Chase reportedly ends credit card line transfers. Edit: "product trades" seem dead too. Please add updates

Several reports indicate that effective June 2009, Chase CSRs have been instructed to allow no line transfers from one credit card to another. That means no consolidations (closing old lines and moving the credit available to a new line), or reallocations (moving a portion of a one credit line to another.)

I find the number and similarity of the reports convincing. All the same, if anyone has seen anything in writing from Chase confirming, clarifying, or denying this news, please post it here.

I haven't seen anything current about so called "conversions" or "product trades"--for example, taking a Chase Freedom card and changing it to a Chase Bucksback card (with or without the same account number, but preserving the account and credit reporting history, and generally not requiring a new credit inquiry).

With line transfers out, the conversion tactic becomes all the more valuable to the extent it's available. Hence my question: what Chase product trades are still working for FWF members?.

TIA for including your data points, and any other reliable info you may have.

EDIT: Thanks in part to your data points, it appears that product trades are dead or dying also. A darn shame.

Interesting. I just moved $7K from one card to another and also converted a Freedom Plus to an Amazon.com to avoid the annual fee.

I might have just got in under the wire though. I believe it was the last week of May that I did this, possibly the first few days of June at the latest.

Damn it! I was gonna call for a couple weeks now to consolidate a couple cards. I'll call tonight for sure and report back

Because of the Wamu merger, I now have five Chase cards, none of which I used regularly. When they refused to close my wamu cards and consolidate them with the existing Chase rewards card, I decided to charge $20 on each of them every month and make daily $1 payments though my Wachovia free-checking w/way-2-save account. It gets pretty tedious and time consuming to keep track of everything, but I like how quickly my 5% savings account is adding up. Thanks Chase.

Closed and consolidated the line on my Sony card last week. Less than $5,000 though.

No problem for me since Chase kneecaps my lines everytime after I do an AOR anyway.

I have a 7K line carried over from Wamu that I was going to CLR to my AOR card (which keeps getting cut to 99% UTIL), but didn't because I was afraid they'd just cut it anyway... but the odd thing is that if I use the Citi ID monitor credit simulator, even if I leave the Wamu card open with a low CL, and bump up the limit with the card on the balance, my simulated score decreased. Not really sure why, or if that would be the case out of the "lab", but it gave me enough reason not to try it.

My guess would be to NOT close cards before applying for new ones... since perhaps they will act like Discover and while they won't CLR, they may reconsider limits on new cards if you are willing to reduce other lines. That's just speculation though.

We are pretty much left with Barclays, US Bank (elan), BOA and National City as relatively BT friendly lenders. AMEX, Discover, Citi, Chase, Wamu es morte.

I just tried to reallocate from the freedom card, the CSR that picked up happened to be a supervisor and told me right away that they no longer consolidate or reallocate, and if I want a CLI on any card they'll do a credit pull.

Edit: I also called the Amazon number in hopes it was card-dependent, but the Indian CSR told me they've put all consolidations on hold.

redina said: IIRC, I saw someone say BofA also isn't very friendly toward consolidation. Reallocation had mixed reports...

After I consolidated my Chase Sony card I called BofA to close and consolidate an unused card (a card that I had actually requested cancelled over a year ago). Upon that request I was asked to provide all current income and asset info. They then promptly informed me my total credit line (over all cards with them) would be cut from ~$80,000 to $5,000. So yeah, not very friendly. They're obviously looking for any way to reevaluate their credit customers using much, much more stringent guidelines.

Today from a Chase rep was kind enough to inform me that a recent internal memo did indeed instruct them as follows: "Customers with multiple credit cards can no longer combine them into one card with a higher limit." Which suggests that consolidation is out for sure, and probably reallocation too.

The same source indicated that they'd not been authorized to do product trades for "months" now.

Of course it's always possible that managers have the authority to override these guidelines in certain situations. But generally speaking, it doesn't look promising.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your data points & related info.

DaveHanson said: Today from a Chase rep was kind enough to inform me that a recent internal memo did indeed instruct them as follows: "Customers with multiple credit cards can no longer combine them into one card with a higher limit." Which suggests that consolidation is out for sure, and probably reallocation too.
.Sounds like Chase is trying to avoid people creating higher CLs than given, which makes sense.

But if you already have a 35k limit on card A, and just want to move that limit to Card B (because you prefer using card B and its benefits or whatever) it might still be possible.

