Chase to discontinue debit rewards enrollment

Chase, seemingly looking to punish customers for new regulations they claim are eating into their profits, is discontinuing new enrollment in its debit card rewards program.

Full story here.

Chase increases WaMu wire fee

From the horses mouth:

Dear Online Banking customer,

We’re writing to let you know that, beginning February 6, 2011, you’ll pay a $25 fee for each online domestic outgoing wire transfer you make.

We’ve updated the Wire Transfer Services Agreement to reflect this change.  The updated agreement will be available online on or after February 6, 2011. You can review the latest agreements online anytime by logging on and clicking the ?Legal Agreements and Disclosures? link at the bottom of any page. Your continued use of the Online Service acknowledges your agreement to these revisions.

Thank you for banking with Chase.

Sincerely,

Chase Online Banking Team

Holding payment makes customer late

I surely would not what happened in this story past Chase:  The customer claims that they made a payment two weeks early but Chase held the payment and then claimed it was late, as a way to jack up the customers rates, possibly because they customer had a high balance.

For example, our Chase Visa which they changed over to Chase “Slate” Visa went from 14%, to 16% to 18% finally all the way in one fell swoop in Jan ‘09 to 29.99%, the maximum allowable by law. Their reason? We were late on our payment, we called our bank to ask how a payment made 2 weeks in advance was somehow late? Their response, Chase held the payment until after the due date, then processed it.

This is illegal right? Not at the time it wasn’t, Chase claims they did no such thing and basically said prove it. Anyway fast forward to Jan ‘11 and I’m still fighting to get our rate lowered since we are NEVER late and they know it. Their response and this is a direct quote “It is not Chase Bank policy to adjust interest rates at customer request”

The devil made him do it

Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon has blamed new regulations for raising fees and forcing poor customers into the ranks of the unbanked, but several prominent bloggers are calling him out on that statement.

The truth is, once they lost the ability to bilk poor customers with lots of unreasonable and unregulated fees, they lost interest in “serving” them.

Reminder: not all debit transactions are subject to opt-in

Reader Melissa writes:

Hello, I noticed today that I had two overdraft fees on my account. I DID NOT opt in for the protection. My account has gone negative once or twice since the new policy, and not one overdraft fee. That changed today, One was for a .99 itunes transaction which they turned around and charged me $34 for, and the other was for my cable bill which I was short $20 on  my account. So since I did not opt in, they are supposed to decline right? How do I get my money back. Thank you, Melissa

What she’s found is one of the loop holes that banks have with automatic overdraft protection.

Electronic transactions like bills and online purchases where you’ve given a company like Apple your debit card number are not required to adhere to the automatic overdraft protection opt-in rules, so Chase can legally bilk you as before, and they do.

Is Chase trying to kick out small business customers?

What is Chase up to?

They send out this letter giving the small business 5 weeks notice, that if they don’t start keep a minimum balance of $5k in their accounts, they will be charged between $180 and $252 per year to keep the account.  Supposedly, they think this will increase cash reserves on hand.  But $5k at 5% mortgage interest rates is $250, and since that is a minimum to have on hand, that costs just as much as paying the fees, so why should anyone stay?

Former WaMu free checking no longer free with Chase

It looks like Chase has finally done away with the free nature of accounts converted from former WaMu free checking accounts.

While catching up on caracol after returning of Thanksgiving, I found a Chase Bank letter telling me that my Chase Checking account fee (formerly Washington Mutual free verification) is now called total Chase as verification of 8 February 2011. Along with the new name comes-you guessed it! – a new $ 10 to $ 12 monthly service fee * unless I meet at least one of the following criteria: each statement period

At least one direct deposit of $ 500 or more, a daily minimum balance of $ 1500 or more, an average balance of $ 5000 in all Chase deposit accounts (checking, savings, CDs) and/or investment accounts with Chase Investment Services Corp., Pay $ 25 or more in qualifying account fees (not including this monthly service fee)

Back in April of 2009, indicated that Chase was converting WaMu free checking accounts and was keeping the important without monthly fees and no minimum balance. Well, that lasted about a year and a half.

Chase’s new strategy for bilking you with fees

An article in the Wall Street Journal (Don’t Look Now, But Here Come the New, New Bank Fees) outlines some of the strategies bank like Chase are employing to get more fee income from customers.

Upping minimum payments wit the goal of maximizing late fees

Yes, they are increasing your minimum payment to make it more likely you will be late on your payment, and so they can charge you a higher fee, which is limited to the lower of $25 or the minimum payment amount.  If your minimum payment amount were only $17, that would be the maximum they could charge you.

The Wall Street Journal singled out chase for this tactic.

Credit protection

The Wall Street Journal claims that some credit card companies are enrolling customers in credit protection (which covers your minimum payments and late fees if you lose your job) without their permission.  This is reminiscent of banks enrolling customers in overdraft protection without their consent.

Other fees

Additional fees include annual fees on cards that did not have them, shortened billing cycles (making it more likely you will be late or they can charge you interest), and increased balance-transfer, cash-advance, and foreign-exchange fees.

Also watch out for aggressive marketing of so called “professional” cards, which are traditionally intended for business customers but, because they are exempt from the Credit Card Act of 2009 rules, are now being offered aggressively to non- business consumers.