topic Re: Chase Bank in General Credit Topics

Chase Bank

fused — Sat, 26 May 2007 01:42:13 GMT

Hi Everyone:

I would like to share my wife's experience with Chase Bank. Here's her history with them as well as some info about her reports.

She has a thick file for someone in their mid 30's, no lates, no CA's or CO's, no public statements or judgements...0 baddies. Her credit history is fifteen years old and began with this Chase cc. Furthermore she has 4 satisfactorily paid installment loans (PIF), an open student loan (never one baddie) with about 3,400 still owed. Basically she has a good mix of credit reporting on all three reports, only thing missing is a mortgage.

As far as her util she has:

Chase CL 18,000 bal 1,550 opened 9/92

BOA CL 9,500 bal 900 opened 5/06

Sears MC CL 8,500 bal 805 opened 11/96

Macy's CL 1,500 bal 0 opened 7/94

So, looking at her last bill her APR is now 20.74%. We called them and asked why, and of course the usual nonsense "prime went up." Yeah, so is my wife's credit rating. Fifteen years of perfect payment history and this is how they treat one of their best customers. There is no loyalty. My first reaction is to close the account but this will hurt my wife. She plans on taking out a mortgage with me in the near future. Knowing this we hang up the phone and I told her to pay it down to 1% and use it occasionally (always PIF) and to forget about them. So it is interesting to see how people who can have prime cc's get trashed just like anyone else. Or is this a Chase thing! Has anyone had similar problems with them? Just curious.

Re: Chase Bank

fused — Sat, 26 May 2007 01:43:36 GMT

addendum:

here scores are 789, 774, 792

Re: Chase Bank

Tuscani — Sat, 26 May 2007 02:15:07 GMT

No one is exempt for rate jacking. Just PIF.

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 02:33:02 GMT

Question: Was this 15-year-old card originally issued by Chase, or did Chase buy out the previous issuing bank?

I currently have 4 Chase cards, but only 1 was a Chase card originally. The other three were held by GEMB, BankOne, FirstUSA, and probably one or two others that I've forgotten. The original Chase card is showing a 14.24% rate, the others are at 10.24%, 14.24%, and 24.24%. One of the others even has a $15.00 annual fee that Chase refuses to waive. Two years ago, the 10.24% card and one of the 14.24% cards were at 20% or so, then Chase decided to lower the rates on those two accounts without being asked.

(None of those rates make any difference to me - I've used the accounts for nothing but 0.00%-3.99% offers.)

Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any logic to Chase's behavior - they treat the accounts almost like they were from 4 different issuers, with no consideration of my overall credit usage, FICO score increase, etc. In your case, I'd ignore the official rates and use the card for incidental purchases, pay in full each month, and just benefit from the history. Perhaps Chase will surprise you with a meaningless rate decrease some day.

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 04:33:07 GMT

Your post makes me wonder why I would even want a Chase card. My mom was ratejacked by Chase. She had a FirstUSA AARP Card when Chase took over. Her credit was impeccable. Her interest rate was 11% at the time and all payments were made on time. Nothing bad was on her credit report. Chase's reason was that she posed a risk. Risk? Excellent credit and a high credit score (better than her children's). Her APR was raised to 24%. She had a 10 year history, but she was advised by a supervisor to close the account and then to reopen it. Mom closed the account and never reopened it. Her reason was if they were going to do that to her then she didn't need them. Chase continues to send her offers to this day; AARP ones included. She flatly refuses to pay them any attention! Closing her account with them didn't hurt her as she was one of the FICO high achievers with a long history and good reports.

SandyK

Re: Chase Bank

fused — Sat, 26 May 2007 04:48:26 GMT

sankofa wrote:

Your post makes me wonder why I would even want a Chase card. My mom was ratejacked by Chase. She had a FirstUSA AARP Card when Chase took over. Her credit was impeccable. Her interest rate was 11% at the time and all payments were made on time. Nothing bad was on her credit report. Chase's reason was that she posed a risk. Risk? Excellent credit and a high credit score (better than her children's). Her APR was raised to 24%. She had a 10 year history, but she was advised by a supervisor to close the account and then to reopen it. Mom closed the account and never reopened it. Her reason was if they were going to do that to her then she didn't need them. Chase continues to send her offers to this day; AARP ones included. She flatly refuses to pay them any attention! Closing her account with them didn't hurt her as she was one of the FICO high achievers with a long history and good reports.

SandyK

Thank you for your post my wife and I feel better. I assume your mother has what she needs, is not in credit repair mode and does not plan on purchasing any high ticket items. We have the same feelings as your mother and we wanted to cancel the card and shred it to smithereens but she can't, later maybe just to make a stand like your mother did. Of course after we have a house, we already have the credit we need, and do not care about the ding on her FICO scores.

Re: Chase Bank

fused — Sat, 26 May 2007 04:49:31 GMT

Revike wrote:
Question: Was this 15-year-old card originally issued by Chase, or did Chase buy out the previous issuing bank?

I currently have 4 Chase cards, but only 1 was a Chase card originally. The other three were held by GEMB, BankOne, FirstUSA, and probably one or two others that I've forgotten. The original Chase card is showing a 14.24% rate, the others are at 10.24%, 14.24%, and 24.24%. One of the others even has a $15.00 annual fee that Chase refuses to waive. Two years ago, the 10.24% card and one of the 14.24% cards were at 20% or so, then Chase decided to lower the rates on those two accounts without being asked.

