WaMu jacks good customers interest rates

Kelly writes:

“After being a Washington Mutual credit card customer for 10 years with 2 accounts( one Visa, one MC) and never once ever having a late payment, I realized that they had raised my rate by 12.99% !! I was at 31.99 % on both cards. I called and explained that I wasn’t sure how that had happenned but that I would like it corrected. They said that they would look into it and contact me. Boy did they ever look into it! They sent me a letter stating that I did not qualify to have my rate lowered( I guess 120 payments on time very month isn’t a good enough customer for them) and after reviewing my accounts actually lowered my limit to the exact balance I had on my cards. I had in the meantime paid my “minimum monthly” payment. THEY THEN CHARGED ME $35.00 OVER THE LIMIT FEE!!!!!
Now due some severe personal financial circumstances, I got behind on the payments and guess what??? To “help me out”…they can magically reduce my rate to 10.99%. Gee, if they had done that when I asked them and was in great standing with them, wouldn’t that have made more sense?
But I guess they prefer to spend the time and money jacking people around when they have a good customer.
I guess a late payment fee of $35 is the only way to save 21.99%. In my opinion it’s well worth it!!”

WaMu doubles interest rate for no reason

Patty writes:

“I just want to give my two cents. I have a WAMU Credit card, and have for many years. We have decided to get rid of some cards, so we destroyed them and have been working diligently to pay them off. A credit advisor, said that we should contact the cards, and try to get a lower interest rate, which would make paying them off quicker. Three of the cards I contacted thought it was great, and lowered our rates it assist. WAMU was a different story, the determined I needed a rate TWICE what I was paying! I contacted them many, many times for an explanation as to WHY they doubled my interest rate(instead of $150 going to interest now it is 250), and their standard reply is they feel I am a credit risk…even though, I pay well over the minimum on all my cards and I am NEVER late on ANY of my bills. They replied the standard reply, with no explanation, that is their policy, they don’t have to explain.

I will NEVER deal with WAMU again! They are the worst company EVER!!! No customer service and no care for good business dealings. Who cares who is hurt! I figured out what WAMU stands for:

W e
A im to
M ess
U p

Can’t wait to be rid of them FOREVER!!!!”

How WaMu makes money from credit cards

From a reader:

“I love the fact you started a website to let people know how Washington Mutual does business. I recently received a letter from WaMu stating they had reviewed my account (after 7 years of paying on time, staying under the limit and they never reviewed it before) and based on information obtained from my credit report reduced my credit limit to $1.00 more then my current balance with them. The letter actually said they were sending a letter to notify my because I was such a valued card member.

A few weeks later I received my monthly statement to learn they had jacked up my interest rate to 31.99% APR. I was still upset with the original letter but the realization of what the letter didn’t tell me but my monthly statement did really pissed me off.

After several phone calls and getting passed from one CSR to another (when I had specifically asked for a Manager), one of the representatives said it was due to a delinquent account on my credit report. I’m racking my brain to try and think of who I could owe money to. Nothing comes to mind.

I ran a copy of my credit report to learn that my health club had turned my over to collections for $120.00. What? I work out 3 to 4 times a week and you would think if I owed them $120.00 they would stop me when I scan in maybe once in say 6 months.

I go to the health club (it’s workout day anyway) and talk to the Manager. He’s recognizes me as a regular and with a perplexed look on his face says they will figure it out and call me and to enjoy my workout. So, I did.

Well I get the call mid-morning the next day. Someone had transposed a number so they were billing me every month but the money was inadvertently applied to an unidentified account they use when there is a billing problem. They had indeed (in error and admittedly so) turned me over for collection. Well, the health club took immediate action to get the erroneus item removed from my credit report and wrote a letter of explanation to Washington Mutual on my behalf. I wrote an additional letter and mailed them together to Washington Mutual.

It’s been a few weeks so I called them today to see if they had taken any action. They informed they were very sorry but the Correspondence Department had reviewed my request and was unable to restore my account. The lower credit limit (not a big deal) and 31.99% APR (way BIG deal)would remain.

