<prompt> Human: Hello rpersonalfinance, My wife and I had a Belks account for a little over 3 years now, and during that time we only had 1 30 day hit on it first year of having the card. Since then, weve paid monthly to the card, occasionally paying the whole balance, and taking a few months to keep the card around 50, then paying it off, etc. etc. This month, we paid the card off in December, and my wife went to use it at the store, and saw that the account was closed. I was just looking through my credit report today to pay off a few things, and I saw the Belks account was closed. That reminded me to call them, and after asking the lady on the phone why, she said it was because my credit score dipped low, and they closed the account. Perplexed, I asked why they ran another credit check without my permission, and she didnt have an answer for me. So I asked for a supervisor, who told me that my account had been closed because I had a 64 collections on my credit medical, was forgotten about, but paid in full earlier in the week. So heres my question to you. Can this happen legally? My account wasnt in bad standing except that one time, and can they close my account for something other than what happens with them? All of my other accounts are fine, except for Belks. What can I do? I was using them to keep my debtincome ratio up. Will this affect my credit score now that I have a closed account on it? What are my options? Help?  <response>: and after asking the lady on the phone why, she said it was because my credit score dipped low, and they closed the account. Perplexed, I asked why they ran another credit check without my permission, and she didnt have an answer for me. They dont need permission to do soft-inquiries to update themselves on your financial standing. Usually these are done to see if customers qualify for increases to their credit limit. 