About a month ago I made the decision to close my Hyatt Visa card that I’ve had for three years with Chase. It served me well, getting us a night at the Hyatt Regency Palais de la Mediterrannee (Review) and a night at the Park Hyatt Milan with the old initial bonus of two free uncapped nights. After that I used the annual nights for one night in Vancouver and one in Canberra (SEE: Park Hyatt Canberra Review). So even though we didn’t put a lot of spend on it, I feel we got decent value over those years.

But I am eyeing that sign-up bonus on the new World of Hyatt card. Or…was. With the reports of Chase 5/24 being rolled out, the plan I’d formed was completely derailed. I still applied for the new World of Hyatt Visa, hoping that somehow my application may go through. I specifically tried through my wife’s referral link, just in case that would do the trick. But no dice. I received a letter stating the application had been denied due to too many recent accounts.

But that got me thinking…it had been less than 30 days since I’d closed my old Hyatt card. Maybe you can reopen a closed Chase credit card account?

Calling to reopen a closed Chase credit card account

I called Chase to see if I could reopen my Hyatt Visa card, not knowing what to expect. After 5 minutes of Google research, I concluded that I’d probably not have any issue within 30 days of closing the account. The $75 fee for this year had only been credited back a few days prior, and I think I was at about 25 days since I’d closed the card. But I still didn’t know how the conversation would go.

A rep picked up pretty quickly, and I explained that I had closed my Hyatt Visa card, but now was reconsidering that decision. I’d asked if I could reopen the account. He said he’d check (which took all of 15 seconds), and then happily reported that they could definitely reopen the account. He confirmed that was what I wanted to do, I said yes, and moments later it was open and able to be use.

From dialing to hanging up, the call was less than four minutes. It was honestly one of the most painless calls to Chase I have ever made. If you’re looking to reopen a closed Chase credit card account, here’s the process in a nutshell:

1. Call up Chase. The number on the back of your card is easiest (I luckily hadn’t yet destroyed my old Hyatt Visa).
2. Explain the situation. In my case, I simply told the rep that I’d decided I didn’t actually want to close the account and asked if he could reopen it. You may need a more substantive reason if your account has been closed longer.
3. Potentially authorize a hard credit pull. He didn’t explain whether my credit was being pulled or not, but I later confirmed that it wasn’t. The whole process happened so fast, and he didn’t read me any sort of disclosure.

With some issuers, such as Bank of America, they will pull your credit when you reopen. Chase doesn’t appear to do so, even for those who ask to reopen their accounts months later. The official policy is that you can reopen a closed Chase credit card within 30 days of closing, even if it was completely on purpose, but there are reports of people successfully reopening accounts much later than that.

Do other issuers let you reopen a closed credit card?

Not all other issuers will allow you to reopen a closed credit card account. Chase and American Express will, from the research I’ve done. Bank of America will let you reopen one within six months of closure, and Citi is generally amenable to reopening a card account. But I’m reading that other issuers, including Discover and Barclays, are complete wild cards. Some folks have success, others don’t. There don’t appear to be official policies, so make sure you are ready to explain clearly why you closed the account and why you wish to reopen.

If you’re waffling over whether you want to keep or drop a card from one of the issuers who will likely *not* let you reopen a closed account, be 100% sure that you want to go through with the account closure. You won’t have the same easy door that Chase offers.

Conclusion

The fact that I could reopen a closed Chase credit card account really saved me in this case. Even though I won’t be getting the sweet 60,000-point sign-up bonus for the new World of Hyatt card (curse you, 5/24!), I’m excited that I have an account that I can convert to the new product for the purpose of using it to help attain Hyatt Globalist status in 2019. I have a few personal stays penciled in, and will likely have enough stays to hit Explorist organically. I’m hoping the credit card will be able to give me the push I need to attain Globalist!

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