Circuit City/Chase Credit Card

I purchased a High Def TV at Circuit City about a week prior to the Superbowl (I live in Pittsburgh, PA) on a promotional deal in which no interest was due if you paid off the balance within 2 years. I have consistently been paying more than the minimum due so as to have it paid off before that date. We (wife and I) recently redid our hardwood floors which necessitated quite a bit of furniture moving, etc. It is quite possible that the Chase bill was misplaced during this time. While making out my bills online, I noted that more than a month had passed without a payment to Chase, so I immediately made my usual payment amount. Shortly thereafter I received a new bill with a $25.00 late fee and a $1.00 finance charge. The interest rate (APR) was also now 24.74%. I tried to contact a Customer Service Rep ("Customer Service Advisors are available Monday - Friday 10am - 9pm ET" so it says on the bill) but only got an automated system which never gave an option to speak with anyone live. I went to their cardaccountservice.com site to see if I could make contact but a flaw in the site would not let me send my message without choosing a topic. There was no topic to choose and so the message was unable to go forward because of a java error at the site. Apparently the only option is to deal with them by mail. It seems extraordinary that it should be so difficult to reach someone about a problem. I would certainly hate to be traveling with this card and need assistance. As I saw in another complaint, I will probably have to contact a Circuit City store and try to get a number to call from them. I am not so hopeful, as I noted in the other complaint that they (Chase) gave no satisfaction whatsoever and were just plain rude. When this problem is resolved, I will most certainly rid myself of this card and the company that issues it. Circuit City could do better finding another bank to back their credit. Communication is essential and Chase is not providing it.

Curt Johnson

Comment On This

It is awfully funny how our cases are extremely similar. We too bought an HD TV with the promotional deal gving us the No interest option for 2 years. We made large payments too. The only difference was that our payment was due on the 10th of the month and we paid one month on the eleventh as the 10th was on a Sunday. The payment was made Sunday night online. We were charged the $1 finance fee also. The next month we paid the bill on the 9th. We checked the bill and found they lumped the interest onto our account stating we were late and that made the promotion null and void. I questioned the 2 year promotion and Chase had me call Circuit City. I did and provided the promotional codes. Chase then said they didn't charge me the finance charges for the previous month because they were giving me a chance but they also were in the process of changing their computer systems and couldn't bridge up Circuit City's database information with theirs???? I asked if they could fix this, as I too had the 2yr promotion and they totally refused and were very rude also. Now, unfortunately, Circuit City is going bankrupt! Chase did not treat us fairly!!