Comments on: Chase Raises Minimum Monthly Payments

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:51:33 +0000

Chase is now on facebook, gagging me, with their “Chase gives $5 million to charity” publicity stunt. They have a “fan” page and are letting people “vote” on which charities get the money. People are so unbelievably stupid. “Fans” of Chase. And Chase states that this is only “one” of their philandrophic endeavors,etc.

This must be why they are tripling our monthly payments and raising their interest sky high, right? So they can give the money to charity. How about helping the people they have forced into bankruptcy? By the way, if you really are a “hardship” case there is nothing they will do for you. If you temporarily cannot work due to a physical condition they will not work with you in any way at all. The “hardship” plan as they call it has nothing to do with hardship, it is based on your balance which must be paid off in 5 years. You have to have a good income to “qualify” for it. If you get in a car accident or had surgery and can’t work temporarily, have cancer and are going through chemo, or lose your job,etc. the only way they will “work” with you is to tattle on you to the credit bureaus so that all your other sources of credit are closed by other companies and you can’t survive. (Thanks to universal default still being in effect because of the idiots who voted against the CC law taking effect December lst instead of February). Even if you have always been on time with all other companies (G.E. Money Bank,etc.) they will close your account because you could not meet Chase’s new demand of 5% (or the high increase in interest rates which caused your payments to be higher with other CC’s who are doing their dirty work before the new law takes effect.) If you really are in a hardship, don’t expect any help from Chase, Searscard or Discover card. (Discover card will turn you over to a collection agency after 30 days late). None of them will temporarily reduce or freeze your monthly payments for any reason. They would rather get nothing at all than take less per month temporarily. Then they whine about the “soaring default rates” and get bailouts. People don’t want to default. A loss of income can happen at any time for any reason. And if they refuse to give you time to recover or take a reduced payment for a while then they are the ones who are causing the “soaring default rates”. For me, 40 years of perfect credit have been ruined in 2 months all because their top priority was ruining my credit instead of trying to work out some way that I could avoid having to file bankruptcy against my will. Unfortunately, I don’t have the money to file BK right now either. The lawyers want $1300 upfront even though they won’t be acting immediately and nothing will happen after it is filed for quite a while. So in the meantime I am defenseless against anything the CC’s want to do. Maybe the days of credit cards are coming to an end. The high interest rates are already in place now so the best thing that could happen to these greedy companies is for everyone to stop using credit cards and let them go out of business.

By: who is really incharge

who is really incharge — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:02:56 +0000

What a way to run a business. Goodbye, Chase, forever and good riddens, freaks!

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:57:44 +0000

The sad part is, it has nothing to do with getting you to pay off you debt faster. It is strictly about Chase making more money. The fact that they are willing to leave the minimum payment at 2% should you opt to raise your interest rate from the promo rate, is damning evidence that it is about making more money at everyone’s expense.

By: Ashely

Ashely — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:12:41 +0000

I make regular montly payments in excess of my the minimum required payment. They way they got me was that I paid on September 1 and my billing didnt cycle til the 2nd so the payment I made on the 1st showed on there system as a double payment for August with no payment for September so now I have a late fee. Called to discuss and was told they could do nothing to help even realizing that the account has had regular montly payments. Asked to speak to a supervisor and of course she was not help. Asked to speak to her supervisor and she hung up on me. Great business tactics. Even when you have customeres that pay on time and even pay extra you will find a way to screw them and make it their fault. They said just wait til you get your bill and stop paying whenever you want to. They are the ones that change their billing cycle days and so people who are responsible and have payments set up on auto pay with their bank get screwed. I was told to pay attention and pay my bills on time. Thank you so much Chase.

By: Brad Chatman

Brad Chatman — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:59:47 +0000

Seriously people is there no better way around this? It is a scary thought that Chase must be in so much financial trouble that they are hanging their customers out to dry like this. This ranks in the top 10 most despicable acts of this financial crisis. When the American people are hurting worst chase steps in to kick them when they are down. Driving a large portion of these card holders into default or increasing their interest rate to double; therefore, stretching out the payment process. In the end Chase decided they were going to take money from their customers and they are going to do it in one way or another. How absolutely disgusting, my question is what can we do about it as people. I believe there are enough people that find these act morally wrong that we can get changes to take place. What are the options here; petitions, letters to government, legal steps to prove misrepresentation? Let’s think collectively on this. It is the finance industry that has got us into this recession and it is the financial industry who is still trying to stick it to us while they pocket millions of bail out money from tax payer’s pockets. To those of you that have financially focused websites please make and effort to use your website to collect people who will fight against this. I will put my name down.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:02:36 +0000

P.S. Thanks for the link. I have to have a credit counseling session prior to being able to file BK. I have to provide a certificate of completion along with my petition. I just do NOT want to do this at all. I’m still trying to figure out a way around it but I’m running out of time. I’ve kept all bills current but the “Chase” (biggest) one is due the 30th. If it was the 2% payment I could handle it but since it is 5%,I can’t. I am not going to give them the satisfaction of causing me to default so they can levy a high interest rate and start harassing me by phone numerous times per day (the lawyer said to expect that, which is one reason I don’t want to be late on any payments.) As soon as they open their arrogant mouth I want to be able to give them my case number and tell them the same thing they told me – that it is not negotiable.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:45:55 +0000

