CFPB Against Chase for Shutdown Due to too Many Inquires and Accounts

A while ago I wrote an article Chase Credit Cards Closed for too Many Credit Cards and Inquires. At that time Chase shutdown for too many new account and inquires was still still a new thing and data points (DP) were scarce. When my reinstatement attempt by calling Chase executive office was unsuccessful, I blogged about it thinking a detailed DP would hopefully help out others. This post is a followup to above mentioned posts and will detail out my Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complain and its outcome.

This post has been sitting on a draft stage for almost two months now. I read a few shutdown DPs today and I thought I should finally get around to posting what is essentially “Chase Shutdown Part 3 – CFPB Did Not work”.

First I want to address a simple question – Why did I file a complain with CFPB when my reinstatement request was already denied by the executive office and executive office is the one that is going to look at CFBP complain anyway? Because

1. DP of this working or not working were scarce at the time
2. I wanted to present my case nicely in writing. This was important because there’s little much you can say over the phone and there’s only so much the person on the other end of the phone can write.  Remember the person listing to your case will not directly handle your case but s/he will simply forward it to an analyst later.
3. and most importantly I did not have anything to lose

After about 3-4 days of filing a complain with CFBP I received a call from a Chase representative. This call came late in the evening and I unfortunately missed it but I was left with a voicemail and a phone number (with an extension number) to call back. The next morning I would call the number I was given but nobody would pickup the phone.

By this point I had gotten my “our decision remains the same letter” (see end of the post) so I pretty much wanted to just talk to see if I could ever hold a Chase card again. Anyway, I left a voicemail but never got a callback. Two days later I called the normal EO line only to be told I would get a call later…and that I did. I was told that I should have left my credit card number on the voicemail because that would have made it easier for her to look me up….something about receiving my voicemail but not being able to lookup my name because it was hard to spell or something. The excuse was pretty weird one because I had given her my phone number and I’m pretty sure it isn’t hard to spell or lookup phone numbers lol

Anyway, here is the summary of main points I touched upon:

1. Is this decision final? Yes
2. Can I ever hold a Chase card again? Maybe or maybe not.
3. Will my checking account be axed because I have “unsatisfactory relationship with Chase”?  Maybe or maybe not.

The answer I received on #2 and #3 were standard corporate sentences but above was the summary to it.

Finally, here is the letter Chase sent me. They also sent out old “we closed your account and we want to explain why” letter that I had shared in my previous post. Oh and they also made sure to include full copy of cardmember agreement. They claim they proceeded with another reconsideration request after my CFPB complain but I don’t think that fully happened. It is likely that they briefly looked at denial of my previous reconsideration request and decided to uphold their previous decision.