One problem is "surprise" change of terms on various cards. I got tricked by Chase into a deal that put a big crimp in my budgeting.
I had about $4,000 on my Chase CC at 2.99% fixed for the life of the loan, a minimum payment of 2% of the balance and no other charges. Great deal, eh? I had this deal for about 3 years.
Okay. So Chase sends me offer after offer year after year and I refuse -- until last October when the offer another fixed rate life-of-the-loan deal at 3.99%. So I bite.
What I didn't know was that use of the fixed rate offer triggered an immediate change of terms the very next month. Nothing in the promotional material mentioned these changes.
The new terms? Well, min payment is now 5% of balance, up from 2%, there's a $10/month service charge, and they refuse to apply any of my payments to paying finance charges. They simply add the finance charges back into the previous balances including the $10/month which accumulates and is at $19.97%. That's right. I'm not allowed to pay the finance charges unless I pay the entire account off. Now I'm stuck paying almost $700/month when I should be paying about $280/month. There are about 700,000 other customers this happened to.
Okay. So it sounds like whining, but I would never had taken the offer if the coming change of terms had been disclosed.
I've never missed a payment or have been late. And the other 700,000 people affected by this have similarly good credit. Ours is about 760. That's not perfect, but it's certainly not sub-prime.
The problem for Chase was that, as a group, we were too reliable -- they couldn't make any money off of us. They were stuck lending at 2.99% and had to find some way to get us off the books. So they created promotional material that in all ways resembled the previous offers. But with no mention of the coming change of terms. It was a trick -- legal, but a trick.
Now I'm grudgingly paying the $700/month instead of the expected $280 or so. I'm sure some people are going to struggle.
It's all legal, of course. Chase is claiming that use of the special offer implied acceptance of new terms -- even though nothing in the offer itself mentioned the new terms.
They can do this because apparently a previous change in terms about 1 year ago basically gave them permission to unilaterally alter some terms in the future on the condition that the card was used in the future.
Use their special offer and, wham, they immediately change the terms.
Damn, I hate them. I've always paid on time. I have good credit. I especially hate being a sucker.
And they just got $25 billion in TARP money, so I'm going to pay them twice!
I have financed two cars, a boat, a Heloc loan (currently at 3.25%) and have a money market savings account in addition to my checking. May be worth looking at. Get them to pay off the balance on your current card by moving balance to new card.
My payment was $230 two months ago and now it's $500. I only have a balance on this card and this was because of the low rate and payment.
I'm thinking of giving them the finger then after 90 days they will take 20% on the dollar and I'll pay it off with a letter from them stating they will erase this from my credit.
They're creating a monster that they won't be able to kill and people with good credit know this so good credit won't really matter much for the next few years ?
I know someone who owes $40,000 on some cards and stopped paying back in Oct 08 and the banks offered to lower his payments to $100 per month. The only problem with this is your credit gets trashed in the process.
They will take the $100 per month because they don't have to charge it off which lowers their ability to make new loans. Your $100 per month is actually an asset and counts on the books as receivables.
(confused)
5% of a $4000 balance monthly payment is $700?
you gotta love Chase! they charged me 51% APR on a cash advance in the Philippines seven years ago and 225% APR on a cash advance in Dubai last year!
i dumped my policies with Farmers Insurance after 20 years when they sent out a notice saying i was not getting their best rates because i didn’t have the best FICO scores (high 700s wasn’t good enough). so i ask the Farmers broker who gets their best rates? he says “don’t feel bad the car dealer in town worth $10 million doesn’t get the best rates either. it’s kids right out of college”!!!!!!!!
Get their cash reserves up to required levels from the 30-1 or worse leverage they were using.
Get cash flow from somewhere--anywhere--to replace the easy money (no longer available) of issuing liar's loans on (overpriced, but appreciating on paper) real estate, and selling the loans to institutional suckers.
Get some liquidity so that they will trust one another enough to resume interbank lending.
Desperately find new ways of getting credit card income now that Congress has approved the rules which will forbid them from unilaterally changing rates on existing customers (universal default and the like). They are going after the high-FICO users because "that's where the money is."
I am pissed off because I relocated back to Minneapolis for a new company (they paid for the move). But the housing bubble meant I paid for an ordinary house in a decent neighborhood what would have got me a certified McMansion when I had left Minneapolis before the housing bubble; or well over 25% down on the house I did buy. Instead, I am gunwales awash on equity, despite crimping for years to get ahead of the credit card waving crowd. And now *they're* getting bailouts...
Banks are necessary, but they have become infested with verminous parasites, of a totally different kind than the Obama supporters who say "Now I won't have to pay my mortgage or pay for my gas."
And yes, the outsourcing boom, coupled with wage stagnation, has not helped either.
The only hope is melanin implants and going into the construction business. /sarc>
Are you effin crazy? If Chase really misrepresented this loan to you then you should be complaining to your state Attorney General office of consumer affairs. To your congressman. To your Senator. No way would I pay what you are paying
You are not complaining to the right people
Are you effin crazy? If Chase really misrepresented this loan to you then you should be complaining to your state Attorney General office of consumer affairs. To your congressman. To your Senator. No way would I pay what you are paying
You are not complaining to the right people
Cheers!
Call up Barney Franks office.... I am serious