Bank of America today dropped all arbitration requirements for all customers. (article) Chase as recently as July 24th suspended submission of disputes to arbitration and is said to be considering doing away with arbitration requirements altogether. (article)
Uncategorized | admin August 14, 2009 | 
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Has Chase changed their privacy policy and opt-out mechanism to make it harder for you to opt out of information sharing and easier for them to sell your information? One blogger writes about his frustrations trying to opt-out. Their privacy policy includes language like “Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so as required or permitted by law.
Uncategorized | admin August 13, 2009 | Comments (0)
From the recent growth in news stories, blog posts, complaints we get, and even now mainstream TV news coverage, Chase is accelerating their preemptive closure of credit card accounts. This phenomonon made the front page of the Wall Street Journals Personal Journal section today. (article) Chase is likely pruning the risky and unprofitable accounts before next years credit card reform act takes place, which will limit their ability to cancel an account for no good reason, as they are doing now. Chase probalby considers your account unprofitable if you pay your bill every month and don’t rack up interest charges and late fees. So much for being a responsible credit card user.
Uncategorized | admin August 12, 2009 | Comments (0)
This is customer service? Chase tells a credit card customer whose limit was recently lowered while they were on a vacation (and with no advanced notice) that it is their responsibility to check their available limit before every charge. They also put a 5 day hold on a payment, presumably so more over limit fees would pile up. (article)
Another unreasonable deposit hold time resulting in bounced check charges story. I get so many of them. (story)
Uncategorized | admin August 10, 2009 | Comments (0)
Why banks suck 101: CNNMoney reports banks will make $38.5 Billion in overdraft fees this year. Almost half of banks will make more in overdraft fees than their net profits, which means, all their profits are coming from overdraft fees. Make sure overdraft protection is turned off for your debit card, a feature which most banks have on be default when you open your account.
S0me of the new rules as part of the Credit Card Act of 2009 are now in effect (8/20/09): Banks must mail statements at least 21 days before their due dates and must give you at least 45 days notice before any significant changes to rates or fees. (WSJ article)
Fees & charges, Legal & regulatory | admin August 8, 2009 | Comments (0)
How is this possible? In 2007, Daniel Knox deposited $95,000 into his account. An employee promptly stole $90,000 of it. It appears that the WaMu branch involved found out about the fraud and tried to cover it up by, among other things, stopping the sending of his monthly statements. (article)
Uncategorized | admin August 7, 2009 | Comments (0)
