Why you should dump Chase for a credit union

In response to a recent post of ours on how Chase is doing away with the “free” part of the former WaMu free checking accounts, came this comment, which so beautifully lays out a case for why Chase is worth dumping for a more reasonable financial institution, like a credit union.

I got my Chase letter too.  As soon as Chase took over WAMU, I closed my savings account because it went to .01% (thats $1 a year for $1000 deposit) from 1.75% with no notice.

One thing to watch out with Chase when you close an account with them: the account data is IMMEDIATELY removed from the internet.  You can’t get any information or statements without paying Chase, after you close the account.  Make sure you print everything you might need before closing it.

I have one item left at Chase, a credit card I’ve had for over 10 years.  I wonder when they will get me to close that as well with some stupid new program or fee.

I use my local credit union for almost all of my financial stuff now, after WAMU disappeared into the great Chase bank vault, so I really won’t even notice not having a Chase account for ATM use, since I have several credit union ATMs nearby.  I can’t ever see why I would trust ANY of the big banks with any significant money every again.

Chase ransacks house of man on his deathbed

Yet another example of Chase claiming someone is behind on their mortgage when they claim they have made all payments and are up-to-date.

SEATTLE — J.D. Butler was on his death bed when JP Morgan Chase invaded his home, according to his daughter, who said the intrusion left the waterfront home in shambles.

Celeste Butler says she couldn’t get any answers from Chase, so her only option was to sue.

“I’m praying and hoping that this never happens to anyone else again,” she said.

Butler says she took home video to document what happened to her father’s waterfront home, which was ransacked while he fought for his life in the hospital. Drawers were turned upside down, and a locked china cabinet was broken into.

“They took 17th-century paintings,” said Celeste.

Items that had been collected during a lifetime of service in the U.S. Navy were destroyed.

“When I left this house, everything was neat and clean in this room,” said Celeste.

Celeste’s attorney says Chase, J.D.’s mortgage company, is to blame.

“One of the terms in the mortgage papers is that the bank has the right to enter the property if it appears that the home is abandoned, so we believe that this event was orchestrated by the bank to allow the bank to initiate action against the Butler home,” said Chris Davis, Celeste’s attorney.

Chase says J.D. had fallen behind in payments. And if a loan is delinquent, Chase says it has the right to enter a house.

“We followed our policy to maintain a mortgaged property, especially during winter months when cold weather can damage property,” Chase said.

The contractor Chase hired left orange stickers where the plumbing had been winterized. The mortgage company insists the house was disorganized when it initially checked on it.

But Celeste insists the payments had been made, and the Port Angeles house was neat when she left it.

“And the bank told me the mortgage was current,” she said.

Read more …

Annual bank customer satisfaction survey says Chase really does suck

Apparently it isn’t just me and many others ranting on the Internet about how much Chase sucks, as the 2010 Bank & Credit Union Customer Satisfaction Survey by Prime Performance clearly indicates.

Among the results:

• Chase ranks at the bottom of the customer satisfaction results at 67% compared with 88% of customers at small banks and credit unions.
• Chase has the highest percentage of people that said they were likely to switch banks in the next 12 months at 19%.

Chase part of employee insurance scheme?

A recent lawsuit has accused Chase, among others, of scheming to take out life insurance policies on employees and former employees without their consent or knowledge.  While this sounds unethical, apparently it is also illegal and the people so insured or their heirs can sue the banks for the life insurance proceeds and for misappropriation of their identity.

Many of the world’s largest banks have purchased “bank-owned life insurance” or “BOLI” for years, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and many others.

“We are investigating banks that insure the lives of employees without their knowledge or consent,” says class-action attorney Scott Clearman of The Clearman Law Firm. “These types of policies benefit only the banks, not their employees.”

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.

WaMu judge excludes examiner report

Yet another twist in the Washington Mutual bankruptcy proceedings and the attempt by shareholders to get at least some value out of the deal.  Shareholders, who had requested the appointment of an examiner to investigate the possibility of improprieties by JPMorgan Chase and possibly others in influencing (helping) the failure and seizure of Washington Mutual, were disappointed last month when the examiner reported that he found nothing wrong.  The heart of their argument for having an examiner appointed was this:

The shareholders were able to convince the judge to exclude the examiners report excluded from the bankruptcy proceedings.  The current bankruptcy plan is based in part on the examiners report.

Chase goes criminal?

This comment one one of our posts was so good it deserves a post of its own.

Yes – JP Morgan Chase and Washington Mutual illegally robbed us of our million dollar horse farm in RI by first ignoring every effort to pay it off, sell it, short sale it, refinance it to us or to our buyers, over a two year period that we paid our full huge gigantic mortgage,  but then our attorney was notified of a foreclosure 90 minutes before the foreclosure sale where no one showed up but me! Instead of letting us sell it – like they said – they grabbed it themselves.  The next day while we were at a wedding, they broke in, stole everything we owned, changed the locks, and lied to the police chief – “No one lived there, the place was empty, and the door was left opened!”

SCUM BAGS TO THE MAX _ WE want to sue them.  Our case is 100% exceptionally well documented.  Anyone know of a class action suit involving RI?

Chase fails to get HAMP expert testimony stricken

I’ve argued for some time now that Chase’s foreclosure and loan modification tactics include denying people loan modifications they’ve agreed to provide under the governments HAMP program that people are entitled.  I would go so far as to say that legally, they have a huge exposure to quite a few wrongful (parallel) foreclosures for people that qualified for a loan modification under HAMP, but were told by Chase that they did not qualify.

Here is one such case where they attempted to get the testimony of an expert on loan modifications, especially HAMP loan modifications, stricken.  They were denied.