The last datapoint I have is earlier this year, prior to June. They had no problem reallocating portions of several lines to create a large line, which we then proceeded to use for a capped fee 0% offer

Thanks for posting this change Dave. This is a little dissapointing considering Chase often gives the highest credit lines over any of the major issuers. My datapoint for succussfully reallocating multiple Chase credit lines to one line was the end of May, about 4 weeks ago. It looks like the rules have been changing with many issuers. It may be a change with the times or that credit issuers are more sensitive to larger lines or at least lines available for balance transfers.

For my experience I have been denied reallocation AND consolidation for personal BT credit lines with Citi, US Bank, and BofA (to a joint card). YMMV. If Chase is moving to this too that is most of the issuers that still give decent BT offers.

The strategy going forward may now be to keep one or two large lines for high utility (meant keep total usage accross all lines below 50%), but closing most or all lines with issuers that you are applying for a new BT card. This is not ideal for one's credit portfolio but the issuer may be more likely to grant a higher limit on the new card since you have less total credit available with them. A creditor is a lot less likely to give you a new 25k line if you already have an open 25k line with them. In an environment where creditors are trying to reduce exposure those of us playing the arbitrage game have to be sensitive to this and adapt accordingly.

It was 5 weeks ago that BOA consolidated two lines on my account and two lines on my wife's account to take advantage of two separate 0% $30 capped offers and both in excess of 40K. In my mind, BOA is still very AOR friendly.

Just called AMEX (45K limit on Starwood, 5K on Blue) - they declined to re-allocate, said that this service has been discontinued as of October 2008. So the trend is surely there.

redina said: turrdog said: It was 5 weeks ago that BOA consolidated two lines on my account and two lines on my wife's account to take advantage of two separate 0% $30 capped offers and both in excess of 40K. In my mind, BOA is still very AOR friendly.
However, that was *five weeks ago*. Even Chase allowed consolidation toward the end of May and possibly into the very beginning of June. Credit policies are changing and many can no longer go by 'what method used to work'. There are ways to navigate this new credit landscape but new methods are probably needed... or just 'default' like others. {chuckle}

or just stop borrowing and start saving

Good chance this could be related to the Wamu acquisition.. They don't want all the extra exposure, when they were already cutting lines. Good chance Wamu clients will see ratejacks, CLDs, or account closures..if not already.

user12345 said: or just stop borrowing and start saving

Or do both. You're assuming borrowed money is spent.

PolarDude said: Good chance this could be related to the Wamu acquisition.. They don't want all the extra exposure, when they were already cutting lines. Good chance Wamu clients will see ratejacks, CLDs, or account closures..if not already.

My wamu cards have a 13.99% & 15.24% purchase APR and my chase cards have a 8.99%, 9.24 APR

It was from chase and I didn't solicit the offer, chase made the offer out of the blue for no reason.

The only thing I can think of that would lead them to sending him the offer was his huge balances on all his cards.

As for having an account wiped out with a settlement?
Thats easy. Just make sure you ask for it before you do any money transfer's and have them just fax you a copy of the agreement.

A local farmer that was getting ready to go under, I managed to get all of his equipment loans thru ford credit and gmac wiped out completely.
In the end it's as if the loan never happened and most show up the same day or the next.

Not sure what is going on with chase tho.
Chase has been doing some really strange things for about 3 months now with most of my customers accounts.
Things like,
No minimum payment due.
Accounts getting frozen with no more usage but still have tons of available credit and nothing on the reports to show it as locked.
Others have had their accounts closed without notice.
Minimum payments of $1.00 on close to 15K balance.

Personally , I think they have some serious internal accounting issues and they are using every trick in the book to make their balance sheets not look as bad as they really are.

I called Chase in Mid May of 2009 and was told that they no longer merged or reallocated credit lines. The CSR was American and stated that they had only recently instituted the policy. Perhaps this policy was in effect in May.

Several months ago I tried reallocating CL from one existing Chase card to another. The CSR tried but the system wouldn't let her. I then got transferred to the "Rate" Department. The CSR there also tried with no success. She then told me it had to go through the Credit Department. I immediately ended the call. So the whole CL reallocation "feature" was on borrowed time anyway.

Drmoneybags said:   I currently have a Sony Card with chase and I would like to convert to the Amazon chase visa.
...and now the Chase Sony cards are becoming Capital One cards...