Chase Card Services Abusive Lending Practices

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to protest Chase’s recent pattern of conduct, which was, at best, dishonest, and at worst, fraudulent. Specifically, Chase has inappropriately used its refusal to deliver my monthly statement as a pretext to punitively raise the APR and to levy penalty fees on my card ending in -4804. In response to telephonic and written communication from myself and my bank, Chase had previously agreed to review the situation and to inform me by telephone and in writing of its decision. Instead, Chase then sent a letter refusing to review the situation, had its collections department repeatedly call me at unreasonable hours demanding payment, harmed my reputation and charged additional penalty fees after incorrectly declaring the card ending in -4804 ‘Lost/Stolen.’

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Here is how this ordeal started. Prior to July 1, I had an impeccable payment history with Chase. At Chase’s urging, I signed up to receive paperless statements. Specifically, Chase sends an electronic bill, or ebill, to my bank, Bank of America. In turn, Bank of America then automatically sends timely electronic payment to Chase. This system worked faultlessly for at least the six months prior to July 1.

In April, I transferred a balance to my Chase card ending in -1347 at a promotional 3.99% APR. In May, I reported my card ending in -1347 lost or stolen. For security reasons, Chase issued a new card ending in -4804. Neither Chase nor I changed the electronic codes used to access my account online. Thus, before and after Chase issued the card ending in -4804, I was able to electronically view my statement by using my same online identification and password credentials.

Nevertheless, in June, Chase refused to deliver an electronic statement to Bank of America when presented with these electronic credentials. This refusal was perplexing since Chase had delivered an ebill to Bank of America when presented with these electronic credentials for at least the six months prior to July 1. Chase also did not notify me of its refusal to deliver my paperless statements.

On or around July 10, I learned that Chase had refused to deliver an ebill to Bank of America for the payment cycle due July 1. Despite withholding the statement, Chase more than quadrupled the promotional APR to nearly 18%. Bank of America and I immediately jointly called Chase. Chase explained that the ebill was not delivered because the account had changed from -1347 to -4804.

We countered that this was irrelevant since the electronic credentials that both Bank of America and I used to access online statements had not changed. We further pointed out that other creditors had not withheld time-sensitive ebills when presented with proper electronic credentials from Bank of America, a well known and trusted bank, even when account numbers were changed.

Chase agreed to review the APR if Bank of America sent a letter on my behalf. Bank of America did so. Significantly, this review was not conditioned on making payment at that time. In fact, during the call with Bank of America, I expressly refused to make payment to Chase until it had completed its review. This is because I disputed the late penalty fees and punitive finance charges levied by Chase. Chase agreed to review the matter and contact me by telephone and in writing after its review even though payment was not made at that time.

On July 16, Chase informed me in writing that they would not review the change in APR – despite having previously promised to do so – until payment was made. On or around that date, Chase also notified me that they had refused to honor Check #3093 drawn against the card ending in -4804 because it had been reported ‘Lost/Stolen.’ Please note that the card ending in -4804 had never been reported lost or stolen. Chase levied yet another penalty fee anyway.

On July 25, a Chase representative called me on Saturday at the unreasonable hour of 5 a.m. PST, demanding payment. I asked the representative to give me the results of the review Chase had promised me. The representative stated that my file notes showed that a review was still pending. He promised to have Chase call me back with the results of that review. On July 28, Chase again called, this time both at 5 a.m. and about 12 p.m. PST, to demand payment. The representative again acknowledged that a review was still pending.

At best, Chase’s conduct in this matter has been dishonest and heavy handed. It has inappropriately withheld statements despite being presented with proper electronic credentials. It has repeatedly promised and failed to review the situation, despite repeated conversations and a written letter of endorsement from Bank of America.

At worst, Chase’s conduct has been fraudulent. It has used its failure to deliver timely ebills as an inappropriate pretext to charge hundreds of dollars in fees and finance charges.

In either case, this conduct is wrong.

Sincerely,

Eric Xanthopoulos

Comment On This

I had almost the exact same set of incidents, but in my case I didn't swith cards. I just opted in to paperless statements for my two Chase credit cards, which suddenly stopped showing up to either e-mail addresss I had listed with them. When I posted a payment 5 days late, they refused to refund any portion of the late payment fee or interest fee even though I have an immaculate payment history on both cards. I suspect a lot of their indifference lies with the fact we pay our balance in full every single month and utilize our points to the fullest. I will say that their handling of the situation left a lot to be desired. Basically their response is, once you opt-in to your electronic paperless statement or e-billing it's your burden at all times to be checking the website to see if a new statement is available. Even IF the post the statement electronically to a different recurring date, which is suspect given that the billing date on the bill itself never changes. They have problems and should be left alone. To EVERYONE: do your business somewhere else, if you don't have a balance they will figure out a way to kick you to the curb!