Chase Credit Card Legal Thievery ?

Mods, if this is in the wrong forum please move. I was not sure which one to put it in, but thought maybe here as it has to do with Chase. Thank you.

Quite a few months ago Chase took over my credit card. After they took over my credit card, they increased the interest rate from 9% to 29.9%.

I called them several times in frustration trying to get them to lower the rate as I had never been late on the card.

They refused to lower the interest rate, so finally I called them to find out the "pay off", told them to close the account and sent the payment in.

Fast forward one month. I received a bill from them. I paid it.

Fast forward another month. I received another bill from them. I paid it.

Fast forward another month. I received another bill from them. I paid it.

Fast forward another month. I received another bill from them. I paid it.

Fast forward another month..................... I now "owe" them less than two dollars.

All these months, I check the account online. The account is STILL not closed, and each month, they charge me INTEREST on the supposedly last month interest.

The messed up thing? It will say my balance is ZERO and owed is ZERO...... until the day they "calculate" interest.

What is 29.9% interest on ZERO? Shouldn't it be ZERO? Nope, according to chase, it is somewhere around two bucks.

I assume, in the HOPE that I will believe I have finally paid them, forget to pay them, and they can then charge me a late payment fee.

Oh, and by the way, even after multiple times of me calling them and telling them to CLOSE THE ACCOUNT. They still have not done so.

What does it take to pay these #s off and get them to close my account? I think I will send them a check for $20.00, then they can send ME a payment.

Does anyone know what I can do to make them close this account out? It is obvious that me telling them to is not doing the trick. Anyone know what the regulations are in regards to something like this?

Thanks for any help.

Harm None
Peace

Sounds like they want to keep that account open for years so interest can accumulate. This way they can take you to court in 5 years with an outstanding balance of thousands.

Funny, I just finished talking to my ex about her Chase account. Seems they did the same thing to her. First time she has ever been late in 7 years.

They had no sympathy for her either. Sadly, she doesn't have the money to pay hers off in full.

Tell you, these credit card companies are looking to milk every penny they can out of their customers.

Take all you paperwork including the rate hike and phone records/computer records to your State attorney General Office and file a complaint of FRAUD. They should be able to help you.

The more records of wrong doing the better. Also check on the internet and see if anyone has a class action suit against Chase for this type of fraud.

I do not know the laws regarding american credit cards, but if you go to this link, there are lots of people there in the same situation with chase.


also :
Cancel a Credit Card


[edit on 28-9-2009 by Drexl]

I've never had such an interest rate but if I ever close an account I make sure my balance is zero before closing.

I'd look at the account disclosures to get the exact method that is used to charge interest and pay according to what would stop it. Usually it's average-daily-balance*number-of-days-in-statement*daily-periodic-rate. If there's no grace period on your particular balance type (purchases, cash advance, balance transfers, whatever), there should be the month you pay off the balance+interest, the next month after that should be the interest charges from the remaining balance for the previous billing period. It should end there.

If they keep charging you for only having interest left on the account and have you keep paying interest on the interest with no balance left, something is defintely not kosher.


[edit on 9/28/2009 by EnlightenUp]

Same thing happened to my ex with Chase as well. I wonder if the employees who work at the call center who cancel accounts are encouraged to get customers to stay, perhaps even rewarded if they can retain people. Thus the corruption happens at the lowest levels, and at the highest levels the big wigs can feign ignorance all the while knowing exactly whats going on.

Originally posted by cloakndagger
Sounds like they want to keep that account open for years so interest can accumulate. This way they can take you to court in 5 years with an outstanding balance of thousands.

Like I said, I keep paying it, on time. The account balance will show ZERO. Until they calculate interest, and then they send me another bill.

And.... I had never been late, it was after they took over my credit card from WAMU.

Thanks crimvelvet, I had not thought of that so I will be doing this to see if anything can be done.

WOW Drexl, everyone should read that link you posted. Many of the complaints have the customer service reps hanging up on them, which also happened to me.

It is interesting to me, that Chase closed the accounts on some of these customers with no reason, and I CANT GET them to close my account even after multiple requests that they do so, even in writing.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will be following up on this.

Harm None
Peace

reply to post by amazed


Well, if you know how much "interest" there should be, pay the interest for the next month in advance (negative balance). Then after the interest is charged, it should be zero or less.

Well, now that you have the account balance down to "Zero", I would continue to call them - no, pester them - on a daily basis. Make it fun. Be boisterous a little, get in their face, ask to speak to a manager, etc. Be assertive that you want the account closed immediately.

I would also contact your state's Attorney General explaining the situation. What they are doing - while only a small dollar amount - constitutes fraud. File a complaint with your local Better Business Bureau.

I would also send a pleasant, certified letter to the Chase CEO, explaining your dilemma. Make sure the letter is intelligent, well written, and makes your story concise and to the point. Ask for him to take action to close the account. Don't send an angry letter - Just explain your situation in frank and polite terms.

Chase Credit Cards is perhaps the absolutely worst division of Chase. It's a huge organization, almost like its own country. Good luck.

They have done the same to me

2nd line, no need to vent and add to their taking time away from my life

Hi

I've had a problem before with a cc company that had been paid in full and yet would not report it to the credit bureaus. Here's what I did and it was fixed within 2 days:

I called my state senator's office and they assigned an assistant to help me. The assistant called the govt. liason office at the credit card's bank. It took a couple of calls of the assistant to make them take notice, the second call she had to tell them the next call will be from the senator, not her, it worked.

