – just spend $10 once a year or once a couple of years.
With my AmEx Corporate it happened many years ago – so at least with corporate cards closing an inactive account is not new. I got this card through my employer before a couple of business trips, then had no business trips for a few years, and the card is supposed to be for business only. Some few years later – in early 2000s – I had another business trip and tried to use this card to make reservations. Oops…. Turned out it's been canceled for inactivity. No notices. So I called AmEx,, they sent me a new one immediately. They also used the new card number to make my reservations right away: my employer uses AmEx travel for business trip reservations as well. At least used to, but I haven't seen any changes. They did suggest I should use it once a year, I did once, but I am uncomfortable with using it for other than business purposes even if I am ultimately responsible for the bills.
Interestingly, AmEx hasn't canceled my personal Blue Cash card that I also haven't used for a while. But just in case I used it last month. I like to keep this one around for purchases where their doubling of manufacturer warranty is more important than their smaller cash back.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
My wife had a Bank of America card that she hadn't used in years. We noticed that it was her oldest account on her credit report, so we wanted to keep it open. So we charged one tank of gas on it. We received one bill, but they closed the account before we even could pay the balance! Not sure the $1 thing will keep your account open. Credit card companies are just so unpredictable.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I agree with thc — having a bank close an account on you affects your credit score differently from when you request the account to be closed yourself.
@JLP: You might want to call discover, and tell them that you want the closure listed as "closed on request" on your credit report. Then again, someone who is truly debt-free doesn't really care what their credit score is
June 9th, 2009 at 1:41 am
@Brad – I wonder if in your case the issue was timing. They probably decided on your account before you made a purchase. I'd imagine they have one department that uses some computer program to look at the account and choose which ones to close; then they send the list somewhere else, than someone else prints these letters. It probably takes over a month from the time decision is made to the time you get the letter. It can also take about 4 days before the charge makes it to your account – I found this out when I wanted to verify if I got a refund posted. Since you got the letter before you even had a chance to pay, it was probably timing. Once the decision is made, someone has to actually go back and change it. I'd imagine few of their employees would bother. It's probably automated.
You can call them and tell them you used it and plan to do so in future. WSJ had an article on that and they told that sometimes it works.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:17 am
I had a Sears card closed years ago due to inactivity. I recently had a credit card company cut my credit limit on one card by over half, because apparently I wasn't spending enough. It did not matter that I was a 15+ year customer with an excellent credit rating and payment history. So now I am sure to rotate my credit cards to ensure usage.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I got a similar notice for a card that I NEVER used but opened 4 years ago. I am impatiently waiting for my Amex and Discover cards to be next. I hate credit cards and am proud to say that I never use them.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I got this notice this morning. I would like to know what their definition of “inactive” is… I used mine 4 months ago! I often go a few months inbetween using it… very annoyed as it was my highest limit, lowest APR card.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Chase closed a visa card of mine that I had used in November due to inactivity. Didn’t notify me either.