Chase Only Allows $53 From Credit Line To Be Moved

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Last year I called to close my United Explorer card but for one reason or another it never happened. I was able to get the $95 annual fee refunded, had most of my credit line moved to another card but then encountered an issue.

The representative moved almost all of my credit line besides a random amount of $1148. It wasn’t the rep. that chose this amount. The computer allowed him to only move so much before it would not work.

Not wanting to lose any of my credit line, the representative suggested that I call back. Considering the fee was removed, I could call back at my leisure. Keeping the card open wouldn’t really harm me even though I preferred to downsize my active Chase credit card accounts.

Thanks to the Wideroe mistake airfare, we ended up flying a couple of flights to Europe with United in early 2014.

Being an Explorer card holder got us priority boarding privileges. This isn’t usually a big deal or much of a perk when traveling with a little kid but we’ve found United to be really annoying (mean) when it comes to letting those with little one’s board early.

So I saved my annual fee, got an extra year out of the card, got priority boarding a few times but didn’t charge a dime on the card.

This month the annual fee came up once again for the card. I decided to call in and try to finally move the rest of my credit line and then close out the account.

Well what do you know. A similar issue came up just like the previous year!

I explained that I do not use the card and wanted to close it out. However, before doing so I wanted to transfer my remaining credit line to one of my other accounts.

The friendly representative told me that this wouldn’t be a problem and to hold. Sure enough, within a minute I was told that he computer would only let him move $53 from my credit line to another account!

I literally laughed! $53. Does it even pay to bother with this? I was now left with $1095 on my account and wanted it moved!

He tried once again but received the same message- only $53 could be moved.

I asked him if there was anything else he could do or someone else to speak with. This is when he suggested that I call back the following morning.

I was curious as to why the computer would not allow the rest of my line to be transferred. The rep really wasn’t sure but thought it had something to do with not being allowed to close the card with a $0 credit line. He thought that it had to have around $1,000 for some odd reason.

Since we would be away in the Dominic Republic for a few days, I waited to call back until we got home from the trip.

I called in and explained my situation once again. This rep reviewed my account and saw that I really didn’t use the card. He then tried to move my credit line but got the same message from the call around a week before.

This representative told me that the United Explorer card is one of Chase’s premium cards. He didn’t know why but thought the balance couldn’t go below a certain amount, even when closing it. He said that this issue had come up in the past with other card holders.

So in the end, I finally closed my United Explorer card but had to leave $1,095 credit line on the table. Not really the end of the world but I just want to know why only $53 could be moved!

7 thoughts on “Chase Only Allows $53 From Credit Line To Be Moved

  1. I’ve heard all kinds of excuses with this from Chase, the max you can move is $10k, the max you can have on any one card is $25k, the minimum you can leave on a card is $1k. Every rep has a different answer. I haven’t been able to figure it out–your card breaking below the $1k mark, even by $5, really has me scratching my head.

    1. Sam- It does seem like each rep gives a differerent response. The big questions is- do they really not know! My card didn’t break below the $1K mark. It was closed with a credit line of $1095.

  2. I think it has something to do with the ratios Chase uses (but won’t really tell you what they are) for credit limits etc. I think they leave the credit they no longer want to extend to you on the closed cards. I’ve got a couple closed cards with weird amounts left on them too.

  3. I closed my UA card last month and was able to move $4,500 out of $5,000 to my freedom. That left only $500 on the UA card before closing it. I believe AMEX has a similar rule where there has to be a minimum of $500 left on a card after moving credit from one card to another.

    1. That very well could be but none of the reps knew anything of a min needed when closing the card. When I asked, one suggested it could be $1000 but wasn’t sure.

      Definitely strange!

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