Good luck,

STM

reply to post by amazed


Customer support?
Keep calling.
Switch to American Express.

I have a couple of cards that show a credit in my favor. Can I start hitting them with the same interest and late fees? (they were real jerks BTW so they deserve it.)

Small claims? When they send a check write (partial payment recieved balance =)

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
I've never had such an interest rate but if I ever close an account I make sure my balance is zero before closing.

I'd look at the account disclosures to get the exact method that is used to charge interest and pay according to what would stop it. Usually it's average-daily-balance*number-of-days-in-statement*daily-periodic-rate. If there's no grace period on your particular balance type (purchases, cash advance, balance transfers, whatever), there should be the month you pay off the balance+interest, the next month after that should be the interest charges from the remaining balance for the previous billing period. It should end there.

If they keep charging you for only having interest left on the account and have you keep paying interest on the interest with no balance left, something is defintely not kosher.


[edit on 9/28/2009 by EnlightenUp]

I have not used the card in months and months. Like I said, I paid it off, at least I thought I did. I will check the account online, which will show a zero balance, and still I receive a new bill from them.

I had never had an interest rate like this either. It was after they took over my card from WAMU, and they just automatically raised the rate the same month they took the card over. I have really great credit by the way, and within a month of the problems with Chase starting, I was able to get a $15,000 no collateral loan for 4.3% interest rate.

I was also able to get a new credit card with the same interest with a much higher limit through my credit union.

Yes, something is definitely not "kosher" as I have made sure multiple times that I have paid them off. Like I said, I will check the account balance and it will show ZERO, until they calculate the interest.

..5.., LOL I love it. I will send them a professional looking bill with an interest charge as I plan on sending a payment of $20.00 trying to get this to end. I will then send them a bill charging them interest. And I will do this for many months.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Harm None
Peace

Well I dont find this surprising.
Good ol J P Morgan isnt dead...
Something tells me they just wont let you close your account no matter what.
Imagine all Chase credit cards switched interest from 10% to 30%, and now imagine how many customers didn't like that on a national level. Now you have like millions of customers closing their credit card account with chase. That's probably hundreds of millions lost for Chase for next year's previsions, etc... I think you get the point.

My advice is that you find a people who are in the same situation and get a lawyer for a group lawsuit and ask for 100 times the total amount of damages + fees related to the suit. That should be a lot of money even with an out of court settlement.

Could be they are charging you some transactional free. Every time you are paying this type of fee, you are paying it by a similar method that incurs the next transactional fee. Maybe if you paid in cash it'd prevent that type of fee . Or , if you do pay this $20, they will deduct.. say 3 dollars , so the month after you will have a positive balance of 17 dollars and no need to make a payment, thereby no further transactional fee's.

Originally posted by Drexl
Could be they are charging you some transactional free. Every time you are paying this type of fee, you are paying it by a similar method that incurs the next transactional fee. Maybe if you paid in cash it'd prevent that type of fee . Or , if you do pay this $20, they will deduct.. say 3 dollars , so the month after you will have a positive balance of 17 dollars and no need to make a payment, thereby no further transactional fee's.

No, no fees. If they were charging me fees it would show up on my statement, and I am seeing no fees on the statements, either paper or online.

Here is what I believe is happening.

Let's say that Chase calculates my payment today interest etc. Which, as I paid the card off in full, and have asked multiple times that they close the account, should be in my mind ZERO.

So, today Chase calculates and adds interest. I don't catch it and pay it until tomorrow. Chase then has 1 day, that next month they will charge me interest for, on interest. I assume, calculated daily, but only shows up when the monthly payments are due. Which is why, whenever I check the account, it shows a zero balance and zero due. I make the payment, but not in time to stop them charging me interest the next go around.

In a way, it is a fairly sneaky way to keep a customer paying them forever. As if I never catch it on time, or I never send them a payment OVER the amount to cover the next month amount of interest, I will forever and always owe them.

That is why I put in the title of this thread "legal thievery", as what they are doing is "legal", at least from what I can tell, but it is definitely underhanded. Especially, as before I paid the card off, I spoke to them multiple times, and made sure to ask what my... well the term I can come up with best is "payoff" amount was. I asked that they calculate interest etc., they gave me an amount and I sent that amount to them that very same day by online payment.

I would have to go back and check those dates, but from what I can tell, they did not give me the true amount that I owed them per interest that would be charged the next month. So they then charged me interest, which I paid, but again I did not pay it the exact day that they calculated it, therefor giving them another day which they could charge me interest for.

If anyone else can explain it better than I did, much appreciated.

After reading page after page of complaint from the consumer complaints link that Drexl posted above, I see many other customers who are having some of the same issues I am.

By the way, that consumer complaint site has over 400 pages of complaints, with approximately 10 complaints per page against Chase.

Harm None
Peace

My mom had an account with chase bank too. She had all kinds of problems with them.

You definitely need to get this resolved. They are stealing money from you each month. And if it gets slapped on your credit report, you think the credit bureau will believe you over them? lol yeah right...

I called Chase 2 months ago requesting that they close my account (I'm getting out of the Credit Card Rat Race) and the representative said she would. I paid off the card, then got a bill for $1.50 - which alerts me to the fact that the account was never closed. So...same thing happening with me. What gives them the right to keep an account open when you request that it be closed?