I'm just speaking from my several years of experience working at a bank in a previous life -- a lot of gift card purchases from a business account would throw up a bunch of red flags, especially if credit cards are being used -- triply so if money is also regularly moving around between the business and personal accounts. It just isn't "normal" and suggests that you're hiding something (even if you aren't as you say). I saw plenty of banking relationships ended for similar reasons.
The fact is, Chase (or any bank) doesn't *need* your business unless you're in the top 0.1% of the population and if you're doing things that could appear as shady or risky to an outsider or, even worse to them, to a government agency, it's probably in their best interest to drop you. JPMorgan Chase has $3.8 *trillion* in assets so it just isn't worth the risk, even if you have several 100k with them and years of business.
I echo the advice to stop with the gift card stuff and to be straightforward with your spending if you don't want this to happen again.
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@RBD22 wrote:I'm just speaking from my several years of experience working at a bank in a previous life -- a lot of gift card purchases from a business account would throw up a bunch of red flags, especially if credit cards are being used -- triply so if money is also regularly moving around between the business and personal accounts. It just isn't "normal" and suggests that you're hiding something (even if you aren't as you say). I saw plenty of banking relationships ended for similar reasons.
The fact is, Chase (or any bank) doesn't *need* your business unless you're in the top 0.1% of the population and if you're doing things that could appear as shady or risky to an outsider or, even worse to them, to a government agency, it's probably in their best interest to drop you. JPMorgan Chase has $3.8 *trillion* in assets so it just isn't worth the risk, even if you have several 100k with them and years of business.
I echo the advice to stop with the gift card stuff and to be straightforward with your spending if you don't want this to happen again.
Banks are required to monitor accounts for potential money laundering and to file suspicious activity reports with regulators. In many cases, they are not even permitted to explain what causes an account to be flagged because they don't want to provide any tips which could help circumvent those filters. Running afoul of these parameters could subject the bank to fines/penalties.
OP already understands that they have unusual patterns of cash-like transactions. They are even itemized in the first post.
Absolutely. I submitted many of those back in the day. People go into banks and say the craziest things without considering if it's obviously shady or borderline illegal. It's honestly wild.
I think they called them SARs (suspicious activity report), or something like that.
gift cards.. speaks for itself.
They do have other cards that are for whatever spending someone wants to do I think. GreenDot, etc.
The line is blurry between them to me since I've not used any outside of gift cards friends gifted me or given by some promotional thing, etc.
Probably about money made or not made by the bank for a given card.
If you always bought the gift cards with cash then it would probably not be a problem. Buying them with credit cards, yeah, history of taboo with that in these forums.
EDIT: didn't intend to be insensitive about the situation.. That really does sound like a drag. That's another common thing here, banks may do some lip-sync but at the end of the day, most of us are disposable in the broader picture. I used to use small banks in small comunities some time ago. That's quite nice. With the massive expansion of my home town, I am thinking of ditching it for a small town again. Might be a little harder to find in 2024 but going to road trip for a while looking perhaps before the year is out.
@AhmedRadhy wrote:I'm really confused, tired, angry, and don't know what to do.
On 04/05/2024, I received a letter from Chase stating, "After careful consideration, we have decided to close your accounts due to unexpected activity on this or another Chase account."
I have been a Chase customer since 2006. It's my primary bank. I have a personal and business checking account and 9 credit cards between business and personal. I use my credit cards a lot, especially the business ones. I receive a lot of money on my business account from my clients.
I don't understand what happened and the cause for Chase to close everything except my business account even that most of the activities happened on my business account. I'm confused because they closed my business credit cards 🤷🏻♂️.
So of course I called Chase and no reason was given by the supervisor on the phone. I also visited a branch and talked to the branch manager and again no reason was given. After that, I decided to go to a local bank to open a business account so I could continue working. Yes, they opened the business account and I was happy because I thought this was just a problem with Chase. But guess what? After 2 days I received a letter from the local bank saying they were closing my account.
I start searching and reading and I found out about the 2 systems, chexsystem and early warning consumer services, which I never heard of in the past at all. So I guess there is something wrong with one or both of them. I'm not sure which one is used by Chase and the local bank.
So I registered with chexsystem and ordered my history from them. I got it today and there is nothing in it at all except some the saving accounts that I opened back 2022. The last thing in it was the local bank that I tried to opne the business account with. I don't have problems what's so ever. I called Chexssytem if there is another kind of report with more details in it but there is none. So I asked them to get a report for my business. So they will mail it to me. But again Chase closed by peronal checking account and all my perdsonal and business credit cards. They kept my business account.
I also called Early Warning Consumer Services and asked for my personal and business history. They said it would take 15 business days 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ How could a bank see our history faster than us?!
Can anyone guess what happened?
Is it because I get a lot of zelles from my customers and the zelles I got are large?
Very possibly.
But Chase hasn't closed my business account. The local bank closed the business account. I guess maybe they asked fory SSN.
Is it because I'm a heavy user of their credit cards for my business?
No.
I don't go under my limit
Not sure what that means.
or even cycle the cards
Not sure what that means.
but I really use them a lot and buy a lot. What should I do if this is for my business? 🤦🏻♂️
Is it because I buy a lot of Visa and Mastercard gift cards?
Very possibly.
Yes, I buy a lot of them and I use them all the time to buy things online for my business, pay taxes, pay bills, and more.
Why? Why wouldn't you just use the credit cards to buy things online for the business, pay taxes, pay bills, etc.?
They could just ask me, warn me, freeze the account until they ask, or just close that card.
How do you fix all the miss?
I don't know. I'm not sure you can.
I have my oldest cards with Chase in 2008 and Chase is main bank. That's going to hurt my credit history :-(
The cards will continue to be reported even after closure, usually for many years down the road.
If Chase thinks the zelles I'm getting for my business is fraud or for money laundering, how do I fix it? I could easily show them that I'm using them for my business, paying medical bills, and taxes. I'm not playing games but how I would do that if the departmwnt who issued that order can't be reached by anyone and their call is final.
If you could get a meeting with people who can do something about it, perhaps. Maybe your business relationship manager can help. But I have a hunch this is not something that can be fixed. It is highly suspicious for a business to be running on zelles and gift cards.
If Chase thinks I'm misusing and abusing their credit cards and account, how do you fix it?
I'm really lost and confused 😞
