Chase Bank doesn't get it!
The whole point of the recent congressional hearings on credit card abuse, together with the subsequently enacted rules changes, is that consumers are sick and tired of being manipulated and abused by the banks who have all the power in the credit card game.
But Chase just doesn't get it.
Earlier this week, I got this "Important Notice Regarding Changes to Your Account". It read, in part.
"Your minimum payment due will increase from 2% to 5% of the ending balance on your monthly statement..."
Whaaaattt? I owe over $13, 000 on that card. That means my minimum monthly payment is going to jump from somewhere around $260 a month to $650 a month! For no reason at all! just because they can!
In the past, whenever there has been a change to account terms, it seems like there's been a paragraph that says something like "If you do not want to accept these terms..." and basically says you can close your account and continue to pay off your balance under the existing terms. Not this time. Uh-uh. We're going to do it to you, and you have no choice but to take it.
I even called customer service and told them that those terms were not acceptable and I wanted to close the account and continue to pay it off under the existing terms. He said, "I'm sorry, you do not have that option."
I asked, "How can you unilaterally change my repayment terms?" And he replied, basically, we can to any thing we want. This is a direct quote: "We can demand payment of 100% of the balance in the next 30 days if we choose to." The arrogance!
I'm obviously not a lawyer, and I probably haven't kept the 15 pages of fine print "terms and conditions" that they sent me when I opened the account, so I can't really say whether they legally have that right or not. I'm going to assume that, being a big corporation with lots of high-powered lawyers, if they say they do, then they probably do. (At least under current law. Maybe that needs change.)
But whether they legally have that right or not, to exercise it in the cavalier manner they have chosen to, with total disregard for their customers, is absolutely unconscionable.
Understand, I'm not a deadbeat. I've occasionally run up more debt than I should, but I have always paid it off. Aside from maybe 1 or 2 statements that have gotten lost on a messy desk, I don't think I've missed a payment on any of my credit cards in the 30 years I've been using them.
I had cancer a few years ago. During that time, I was unable to work, and my (then) wife was taking care of me, so she couldn't work. For some period of time, we lived on the generosity of friends and, mostly, credit card advances. We ran up a very substantial credit card debt. But even when the payments were consuming well over half of my limited disability income, I never missed a payment. And I have completely paid off 4 of the credit cards, with only 2 to go (both of them being Chase cards). So they had no reason to single me out for this action.
Chase (well, actually Washington Mutual, which has been acquired by Chase) has been my preferred bank for quite some time. But I refuse to do business with a company that shows such complete disdain for the rights of its customers. I will be moving every account I have with Chase to another bank as soon as I conveniently can, and I would call on all my readers (both of you! LOL) to do the same.
I would also call on Congress to look into further curbs on the power of big banks. It appears that arbitrarily raising minimum payments was not one of the powers that was limited in the recent reforms. We were warned in the press that if Congress took away the powers that banks had to stick us with punitive interest rates and fees, the banks would find other ways to stick it to us, and it appears that they have. Congress, we need to change that, too.
The whole point of the recent congressional hearings on credit card abuse, together with the subsequently enacted rules changes, is that consumers are sick and tired of being manipulated and abused by the banks who have all the power in the credit card game.
But Chase just doesn't get it.
Earlier this week, I got this "Important Notice Regarding Changes to Your Account". It read, in part.
"Your minimum payment due will increase from 2% to 5% of the ending balance on your monthly statement..."
Whaaaattt? I owe over $13, 000 on that card. That means my minimum monthly payment is going to jump from somewhere around $260 a month to $650 a month! For no reason at all! just because they can!
In the past, whenever there has been a change to account terms, it seems like there's been a paragraph that says something like "If you do not want to accept these terms..." and basically says you can close your account and continue to pay off your balance under the existing terms. Not this time. Uh-uh. We're going to do it to you, and you have no choice but to take it.
I even called customer service and told them that those terms were not acceptable and I wanted to close the account and continue to pay it off under the existing terms. He said, "I'm sorry, you do not have that option."
I asked, "How can you unilaterally change my repayment terms?" And he replied, basically, we can to any thing we want. This is a direct quote: "We can demand payment of 100% of the balance in the next 30 days if we choose to." The arrogance!
I'm obviously not a lawyer, and I probably haven't kept the 15 pages of fine print "terms and conditions" that they sent me when I opened the account, so I can't really say whether they legally have that right or not. I'm going to assume that, being a big corporation with lots of high-powered lawyers, if they say they do, then they probably do. (At least under current law. Maybe that needs change.)
But whether they legally have that right or not, to exercise it in the cavalier manner they have chosen to, with total disregard for their customers, is absolutely unconscionable.
Understand, I'm not a deadbeat. I've occasionally run up more debt than I should, but I have always paid it off. Aside from maybe 1 or 2 statements that have gotten lost on a messy desk, I don't think I've missed a payment on any of my credit cards in the 30 years I've been using them.
I had cancer a few years ago. During that time, I was unable to work, and my (then) wife was taking care of me, so she couldn't work. For some period of time, we lived on the generosity of friends and, mostly, credit card advances. We ran up a very substantial credit card debt. But even when the payments were consuming well over half of my limited disability income, I never missed a payment. And I have completely paid off 4 of the credit cards, with only 2 to go (both of them being Chase cards). So they had no reason to single me out for this action.
Chase (well, actually Washington Mutual, which has been acquired by Chase) has been my preferred bank for quite some time. But I refuse to do business with a company that shows such complete disdain for the rights of its customers. I will be moving every account I have with Chase to another bank as soon as I conveniently can, and I would call on all my readers (both of you! LOL) to do the same.
I would also call on Congress to look into further curbs on the power of big banks. It appears that arbitrarily raising minimum payments was not one of the powers that was limited in the recent reforms. We were warned in the press that if Congress took away the powers that banks had to stick us with punitive interest rates and fees, the banks would find other ways to stick it to us, and it appears that they have. Congress, we need to change that, too.
Walking with God: Talk to Him. Hear from Him. Really., by John Eldredge
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3 comments:
This story is posting everywhere on the Internet. So, it is obviously having a major impact on a lot of people.
On some boards, there are the "Let Them Eat Cake" snobs proclaiming that debtors like you and me deserve this treatment as it is our own fault.
What these idealists don't comprehend is that debt is an important function in capitalism and the credit card has been presented to the public as a reliable and convenient form of credit for the last decade.
Now, Chase is suddenly turning this form of credit into a monster against many consumers who had understood it to be a safe and consistent piece of their budget. It is like getting a 5-year car loan but then being told it had to be repaid in 3 years instead.
The real financial stupidity is not the debtors who owe Chase but Chase itself. It obviously is dramatically irritating nearly 1 million customers with lasting implications. And, these are not deadbeat customers but younger, middle class customers who will be the depositors of the future.
Barring an amazing and quick brain awakening at Chase soon, look for Chase to look back at this past week to be a major milestone in the decline of its credit card division (and probably its personal banking division also).
Bravo! Outstanding! Thanks for the follow and the comment on twitter. I don't know if we have any chance of making them change, since Chase has discovered they are too big to fail. If they alienate their customers, they can just get more bailout money. But maybe if enough people put stories like this out, Chase and companies like them will at least realize we won't take this quietly.
My best friend from college is in the same situation, Chase just raised her minimum payment. She and her husband both work for the UC system and are facing paycuts and furloughs as they are state employees, and their Chase minimum payment is being jacked up to $700 a month! I don't understand how trying for force people into worse debt and/or bankruptcy is going to help Chase in the long run. Their ad slogans in this state should be, "We're new to California, but not new to screwing you over!".
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