Received this from a reader at 12:36 PM EST today:
For the last 40 minutes, each time I call Chase to take action on a pending transaction in my account, I’m told by the “telephone banker” that the systems are “updating” and they cannot access customer’s accounts. Updating? Really? On a weekday during business hours? Their online site is functioning, but I find it odd that internal systems are not.
Is this another one of Chase’s unscheduled scheduled maintenance windows? It would obviously be odd for any financial institution to be updating their systems on a planned basis in the middle of the day.
This story pretty much confirms what we’ve seen though other reports, that Chase has little to no interest in helping you avoid fraud on your debit card or in limiting your loss after the fact. In many cases they seem to blame fraud on the customer for not protecting their card well enough or simply accusing the customer of having performed the fraudulent transactions themselves.
In short, when they are truly on the hook because the law says so (with credit cards) their fraud protection seems to do the job, but when the law doesn’t force them to be responsible (with debit cards) they seem to skirt responsibility whenever possible.
My wife and I formed and S corporation as we are both independent contractors. Me in the environmental industry, she in Property Management. We opened a business account with Chase bank. One of the alluring aspects was their highly touted “Fraud Protection”. Since we already use a Visa Card issued from Chase and they call us with any suspicious activity on the card, it seemed like we would be protected. Sometimes in fact, they do not push through a Visa charge because it’s not consistent with our purchasing patterns. While annoying this was also reassuring as regards FRAUD PROTECTION.
I can tell you that when Chase is “on the hook” for Visa charges to a credit card, their FRAUD Protection is top drawer. On the other hand, when the money is stolen from an individuals account via ATM or Debit card, Chase Bank sings another tune. They just DO NOT care. Essentially…the money is not theirs, why should they?
Our story continues:
Well, starting in April someone must have skimmed my wife’s debit card numbers or something, because money started disappearing from the account. Neither of us were missing a card, and these were debit card charges WITHOUT the use of the pin number, so “Credit charges to our Debit card…I guess? I don’t know, I’m not a banker.
Read the rest of the story at chase-sucks.com
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.
This latest article from the Wall Street Journal has a prime example of Chase’s schizophrenic behavior when handling loan modifications:
After J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. agreed in January to her trial loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program, Stephanie Lulko made six $767-a-month mortgage payments, even though the bank said it had no record of her loan and then warned in a letter that she would be foreclosed on unless she paid $4,091.94.
The 44-year-old Ms. Lulko, of Oklahoma City, says bank employees told her to ignore the letter. Their tune changed in June, when J.P. Morgan said she earned too much to qualify for a permanent modification. The problem this time: The bank’s numbers were wrong. “I wish I had never applied for this modification,” she says.
In September, the bank rejected her request for a permanent loan modification for a second time. She faces foreclosure unless she pays nearly $5,000—the difference between her original and modified loan payments, plus late fees. Ms. Lulko has been unemployed since her temporary job at the U.S. Census Bureau ended in August.
J.P. Morgan denies any wrongdoing related to Ms. Lulko’s loan. “We worked with the borrower over a number of months and communicated the status of the loan modification during that time,” spokesman Tom Kelly says.
Did you get all that?
- Chase simultaneously claims to have no record of her loan but demand a large repayment at the same time.
- They tell her to ignore a letter they sent her. Seriously? What kind of respectable financial institution sends you a letter and then other people in the organization tell you to just ignore it?
- They claim she earns too much but have the numbers wrong.
Chase has indicated that it plans to restart foreclosures in the next two weeks.
JPMorgan has also separately stopped 127,000 foreclosures in 40 states, up from 115,000 disclosed last month, while it reviews those files to correct any errors in the documents, Scharf said. JPMorgan will begin re-filing paperwork in a few weeks, he said.
Refiling Process
“It’s going to take three or four months or so to get all these documents re-filed,” Scharf said. “It’s state by state. It’s not just the affidavits that have to be re-filed.”
He said the bank doesn’t yet know what the latest foreclosure problems will ultimately cost the company, which is in talks with state attorneys general investigating whether banks have improperly seized homes. “The delay itself could cost us up to a couple hundred million dollars a month or so just in additional work that has to get done,” Scharf said.
Wow, that’s an expensive fee to stop payment on a check. I bank with a smaller bank (First Republic) and they charge me $8 for a stop payment, or 1/4 of what Chase charges.
I had to put a stop payment on a check due to someone having their purse stolen. First, it took me FOREVER to get to an attendant to help me and then, he told me it was going to cost $32 to put a stop payment. I told him I thought that it was an outrageous price to pay for him to push a button and he said “that’s Chase’s policy”. Of course, I had to pay it to put the stop payment. After already plugging in my account number in order to even talk to someone and then the guy asking my name, I had to give my account number again. Then he asked my name, I told him that he already asked me that at the beginning of the phone call, but, told him again. Because I told him I was unhappy with their customer service and exorbitant fees, he totally started giving me attitude. After this phone call, I called my husband and told him we definitely need to switch banks. CHASE HAS THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE OF ALL!
Kudos to the attorney that got a homeowners foreclosure reversed in Florida. From this story we learn two things:
- Chase often says it will do one thing but then does something else.
- The courts finding in this case shows that by doing this, Chase is practicing fraud, misconduct, and misrepresentation.
In other words, Chase is in the wrong here and it is worthwhile to go after them legally for this.
Since February 2010, JP Morgan Chase promised to provide a mortgage modification to my client. They promised to stop the foreclosure proceedings and allow him to stay in the home. My client acted in good faith the entire time, trying to save his home from Foreclosure using the trial modification system as we set up in every modification case. Then, without ever telling my client they were moving forward, Chase went ahead and behind his back got a Summary Judgment. This gave Chase the right to sell my client’s home at Judicial Auction.
When my client was sent a copy of the Summary Judgment, he called the Bank to ask why they were not giving him the promised trial mortgage modification. The Bank assured my client they were giving him a modification and would suspend the sale so that the Trial Modification could go through. That is not what happened. What Chase actually did was sell the house at a judicial sale behind my client’s back. When my client informed us of the way Chase had treated him we felt this was an atrocity. We immediately filed a Motion to Vacate the Summary Judgment based on Fraud, Misconduct and Misrepresentation. Today we had the hearing on my motion. The Judge Ordered the Summary Judgment be vacated (overturned). My client gets to keep his house!
Read the rest of this story …
Yet another example of a Chase mistake that caused havoc for a homeowner. In this case, Chase incorrectly claimed that Bill Krieger had missed his September mortgage payment and wasted no time in informing all three credit agencies about the missed payment that wasn’t actually missed, which caused Krieger’s credit score to plummet.
After acknowledging the mistake, they sent him a paltry $53 to cover his trouble.
I once had an incorrect derogatory statement on my credit report for a payment applied to the wrong account. It took me 18 months and about 50 hours of my time to get it resolved.
Gee thanks Chase.
outages | admin November 8, 2010 | 
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