Chasing Them Away?
In an article boasting a “wonderful tribute” to Chase Bank, I describe the company name as what they do to customers. In another, I describe the Universal Default rules and how Chase Bank charges interest nearly the same as the minimum payment when they up your interest to nearly 30%.
Now I want to tell you a little story. My wife has a Chase Credit Card account. My mother-in-law has at least one Chase card as well as savings and checking accounts that came from the purchased Bank One (my wife is a signer on the accounts).
Both my wife and my mother-in-law experienced the Universal Default having their interest rates skyrocket to nearly 30%. Both my wife and mother-in-law have good, if not excellent, credit ratings.
Because the extremely high interest rates were nearly choking us, my wife called Chase to see about getting her interest rate lowered. She talked to someone who seemed to be fairly knowlegable who indicated that it would be in her best interest to wait until the “new offerings” were available - presumably there were not only going to be better rates, but better accounts over all. My wife decided to wait. When she called back, she was told they would not be offering her any lower rates. She asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that she could not. The “customer service” represenative simply would not allow her to talk to a supervisor. When she asked why not, she was told that she could not talk to a supervisor or get her interest rate lowered because of derogatory credit information received from (I believe) Experian. She couldn’t even talk to a supervisor! My wife was, needless to say, extremely upset.
The proper course of action was to verify the credit report. We found that Chase had not even checked up on her account in well over 18 months and that her credit remained intact as far as we could tell. It was at this point that we decided to move the balance to other cards and accounts. I had a card from Capital One that had a very attractive transfer offer (1.99% for the life of the transfer balance) and we moved a sizable portion. Unfortunately, there remained a large balance owing to the “Chase Customers Away” Bank. At that time we realized that we had an application for another bank. My wife applied for it in her name (as my credit’s pretty crappy) and they transfered another chunk of the Chase balance - nearly enough to pay it off. We vowed to put that card away in a drawer and close it out when the total balances were paid down. Closing accounts can actually hurt your credit if you have high balances remaining on other accounts.
Where this story gets really interesting is about a month ago. The Chase card, languishing away with nothing on it apparently prompted one of those special cash advance offers. The same company that wouldn’t let her talk to a supervisor is wanting her business again - at an interest rate of 7.99% (it’s only good through the end of the year and it doesn’t beat the 1.99% that we moved a balance to…) Kinda makes me wonder who’s talking to who here.
Notes:
- Credit Bureaus like Experian do not make up your credit score they only track information reported to them.
- Capital One - who some may not view in the best light have a “No Universal Default” policy
- I never liked BankOne, even less so now that it’s Chase.
- Paying off cards and immediatly closing them negatively affects your credit score. Lenders like to see that you have “available credit”. I shows that you don’t charge everything up to the limit.
- Regular contact with your creditors can get better terms such as lower interest rates and - when needed - higher credit limits.
- All the major credit reporting agencies have informational sections on how to take care of your credit score.
- MyFICO has additional resources on credit, credit scores, etc.
