Creditor closes spouse's accounts

[shabam]

I also wanted to add an interesting situation. One day when I was on the phone with B of A collections, they asked about my wife's account. I told them they have little to do with me. Something I found to be illegal when I lived in the UK but common practice here. Her accounts are separate and she is not filing. The next thing she notices is that B of A closed all of her accounts.

As my mother in law once said, interesting how they can shut your accounts when your not using them but do not seem to have the ability to freeze an account when it looks like you are spending too much or heading into trouble.

[Pizza]

Authorized user? Online bill pay? Those can DEFINITELY bring a spouse into scrutiny regardless of who is on the account. Even being an authorized user on other cards (which she is not even liable for) can trigger an action.

Sadly, a bank reserves the right to take any form of action against accounts it owns, ethical or not, and with or without a reason. One of my creditors closed my account last week 'just because' and I had a small balance and never paid late on the account.

Your wife should ask the bank what's going on here and try to fight the decision. A lot of these 'decisions' are made by computer and are not initiated by representatives of the the bank itself. My wife went through something like this once.

[Dewey]

Are you in a community property state?

[shabam]

We're in MD.

She is not an authorized user and none of our credit cards were linked. We once had a joint checking account with them but that is about it. It seems like they looked at my accounts because I'm filing and then decided to shutdown my wife's credit accounts too, even though she is not filing. The accounts were shutdown within few hours of the rep discussing her accounts to me on the phone.

If that is how they want to play, fine by me. I am sick of credit anyway.

[Flamingo]

You may not like this but a creditor can close an account for any reason. Read the brochures that accompanied the credit card. I am assuming they sense risk. Also, if you are not on your wife's accounts, how on earth can you discuss them over the phone with a bank rep? Under privacy laws, unless your name is on that account or on that account with permission given by your wife to check then no bank rep could talk directly to you - they would have to speak with your wife.

[DSIG]

We're in MD.

She is not an authorized user and none of our credit cards were linked. We once had a joint checking account with them but that is about it. It seems like they looked at my accounts because I'm filing and then decided to shutdown my wife's credit accounts too, even though she is not filing. The accounts were shutdown within few hours of the rep discussing her accounts to me on the phone.

If that is how they want to play, fine by me. I am sick of credit anyway.

hmm, sounds like shady business. Do you both have the same last name or did she keep her maiden name? I wonder what would have happened if you said you were separated.

[shabam]

You may not like this but a creditor can close an account for any reason. Read the brochures that accompanied the credit card. I am assuming they sense risk. Also, if you are not on your wife's accounts, how on earth can you discuss them over the phone with a bank rep? Under privacy laws, unless your name is on that account or on that account with permission given by your wife to check then no bank rep could talk directly to you - they would have to speak with your wife.

I understand why they did it. It's their credit so they can offer it or take it whenever they like. What concerned me is that the rep was willing to discuss my spouse's accounts with me. I know in the UK this would have resulted in a nice fine for breaching their privacy act. We're not talking about a pity bk type $1k fine either.

[shabam]

hmm, sounds like shady business. Do you both have the same last name or did she keep her maiden name? I wonder what would have happened if you said you were separated.

Nah. Same name. She had her cards, while I had mine. Perfectly legal to apply for a credit card under your own name and not add a spouse as an authorized user. The spouse is able to apply for a credit card under their own name. My issue was that the bank realized this and was willing to talk to me about my wife's accounts.

[Stephen1234]

Shabam:

This happened to my wife -- never been late on a payment in 20 years, and I wasn't either until six months ago. We have separate credit cards, some with the same banks. Ironically, after my cards went delinquent, she received notices on her cards that they were closing her accounts. These were totally different individual accounts but with the same institutions. When she called FIA Card Services, the customer service rep told her, "Your account was closed because somebody at this same address isn't paying their balance on a different account." When my wife asked to speak to a supervisor and then repeated what the rep had told her, the supervisor said, "Oh no, we don't do that. You must have heard wrong, your account was closed because we feel you are not a good risk at this time." Mind you, my wife's credit score is 805. Funny, too, because none of her other cards have considered her too much of a risk. As other posters have noted, though, you have to let it go because they can cancel you for any reason.

[Pizza]

My wife had some credit lines cut, no closings. She called RBS and got the entire action reversed. The other card she just abandoned because it was a Sam's Club card and they automatically charge the membership fee (Sam's Club isn't all it's cracked up to be).