Well I met with the bankruptcy attorney yesterday. Still dragging my feet. I discussed the option of just covering Chase’s ridiculous bill this month with a balance transfer offer from another credit card until I could decide what to do. Just wanted to let everybody know that you can’t do that. If you transfer $ from one creditor to another it is viewed as an “illegal preference”. If you do any balance transfers or take any cash advances within 60 (or maybe 90, not sure) days before filing bankrupty it will mess it up! You have to be very careful what you do in the 3 months precedding. So I’m kinda hoping they notice that I paid Chase $950 last month and the others much less – and that they make Chase pay it back so they can “apportion” it out more fairly. Tons of paperwork involved and its going to take me some time to find all the documentation they are asking for. This is not going to be fun at all.

Also did I mention that I called Discover card and they did confirm that they will be raising the minimum payment starting in January? So be prepared and don’t transfer to them either. Her excuse was that this will “help” us pay our debt down faster. After that I called Capital One to see what their plans were. Today I got a phone call from a rep that tried to make me think it was a “survey” about my phone call Monday but it was actually designed to get info (I think they are worried because of my phone call.)

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:40:09 +0000

The problem I have with credit counseling agencies is that for every account you have to close your credit score goes down. I can see not using your cards but closing your accounts will destroy your credit. In this case the sole reason would be Chase upping their payment. CCS’s are for people who can’t manage their finances not for people with a lifetime of excellent credit. Either way it is against our best interest to be forced to close all our accounts. We would have to reapply in the future with a terrible credit score. It is almost impossible to live without credit. How could you handle an emergency, car repair, home repair. This lacks foresight and common sense. If there was an agency that did NOT require you to close your accounts they would get ALL the business. Might be something to think about if someone wants to start one.

By: smart credit choices

smart credit choices — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:52:07 +0000

I hope you can find a good solution. It looks like maybe bankruptcy may be the best option, however, you might want to consider contacting some other credit counseling firms, many of which charge little to know fee and can get your rates substantially reduced and will allow you to keep at least one, if not more cards open.

Check out http://www.nfcc.org. It lists approved credit counselors in your area that may be able to better assist you than the one suggested by Chase.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:09:35 +0000

Thanks for the compliment but I sure don’t feel honorable at all. I feel like I am returning evil for good, breaking the heck out of the golden rule and inviting bad luck in the future if I file for bankruptcy.

From what I have read on other sites Chase has arrogantly suggested to some people that maybe they should file bankruptcy. I’m sure other people have threatened this so they think its just a bluff. If I were to tell them I was meeting with a bankruptcy attorney they would immediately sue me for the balance before the “automatic stay” kicked in after which it would be illegal for them to pursue collection. I have called them 4 times and the last time I mentioned that I did not take advantage of the skip a payment option they offered and could I do it this month. Of course the answer was no so I was forced to meet their demand and give them the money I was counting on to cover my bills for the next month. Soon it will be time to pay them again and the choice is do I pay them or a bankruptcy attorney because that is literally my last dime.

Our government and the Federal Trade Commission are equally at fault because they encourage the credit card companies to raise their payments because they say it will “help” us pay our debt down faster. Because of their bloated salaries they are completely out of touch with reality. Where is this extra money suppose to come from for these double and triple payments? This shows a complete lack of common sense.

I am now actually relieved that they did not offer me that debt liquidation deal. I just read on another blog that someones credit score went from 780 to 657 just for closing her account with Chase and enrolling in that program. And her rep told her to check her credit report in 5 months because it would be reported as “in debt liquidation program, unable to make minimum payments”or words to that effect. I will try to find it again for the exact wording but I do clearly remember the “unable to make minimum payments” because it made me so mad. Chase is once again getting the last laugh. Their real mission seems to be destroying people’s credit.

The worst option at all is the one they offered me – the credit counseling service. In addition to adding another monthly bill (they charge a monthly fee of $20 to $50, most likely $50) and require that you close all of your other credit card accounts in addition to the Chase one. I have a lot of store credit cards that I was pretty much forced to get in order to get the special deals. Your credit score goes down for EACH card you cancel. So for most of us that would decimate our credit score and make it lower than if you just filed for bankruptcy. And this is even before they add to your report “in financial counseling”. Exactly how are these agencies “helping” people?

I also read that Discover card is planning to raise their minimum payments to 4% and I have 2 accounts with them. My promo periods end in January on those accounts and because the interest will be much higher the payment will be even higher than 4%. Sears did not increase their minimum payment (yet) but they raised my interest so high on the part of my balance where the promo offer ended that it is now impossible for the balance to ever be paid off. (Of course my payment was also over $100 a month higher and is even higher on the bill I just received.)

I do NOT want to file bankruptcy. But I simply do not have the income to cover these double and triple payments. And when our interest rates are drastically raised our payments are also drastically raised. The companies who have not yet raised their minimum payment have raised their interest so high that you might as well give up on ever being able to pay anything toward your debt.

I’ll let you know what I find out from the bankruptcy attorney. At least this way people can decide if it is an option for them or would be a big mistake. Thanks for providing this website for us to “vent” on. It helps knowing that other people have the same problem and being able to read about their solutions and other info is a great help.