Raising of Minimum Payment (Chase)

[Anonymous]

Today I recieved a notice that begining in August Chase is increasing my minimum payment from 2% to 5%, I have many for the life of the loan balance transfers on this card with very low rates and rather pay off some more expensive cards first.   Is there anything I can do?  I called them and told them I rather close the card and and not have the change take effect.  They say it doesn't matter whether I close it or not they are raising my minimum payment. Would the Better Business Burea be of use, or calling my national representatives?  If every card more than doubled my payments I could be in trouble.

[Creditaddict]

they can do it.

Many companies raised from 1-2% to 3-4%, 5% is kind of high but must be there way of trying to get some of these for the life balances paid down a little. 

[Anonymous]

I have been burned by Chase once before, could any good come from closing the account?  Or would I be sending a message to deaf ears and only disrupting my credit score (which is good).  I have a lot of other credit and some big space on one card.

[Creditaddict]

closing will just lock you up from possible offers of help.

[Anonymous]

I too got that letter.  Apparently they are now targeting customers with low APRs for the life of the loan. I have been a chase card holder for almost 20 years and have never once been late.  A few years ago, I transferred some balances for the low rate of 2.99 (for the life of the loan).  With the increase from 2% to 5% my minimum was going from $313 to $750.  I called and was told there was nothing they could do for me but they gave me a number to fax my concerns (888) 643-9268. Not surprisingly there was no answer despite numerous attempts. I finally went on the website and email my "grievance."  I received a response in a few hours telling me to contact 888 729-1403.  I called and was told that they could file a hardship claim for me and lower my interest to 0% with a minimum balance of $263 for 60 months.  At the end of the 5 year period my account would then be closed.  I'm now awaiting word on whether I'll qualify for hardship.  The kicker is I have 4 accounts with Chase (since they merged with WaMu) and even have my mortgage with them too and this is how they treat good customers.

[CreditAble]

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820orbust wrote:
I too got that letter. 

 .....was told that they could file a hardship claim for me and lower my interest to 0% with a minimum balance of $263 for 60 months.  At the end of the 5 year period my account would then be closed.

  I'm now awaiting word on whether I'll qualify for hardship

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If you accept the hardship deal you may possibly have numerous late payment notations inserted in your credit files which could trash your credit scores for a very long time. .

[Anonymous]

I had asked for help from Chase once before when I had back surgery and went on temporary disability.  I don't remember if they closed the account or not at the end or not, anyway they jacked my interest rate over 20% at the end of the "help" period.  That is why I basically only have life of the loan debt on this card. So if you have a balance not on the "life of the loan program" and are unable to pay off the debt by the end of the agreement you will be stuck with very high interest debt as they considered my ask for help as some form of default.  I would consider finding a way to refinance through other means that have lower min. payments and sacrifice the good rate for payments you can handle.  For me I may be able to handle the higher payments and have yet to decide.

[Anonymous]

There trying unencouraged folks from carrying a balance. In a way i think this is a good thing you will pay your debt off faster. It will also make u not wanna carry a balance for a long period of time.

Message Edited by mjbfan79 on 06-25-2009 08:21 AM

[GregB]

5% minimum sounds reasonable to me. I looked at my Chase accounts and the minimums are 2%. I looked at payment history and I saw one payment that was about 5%.

I have one account that is 3.99% for two years and am paying it at a fixed amount per month - that works out to 6% currently but will gradually rise to be 100% for the final month when it is paid off in 19 months.

If I paid 5% the whole time, it would still have a substantial balance in two years - that is just silly!

[Anonymous]

The issue here for me is that I have other cards that are at a higher rate and would prefer to pay them off first.  More than doubling a monthly payment is no joke when things are already tight.   The poor guy that had had five of these cards is really out of luck.  I'm lucky I have options on how to deal with this regardless of how caprecious and unfair Chase bank wants to be.