Please just talk to us Chase

A reader sent us this:

We need help on trying to determine what we owe chase on a vehicle.  We were making payments regularly, but business went bad and had to file bankruptcy so the truck had to be included.  While weathering job loss and poor economy we were unable to maintain bankruptcy payments.  I have tried to repeatedly to contact them to make the back payments or work out something.  They would not respond and then sent a wrecker to reposses it, but it wasn’t here.  We want to settle the debt, but don’t know what to do.  We feel that our hands are tied.  We don’t want the truck to go back b/c we feel that we wouldn’t have any way of capping the ceiling of the debt.  We feel that they are crooks and don’t know what is in our best interest in handling this matter.  Has anyone had a similar issue with any results?

Chase can’t properly identify own check, has innocent man jailed

Chase seems to have done just about everything wrong in this case.  First, they had a man jailed claiming he presented them with a forged check. That check was valid and had in fact been issued by Chase bank itself.  Second, Chase let the man stay in jail over the weekend rather than doing everything they could to make sure he got out after they determined he was no in the wrong.  Third, after an entire year of trying to get Chase to even acknowledge the mistake (much less reimburse him for all the costs he experience because of their mistake) they only apologized after the local media ran a story and contacted Chase.

Here is the story:

AUBURN, Wash. – Buying his own home was a big accomplishment for construction worker, Ikenna Njoku, of Auburn. He’s only 28 years old.

“I was really excited. For the first time, I actually got to buy a lawn mower, mow my lawn and everything,” said Njoku.

Njoku qualified for the first time home buyer rebate on his tax return.

“It was really important, I had a vehicle I was looking on paying off,” said. Njoku. And it wasn’t just any vehicle. “It was a 2001 Infinity I-30, silver…just like my favorite car, “he said.

Njoku signed up to have the rebate deposited directly into his Chase Bank account. But when the IRS rebate arrived, there was a problem.  Chase had closed Njoku’s account because of overdrawn checks in the past. The bank deducted $600 to cover what he owed them and mailed him a cashier’s check for the difference–$8,463.21.

But when Njoku showed up at the Chase branch near his house intending to cash the check, he was in for a nasty surprise.

The check had Njoku’s name and address on it and was issued by JP Morgan Chase. But the Chase Customer Banker who handles large checks at the Auburn branch was immediately suspicious.

“I was embarrassed,” Njoku said. “She asked me what I did for a living. Asked me where I got the check from, looked me up and down—like ‘you just bought a house in Auburn, really?’ She didn’t believe that,” he said.

The Customer Banker said the check looked fake, so she took it, along with Njoku’s driver license and credit card, and called Bank Support.

After waiting for about 15 minutes, Njoku said he got impatient and told Chase he was leaving to do an important errand. By the time he got back, the bank was closed. Njoku said he called customer service and asked them what he should do. He says they told him to go back to the bank the next day to get his money.

But when Njoku arrived, it wasn’t the money that was waiting for him.

“They just threw me in jail; they called the police and said this guy has a fraudulent check,” Njoku said.

Auburn police arrested him for forgery – a felony crime.

“I was like – you’re making a mistake, you’re making a mistake, don’t take me to jail, I got work tomorrow. I can’t afford to miss work,” he said.

Njoku was taken to jail on June 24, 2010, which was a Thursday. The next day, Chase Special Investigations, realized it was a mistake. The check was legitimate. The Investigator called Auburn Police and left a message with the detective handling the case, but it was her day off. So Njoku stayed in jail for the entire weekend. Finally, on Monday, he was released.

Auburn Police Commander Dave Colglazier said Chase could have done a lot more to let them know they’d locked up an innocent man.

“We do have a main line that comes into our front office,” he said. “There are ways to reach someone 24/7 at a police department.”

For Njoku, going to jail for five days meant a lot more than just losing his freedom. He said the entire time he was “just stressed out…trying to figure out what was going on with my vehicle.  I love my vehicle,” he said.