(None of those rates make any difference to me - I've used the accounts for nothing but 0.00%-3.99% offers.)

Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any logic to Chase's behavior - they treat the accounts almost like they were from 4 different issuers, with no consideration of my overall credit usage, FICO score increase, etc. In your case, I'd ignore the official rates and use the card for incidental purchases, pay in full each month, and just benefit from the history. Perhaps Chase will surprise you with a meaningless rate decrease some day.

Yes, the card was originally a chase card. I heard they bought First Usa and Bank One.

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 05:39:15 GMT

Well, there's no logic to what Chase did in either case. On the other hand, they aren't the first CCC to treat a long-time loyal customer poorly and they won't be the last. Compared to some of the recent Amex F/R horror stories, Chase's actions are trivial.

You can't take any of it personally. Like TheNewWorldMan says, you need to treat your credit cards like the slaves they are. Also, assume that any of them could turn on you at any moment, and protect yourself with a Plan B as best you can. I've never liked Chase and some of their policies, but last year when BOA ratejacked a BT offer they had given me, I had a fistful of Chase 0% offers on file and my BOA balance was $0.00 in no time.

By the way, my BOA account was opened in 1983 (my oldest and formerly favorite CC) - so there's another example of how a long-time loyal customer gets mistreated. Now my BOA account sees a $40-50 charge every 3 months that gets PIF. I'd suggest you treat Chase the same way ...

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 06:35:48 GMT

It should not be a big deal. Chase is a good bank. I guess you asked them to lower it and they refused. I would ask them if they have another card with a lower apr. Transfer the start age to the new lower age card. Problem solved. I've done that plenty of times with many banks. New card - keep old start date. They cancel the old card and you start a new history but keep the old date on the new card. Confirm this before you do it with Chase. I didn't know I was doing that all these years. I have many newer cards and they all report in the 90's. It called switching over or something. They cancel one for another. Be sure to double check with bank before doing this. :-) Good luck.

Just checked my APR with chase. Mine went up too. From 8.9 to 11.99% It is based on Prime. They only charge you a specific % over Prime. If Prime drops, so will your Apr..... maybe.

Re: Chase Bank

MidnightVoice — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:29:48 GMT

Reminds me of the old joke - guy gets a letter fron his CC company: "due to your very responsible use of your credit card we are closing your account"

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:31:26 GMT

fused111,

Oh I understand, believe me! You don't want to rock your boat. Everyone's situation is different. Mom gets her big ticket items still (has me scared half to death when she does sometimes), but she pays them off as soon as she can, even if it takes a couple of years to do so.

Chase still wants her back and now on her lastest pre-approved application from them, they want to know her net worth?? I can't believe them. They never asked me for mine and if they did...

SandyK

Re: Chase Bank

MidnightVoice — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:37:20 GMT

They were OK to me. But we will see after a year when I ask them to lower the APR, raise the CL and drop the fee

Message Edited by MidnightVoice on 05-26-2007 02:37 PM

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:39:59 GMT

LOL Midnight Voice!!! Good joke...had me reeling and I sent an e-mail to hubby saying why they closed one of my accounts (joking...and better not backfire on me LOL)

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:40:12 GMT

LOL Midnight Voice!!! Good joke...had me reeling and I sent an e-mail to hubby saying why they closed one of my accounts (joking...and better not backfire on me LOL)

SandyK

Re: Chase Bank

MidnightVoice — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:42:36 GMT

sankofa wrote:

LOL Midnight Voice!!! Good joke...had me reeling and I sent an e-mail to hubby saying why they closed one of my accounts (joking...and better not backfire on me LOL)

SandyK

One reason I found it so funny was it was so close to the truth

As someone else said, the CC companies call people who PIF evey month "deadbeats"

Re: Chase Bank

fused — Sat, 26 May 2007 20:59:40 GMT

My thinking is, hey they are making money off my wife (of course she knows this and accepts the consequences) but why bite the hand of the one paying the juicy FC's ever month. It is simply bad business. I would completely understand their stance if my wife paid late all the time and used profanity when speaking with and so forth. I have found with my own creditors if your good they are too, like Amex has been with me. I cannot imagine them behaving the in the same matter as chase unless I do something wrong.

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:18:28 GMT

I don't know. I kinda like Chase. They have always been very reasonable with me. Perhaps your wife should escalate her call to a supervisor and threaten to close the account. I know these companies could care less about anyone, but perhaps a supervisor seeing someone with such a perfect history will reconsider and not want to lose the business. Just a thought and it really can't hurt anything...

Re: Chase Bank

Anonymous — Sun, 27 May 2007 21:36:18 GMT

Are we talking about a bank calling you up after years of perfect payments asking to re-prove your financial status? If so. I had that happen to me. I was making minimum payments for a very long time. Between interest and limit the amount was not moving. I didn't want to pay my bills off. I thought that was ok, no rules broken. Chase just called worried. After a 30 second conversation it was done. They just asked me if I were in trouble. I said no. They said ok. Bank of America took away my credit line because of too many minimum payments. I had to show proof of income to get it back. This of course happened after having this credit line for over 10 years on both cards.

Re: Chase Bank

Tuscani — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:21:19 GMT

My wife has a Chase card.. she has no gripes with them. Cust service has been great as well.

Re: Chase Bank

MidnightVoice — Mon, 28 May 2007 19:05:25 GMT

Tuscani wrote:
My wife has a Chase card.. she has no gripes with them. Cust service has been great as well.

Agreed. I can easily get to talk to someone, which is nice