I got one letter today, from Chase bank. I have two credit cards with them, the only ones left over from my life in the United States. I just paid the annual fee of one, a bit late (as the bill came while I was in Singapore and Cambodia). When I opened the letter, I was startled to read that the other had been cancelled because they “assumed that since you had not used the card in the past 24 months, you no longer had need for it”.
Now, in a way, that is true. I’ve had this card (and its predecessors–I believe it was a GE card before Chase gobbled it up) for 20 years. In addition, there was no annual fee.
Duh! THAT’S why they cancelled it. The other one they get $20 a year out of, so they’ll keep that one going. There was no way on the letter of appealing the bank’s decision, no number to call in case I actually wanted to use the card, no “thanks for the twenty years of your business we have been privileged to have”, just “cut up your card so that you don’t inadvertently try to use it.”
One wonders. If I were ever to have to return to the US to live, I would now have only one card that I could use (which is, in and of itself, not a bad thing, I guess). Perhaps I should just cancel the other Chase card too. I have two cards from UK sources, totalling GBP 5500 in credit, which if we use them we pay off each month, thus incurring no interest charges.
Obviously this is another sign that (1) our financial affairs are not in bad shape, in that I don’t have need of this card to live, (2) the credit crunch is biting on the banks, as they are cancelling cards that have not been in use for a while to limit their own exposure to possible bad debt later on, especially cards that attracted no annual fee, and (3) God doesn’t want me to move back to the United States.