Njoku’s car had been towed from the bank parking lot and his check seized as evidence.

“I had to wait a couple of weeks,” he said, “and my car got sold, auctioned off.”

Njoku says he didn’t have the money to pay the impound fees and fines to get his car back before it was sold.  He said he also lost his job because he didn’t show up for work while he was in jail.

After all of that, Njoku said he never heard a word from Chase.

“They haven’t even sent me a letter or apologized,” he said. “It’s been a year we’ve been trying to contact these guys.”

Finally, A Seattle attorney offered to help. Last week, Felix Luna sent Chase a scathing letter. Read the attorneys’ letter to Chase

“It’s one thing to make a mistake,” Luna said. “It’s one thing to make multiple errors of judgment like Chase has made and then, once you realize that your error has caused such harm to somebody else, to just ignore it for a year. I think he deserved better. I think all their customers do.”

Like Njoku, KING 5 had a difficult time getting answers from Chase. A week after first contacting them, they sent a two line e-mail.

“We received the letter and are reviewing the situation.  We’ll be reaching out to the customer,” wrote Darcy Donoahoe-Wilmot, from Chase Media Relations.

But on Thursday, Chase issued an apology.

Njoku said that even after he got out of jail, he said was confused and upset. “For a month, two months, I was just down and depressed,” he said.

He’s still happy he bought his house, but sad that his experience with his own bank was so humiliating.

“They treated me like a criminal,” he said.

New Chases mortgage modification class-action lawsuit

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Chase Home Finance LLC and JPMorgan Chase, N.A. in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, alleging that defendants reneged on a promise to modify troubled mortgages.  The class action is brought on behalf of the following class of persons:

All mortgagors in the the State of California whose home mortgage loans are or were serviced by Chase Home Finance LLC or JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and who (a) have attempted to obtain permanent loan modifications from Chase Home Finance LLC or JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. through the Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) or similiar loan modification programs; and (b) have made payments pursuant to a HAMP Trial Period Plan (“TPP”) or any similiar temporary modification agreement offered by Defendants.

For more information on the Chase Home Finance & JPMorgan Chase mortgage loan modification class action lawsuit, read the Chase Home Finance & JPMorgan Chase class action lawsuit complaint.

For information about this class action, contact paralegal Nick Wallace or attorneys Gretchen Obrist or Lynn Sarko at 800.776.6044 or via email at info@kellerrohrback.com.

Come on Chase, have a heart

Oh Chase, you just really want bad publicity, don’t you?  For God’s sake, just let this father of an injured active serviceman coming home from Iraq stay in his home a little longer so that the son has a home to come back to.  After all, you are foreclosing because you told him to miss payments so he would qualify for a loan modification.

20-year-old soldier Aaron Collette is currently on a tour of duty in Iraq. Next month, he’s scheduled to return to Oregon for two weeks of hard-earned leave. After surviving an IED explosion next to his squad this month, Aaron is looking forward to some quiet time with his family.

There’s a problem, though. Through no fault of their own, Aaron’s family will be kicked out of their home on August 9th – just ten days before Aaron returns. JPMorgan Chase is foreclosing on Aaron’s father Tim Collette, and has so far refused to modify Tim’s mortgage.

Tim Collette is on a mission to save his home – at least, temporarily. He’s simply asking for Chase to delay foreclosure proceedings so that Aaron can come home to Oregon this summer.

Like many homeowners in foreclosure, Tim Collette played by the rules. He put a $100,000 downpayment on his home when he purchased it back in 2006. But when the economy crashed in 2008, Tim’s cabinet refinishing business dried up. Tim struggled to make his mortgage payments each month, and eventually called Chase for assistance in restructuring his loan.

The bank told Tim that he’d need to miss two payments to qualify. Once he did that (per the bank’s instructions), the bank began foreclosure proceedings. After yanking Tim around for more than a year, Chase decided not to modify Tim’s mortgage and scheduled the final foreclosure date for June 20th.

