I just closed my account after I paid off the balance. However, now the balance becomes -95. Does anyone know why? How can I make it back to zero and do I have to?
The specific card I had was: United Airline Explorer MilagePlus Chase Bank
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11This is a question for your bank.– LawrenceSep 26, 2018 at 23:37
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I'd rather give credits to talents on stackexchange than the bank– Code42Sep 27, 2018 at 2:19
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3We can't tell you definitively what the transactions leading to the -95 balance related to - but your bank can.– LawrenceSep 27, 2018 at 3:26
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3 Answers
A negative balance indicates that you overpaid, this could be caused by a pending refund/payment at the time you checked your balance, or some authorizations that ultimately didn't post.
If the account is closed and this balance remains after all transactions settle they will pay it out, most likely they'll send a check to the last known address but they may also contact you to coordinate.
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With the particular card you had, there is an annual fee, of $95.
Found here: https://www.theexplorercard.com/
Part of your contract with your card required you to pay the fee anually. Perhaps due to not using a another full year, they reversed the fee’s charge. Would need to take it up with your bank for more details.
After a period of time a bank will send you a check in the mail and zero the balance. The time varies but is no more than 6 months.
Back in my workaholic days I used to over pay credit card bills enough to cover 3 or 4 months of bills then wait until I got a pink notice that I had a late payment then rinse and repeat. I just didn't want to take the time each month to pay bills. However problems arose when I didn't spend as much on a particular card and they would send me a check. Unfortunately, I often didn't open mail from the bank unless it was pink on the outside which the late notices had.
These wound up getting sent to the state unclaimed funds and I discovered quite a large collection of them. So that's when I learned about the 6 month rule. I have since seen lower numbers around 3 months in cards terms and conditions.
Of course that behavior was beyond stupid, cost me a lot of money, and probably killed my credit scores but I had no idea about any of that at the time. About 20 years ago I set up everything on autopay, check my mail regularly, and became financially responsible.
For a closed account I would expect they would promptly refund the balance on a closed account within at least one regular billing period. Or just call the bank and ask for a closeout check.
