Capital One Suspended My Account Without Warning

We paid our bill with a credit card only as a last resort. We have
insurance that covers 80% of our medical expenses. In Dec. 2007 my
husband went to the ER with heart attack symptoms (turned out it was
nothing), I had our daughter a few weeks later, and then when she was
2 months old, she had a severe reaction to the rotavirus vaccine and
was hospitalized for 3 days. Our hospital does not give insurance
breaks (I have no idea what it really is, but usually health care
providers give some sort of insurance related discount when it comes
to the patients share of the bill) so we got slapped with a $10,000
bill when all was said and done. The hospital set up a payment plan of
$650 a month which we tried to make good on however after several
months, it became too much of burden and we fell behind. The hospital
did everything they could to work with us but we just couldn't keep up
with the payments and ended up paying the bill off with our credit
card because they were going to send us to collections. They at least
gave us plenty of forewarning. Unlike Capitol One.

But they did warn you. They sent you a letter. "Without warning" or
not being "Otherwise informed" would be true if you went to use the
card and it had been suspended, leaving you in an awkward situation
with a service provider, sales clerk, etc.

You need to ask yourself if you seriously want to go into debt in the
middle of an emergency!!!

Then ask yourself how much money you need in savings to make yourself
comfortable in the event of an emergency. Then get that amount of
money in the "emergency" account and then cut up the credit card.

I am glad to see that the credit card companies are doing you a favor
and cancelling your card, just get some savings in place and be done
with them!!!!!!!!!!!


Good Day

If you have no debt on the card and everything was paid, and the
account was closed solely due to inactivity, I doubt it would
negatively affect your credit.

I would simply re-apply for another credit card, or not open another
card at all. Since it seems like you have not had any problems, and
don't really need the credit, you could save up some of your earnings
as a safety net and earn interest in the process. When there is an
emergency, there will be no interest to pay and no finance charges or
debt.

Just a while back credit card companies were inudating our homes with
credit card applications. Now they are pretty choosy as to who they
want as, or to keep as customers. Its in their ballpark now, not the
consumers.

The previously written explanation was correct. And although I applaud
your ability to NOT use your card, albeit an emergency, the card
company is actually loosing money having a card not being used.

As for your FICO score, I would check first to see just how this
affected your credit rating. It could be that they made this a
no-fault cancellation since there was no activity on the card.

the reason they don't tell people is that they want to close those
cards down because they aren't profitable. If they told people, most
would probably run out and charge a pack of gum, just to put a recent
transaction on their card. Then they would put it back in the
drawer.

It is a big game, you see. Once you understand the rules, you can
play it better. Unfortunately, you lost this round. What credit
experts recommend is periodically (preventatively) charging something,
so as to make the account look active.

The credit card bank isn't going to call the customer up and warn
them. That would be the courteous thing to do, but you have to
understand this is the business of *money*, and the clause "we can
close the account at any time" is a very important one from the bank's
perspective.