When news of Tim’s story initially broke, JPMorgan Chase quickly told reporters they’d find a solution for Tim and placed his June 20th foreclosure on hold. But as soon as the media attention waned, the bank called Tim again and told him the foreclosure was back on – now scheduled for August 9th.

U.S. law prohibits banks from foreclosing on the homes of active duty military members, but JPMorgan Chase has mistakenly foreclosed on at least 27 service members. Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said of this mistake, “There is no class of citizen that we hold in higher regard…this is the worst [mistake] we’ve made. We deeply apologize to our veterans … and we’re sorry.”

Tim’s son Aaron isn’t the homeowner in this situation. But this is Aaron’s home. It’s his bedroom. His family. His safe place to return to after serving his country in Iraq. Chase Bank has already shown that, when under scrutiny by the media and with the determined advocacy of groups like Economic Fairness Oregon, they’ll delay foreclosure proceedings. Let’s see what happens when Change.org activists send thousands of messages to Chase Bank in support of Tim and his family.

 

Unsolicited Chase loan modification isn’t always from Chase

I’ve never had a Chase mortgage (thank God), and not underwater on my current mortgage, but still received this Chase loan modification notice in the mail.

If you look closely the fine print on the bottom indicates that this isn’t from Chase, but from some other bottom-feeding company that will no-doubt offer to obtain a loan modification from Chase … for a fee.

Please don’t be fooled by offers like this.  The economic meltdown and the large number of people having trouble with their loans has bred a cottage industry of companies that exist only to scan people.

WaMu nostalgia

A lot of our readers lament the day when Chase took over WaMu, and by all measures Chase made things worse for former WaMu customers.  But here is a not-so-subtle reminder that WaMu was also a bank firmly steeped in ineptness and unpalatable policies.

Chase drops 1,000 debt-collection lawsuits

Without giving a reason, Chase has asked various courts to drop more than 1,000 debt-collection lawsuits against individuals (Lender Drops Pursuit of Debt, Wall Street Journal, 6/24/11).

The suits were dropped without prejudice, meaning Chase can refile them later.

There is some indication that the lawsuits were dropped because of paperwork irregularities, which courts are becoming less tolerant to:

Mitch Granat, a lawyer who handles debt-collection cases for J.P. Morgan in Palm Beach County, Fla., on a contract basis, said he was told by other lawyers for the bank that the suits in Florida were dropped because of “irregularities” in paperwork used to verify the validity of the credit-card debt being pursued. Some judges have complained that J.P. Morgan and other credit-card issuers that go to court to collect what they are owed file lawsuits marred by sloppy or even fraudulent documentation of debts.

The problem is related to the robo-signing problem that has been widespread in foreclosure paperwork. Chase has been accused by several former employees of employing robo-signing tactics on consumer debt affidavits.  One of the former employees claims that Chase has incorrect information on balances owed on thousands of credit card accounts.

There is more indication that Chase may either be abandoning these type of lawsuits as part of its debt collection strategy, or may be switching gears from running its own in-house debt-collection legal team:

Many lenders farm out debt-collection lawsuits to outside law firms. In contrast, J.P. Morgan predominantly uses a team of in-house lawyers scattered across the U.S. Last month, some of those lawyers say they were told by company officials that all the collection offices where they work will be shut down by the start of 2012. J.P.

JPMorgan Chase admits it lied about the quality of mortgage backed securities

Dishonesty seems to be in the Chase corporate culture with this latest admission by Chase that it lied about the quality of mortgage-backed securities it sold to other banks and credit unions (Marketplace, 6/21/11).  As it sold the securities, it claimed they had near-zero default levels, but almost immediately after they were purchased, defaults soared so high the securities became almost worthless.

Bogus securities sold by Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland lost so much value they caused the failure of five credit unions.

Yea, these are the guys that are watching your money.  Still think Chase doesn’t arrange your deposits and debits to cause overdrafts?