CHASE Bank

Friends/Fellow Consumers:

I called CHASE after I saw that I had unwittingly agreed back in May to repay CHASE $1500 on top of the $3100 I owed them initially. Back in November 2007, I had called CHASE to ask them to lower my APR from 29.9% to something more manageable because I was having trouble making the payments (even though I always paid more than the minimum) but the interest was just killing me). On top of that, even though I had over a period of 8 years been late on very few occassions and I was in good standing with CHASE, they raised my interest rate because I was late with ANOTHER bank once. I couldn't believe that even though I was a good customer I was penalized for things that CHASE had no influence and which to my belief had nothing to do with the bank itself. In any case, the customer service representative said there was nothing she could do, I asked for a supervisor and the same answer, "you signed a contract with us and we cannot do anything at this time". So I went into default, I couldn't make the payments and in May they sent me a letter telling me they were finally willing to help me (after the interest had amounted to half the original debt). At first I was afraid of getting even worse credit ratings so I agreed to being put on what they call a Hardship Plan at 6% over a 4.5 year period. I didn't realize I would be paying $4600 something dollars (or more). When I called CHASE to ask them to lower my debt (after all now there's $1500 in interest) the customer service rep (in INDIA) said there was nothing she could do, I transfered to someone in the US and he too said he couldn't do anything. I asked for a supervisor and she told me that it was in my contract and that unless I made a 4th payment on the agreed amount before July 28, that it would be written off as a bad debt. I complained I was willing to pay what I owed but not to almost double my debt by paying back $1500 on top of $3100. I ended up frustrated and after about 40 minutes of argueing back and forth, I finally had it and hung up. This bank is not user-friendly. I feel bad for the poor reps who deal with us customers, but not for the supervisors who just seem to enforce the policies without heart. I wrote CHASE a letter telling them I would not be recommending their bank nor their services to anyone else.

D. Palma