So I’m on my third representative now… You know, I suddenly realized these people speak English (some of them quite well) but they damn sure don’t think in English. All three representatives read me word for word off the script unable to comprehend my point and completely unwilling to do anything.

Finally, they offered to reduce the credit limit to 23% but they would have to close my account. I told them to have it, I had no reason to want to continue a business relationship with an unreasonable business. The part that sucks is they are too stupid to realize they would have made more money on me over the years than they ever will now.”

Nickel and dimed

From a reader:

“I’m not sure if you’re still taking tales of outrage, but here are mine. Individually, they aren’t particularly off-putting. Collectively, they are infuriating.

I have several bank accounts at Washington Mutual, as well as two lines of credit. I also have a business account from which I transfer payments to another Washington Mutual account holder pursuant to a business contract.

This morning, I went to deposit two checks that I wanted to have credited against one of my lines of credit. I have done this in the past and, other than a fee they charge and a 7-day hold, there have been no problems.

Today, they refused to allow either check to serve as payment against my line of credit. The first check was made out to me, and I simply wanted it deposited and applied against the line of credit. They had done this very thing in the past. No can do, according to the manager, it must be deposited to your account and sit there for seven business days before you can use the finds to pay the line of credit. That’s an inconvenience, but they add up: After seven days, I have to physically go back to the bank to have them apply the funds to the line of credit. The reason? You can’t pay off more than $10,000 per day of a line of credit by transferring funds from your bank account to the line of credit unless you do it in person. You can’t call and accomplish this by phone, and you can’t do it over the internet. On top of that, they charge a $30.00 fee when you want to try to pay your line of credit in person. Thus, they take your money and sit on it for seven days (even though I can prove after one day that the funds have cleared the bank on which they were drawn). Then, they make you physically come back to pay them, and they charge you for the privilege of doing so.

I also attempted to deposit another check — either to pay my line of credit or, failing that, into my account — but they refused. The check was made out to my business partner, but he endorsed it over to me (“Pay to ________________” on the back) to satisfy a pre-existing debt to me. They would not accept this check stating “We do not accept third party checks.” The trouble is, they accepted this very type of transaction three months ago (and let me apply it directly to my line of credit) three months ago. I explained this to the manager, who simply said that they do not accept third-party checks. This was infuriating, as I explained that they do and had done exactly this three months earlier. The manager simply repeated that they do not accept third-party checks and refused to permit the deposit. Thus, my partner now has to deposit the funds to his account, wait seven days for them to clear, cut me a check which I will then deposit, and for which WAMU will no doubt require another seven days, after which I’ll again have to go in and pay a fee for the privilege of paying them. Basta!

Finally, I have been sending automatic monthly payments to a former partner who was bought out of a business. He also has a WAMU account, so this would seem to be a simple matter. I set this up over the internet. This is a feature of WAMU’s website that is actually fairly easy to use. You just enter the payee, his/her account number and address, and then fill in how much and how often you want to send payments — relatively straightforward. I just learned that WAMU has even bollocksed this up to their own advantage. Rather than simply transferring the funds from my WAMU account to his WAMU account at the appointed hour, they are physically cutting a check and mailing it to him. Huh? For what purpose? No doubt they are interested in floating these funds in the mail as long as possible so that they can hang onto the money for the maximum amount of time. They deduct the money from my account the moment they (supposedly) drop the paper check in the mail. But they don’t credit his account until the check arrives in the mail and he manages to get it to the bank. If it’s legal to do so, I bet they’re putting a seven day hold on his funds even though they’ve already sucked the money out of my account.

I hope these Greedy SOBs are driven out of business by the sub-prime crisis. They’ll deserve it. A wise man once sang: “I Hate Banks” – Mojo Nixon No truer words ever were sung. Thanks for putting your website up and letting me vent. It’s hard for me to believe that WAMU pitches itself as a customer-friendly bank. Pathetic lie.”

Lost payment in mail? It’s your fault!

If your payment gets lost in the mail, WaMu won’t even consider that and just ding your credit report.  Nice!