JPMorgan Chase’s economic prognostication

JPMorgan Chase’s senior economist commented recently that he believes the economic recovery is on track.  As part of the justification for this belief, Chase gives this information:

Robert F. Ryan, Chase region executive for western New York, said the bank is seeing greater use of commercial credit by clients. It means businesses are ramping up spending and investing, he said, a positive economic sign.

I do see one small problem with that.

Chase has been hounding ordinary non- business customers for a while now to switch from regular credit cards to their Ink credit card, a professional business card.  As many small-business owners know, much small-business financing is done through credit cards.  Small businesses have had a particularly hard time in the recession because banks like Chase cut their credit lines severely, cutting them off from the credit they needed to run their day-to-day operations and in many cases, expand.

I can’t help but wonder if Chase is smart enough to realize that an increase in business credit card use, which they are agressively giving to non-business customers to get around the Credit Card Act of 2009 rules, does not equal an increase in commercial credit.

Hmmm.

Don’t do anything out of the ordinary

Don’t do anything out of the ordinary with Chase Bank, like trying to pay two mortgage payments early like this customer did, so you can go on a long vacation or for any other reason.  Given how bad Chase is in handling the small details, they will probably get it wrong, and in this case they did, charging the customer a late fee.

Chase’s sleazy mortgage refinancing

Personally, I have found mortgage brokers less honest than used car salesmen, so the fact that a mortgage broker working for Chase slipped in an extra flood insurance policy into escrow for a refinance doesn’t surprise me.

I went to refinance my home, in doing so, it came to my attention that the flood insurance had been added to my escrow account without notification. Three years ago my house had been rezoned into the 100 yr. flood zone. Although I have had a separate flood policy with Allstate, it was grandfathered in. I was never notified that I was being charged for insurance through may escrow account. When I went to refinance

with Chase a couple of months ago, this is where I found it. I have been on the phone for hours at a time to resolve this issue, only to be transferred from one branch to another on several different occasions.  I finally called my insurance agent to get payment history from Chase for the flood insurance and the only history they have is where I paid the policy myself, even though they have been taking it out of my escrow account for the past three years. No one with Chase will tell me where the money went. The are telling me that Allstate has been paid, Allstate has showed me records where they have only received payment from me. Chase won’t show me any records at all. They are crooks and owe me several thousand dollars for overpayment of flood insurance. I am looking for another mortgage company different from Chase, I will move my Money Market Account, Savings, Checking, My Mother’s account and my mother in law’s account out of that bank if some thing doesn’t get resolved in a hurry. The have gotten far to big and don’t care about customer service. What they don’t realize is that there are other banks that would like to have our money. Don’t do business with them you will regret it.

One way Chase is rejecting loan modifications

Here is one example of how Chase is rejecting people who should be qualifying for a loan modification:

When he tried to change the terms of his home loan, Michael Guzman was rejected because the bank didn’t consider his joblessness a long-term hardship.

Perhaps Chase didn’t read the HAMP rules, because …

Guzman, of Lake Stevens, has been unemployed for more than two years and was told — incorrectly — by Chase last year that his joblessness did not count as a permanent hardship.

Chase’s answer when the fact that loss of a job should be considered a permanent hardship?

“Servicers continue to evolve their implementation of HAMP,” Chase said in a statement.

Moreover, Chase said, it asked Guzman to reapply for loan assistance, but he has refused.

Guzman said he’s already submitted paperwork three times.

Chase sets new low for savings interest rate & fees

I know interest rates on checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and the like are pretty pathetic these days, but I think Chase may have set a new low with their recent offer of 0.01% interest on a savings account. Given the potential fees, such as a $4 monthly fee if the balance falls below $300, $2 for a non-chase ATM (yes, this is Chase charging you this fee, in addition to what the ATM owner charges), and $3 for each withdrawal after your first free 4 withdrawals in a month.

Here is the story:

It’s getting tougher for U.S. savers to find a bank where they won’t end up paying to keep their money safe.

The average interest paid on savings, checking, money-market and certificate of deposit accounts fell to 0.99 percent in July, the first dip below 1 percent in a decade, according to researcher Market Rates Insight. Banks also have been raising fees and adding new ones, most recently in response to the financial-services overhaul bill that became law July 21.

The result is that an increasing number of savers are seeing their deposit earnings eaten up by charges. That’s frustrating people like Ken Ward, who recently passed on a savings account with a 0.01 percent interest rate at the Chase bank branch near his home in Wantagh, New York.

Read more …

Chase still confiscating funds for old debts without warning

We are still seeing reports that Chase is practicing the despicable practice of confiscating funds for old debts without any warning, explanation, or notice after the fact.  It goes something like this:

You are going along happily and then one day notice a bunch of money missing from your checking account.  You call Chase and they say, yea, we took some money out to satisfy an old debt you deadbeat.  Deadbeat you say?  I paid that old debt?  Prove it says Chase.

Here is the latest story:

2 years ago I have a balance with washington mutual and collection agen did contact me to make payment arrangenment and so I thought I already deal with the agency.

and I just open new checking account with chase which is they bought WaMu just only for my direct deposit suddenely on the day of my paycheck chase wipe out all my salary and apply to the balance that I owe without any disclose information.

usually when you open the bank that you still ow they will not going to allow to open any new checking acct so now i left with 0 dollars.

So please DO NOT DEAL WITH CHASE IS JUST TO MANY TRICKY WAY

Beware of Chase phone scam

If you are a Chase (or any bank) customer, be warned that phishing scams to lure you into revealing your confidential bank information may not be limited to email and web pages anymore.  Here is one report of this scam being perpetuated via phone calls.  I suspect that people would be much more likely to trust a phone caller, if only because scams of this sort by phone have not been common.

Scam artists were calling customers and telling them their accounts had been discontinued. The mistake could be corrected if the bank customer would supply their account number, the scammer said.MutualBank emphasized that their customers were not alone in being targeted, and after that article appeared, I received a call from a Chase customer who said she had received the same call.

WaMu examiner asks for more time

It looks like WaMu shareholders might actually be getting their moneys worth out of the WaMu bankruptcy examiner, former head of the Justice Department fraud unit Joshua Hochberg.

Hochberg has asked for more time to complete his investigation and will be submitting a final report on Nov 1st.

Specific areas he is investigating include:

• whether New York- based JPMorgan “intentionally injured” WaMu so it could purchase the bank subsidiary at a lower price.
• whether JPMorgan intentionally interfered with possible purchases of the bank by other buyers
• ownership of $4 billion in deposit accounts at the bank and whether the holding company has any claims for $6.5 billion in capital contributions made to the bank from December 2007 to September 2008
• who should end up with billions of dollars in tax refunds and whether trust preferred securities were properly exchanged for equity