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3/17/10: JP Morgan Chase is being sued by a Mexican business man for $500 million after he claims Chase injected itself into his deal to sell his business for $400 million to try and wring some fees out of the deal. Interesting the kind of trouble Chase is getting itself into these days.

3/17/10: JP Morgan Chase has apparently drawn the ire of the AFL-CIO as evidenced by the recent mock trial the staged and found Chase CEO Jamie Dimon guilty of conspiracy to wreck the economy.

3/16/10: Here is some more information on the allegations made by a former Chase employee that Chase was practicing flat-out fraud when it packaged up a bunch of loans for sale with grossly incorrect information on the state of those loans. How poorly managed does a bank have to be to allow something like this to happen?

3/16/10: As a second lien holder, Chase is well within its rights to ask for a certain amount ot satisfy their loan, but do they really need to be this impossible to work with to get to that point?

3/16/10: JP Morgan Chase may have recently reported that its credit card losses were improving, but it appears that their buy-backs of bogus mortgages is increasing at a rate that will far offset the credit card improvements.

3/15/10: Well this is interesting. There has been some talk about a glitch with computer systems during the WaMu to Chase conversion that wiped out about 4 months worth of loan modification data. That would certainly explain why Chase keeps asking people for the same stuff again and claiming they haven't received paperwork.

3/13/10: The BIG news is that WaMu's former holding company has announced that is has reached an agreement with JP Morgan Chase and the FDIC that gives it back $4B in assets it had claimed and allows it to keep 1/2 of the $5.6B in tax credits. This is good news for WaMu bondholders, but not enough to give shareholders anything. I hope this doesn't kill the impetus for lawmakers to continue to look into the fiasco of a siezure that gave WaMu to Chase.

3/13/10: Of 437,323 borrowers in trial loan modifications, JP Morgan Chase managed to convert a paltry 20,450 into permanent modifications in February. Woo hoo.

3/13/10: This is classic Chase. Homeowner sells house, One year after the sale Chase is still treating her loan as if it was active and telling her she is behind on payments. Not until the media contacts Chase on her behalf does the problem get solved. (story)

3/11/10: Have separate accounts for separate businesses with Chase? One customer is wondering how the heck they debited one account for a debit drawn against another one. Or as he put it, "They have done nothing right so far."

3/11/10: If you want, sign a petition for customers of Chase that hate the bank.

3/11/10: What a busy day. Another complaint of Chase not recognizing obvious fraud as fraud and sticking customers with the bill when their debit card is compromised.

3/11/10: Chase may send you a letter that carries with it a sense of urgency to sign up for overdraft protection on your debit card, or you might be left unprotected. Don't fall for it. There is nothing urgent about overdraft protection. When you are out of money, your debit card should stop working.

3/11/10: This guy had been with Chase (or its predecessors) for 44 years. He recently opened a business checking account. Someone (he thinks a Chase employee) got a hold of his never received debit card and racked up $6,200 in charges. Somehow their fraud department missed the totally uncharacteristic charges for a 78 year old single man. Chase refused to refund his money and claimed the he fits the profile of a credit card cheat. Not even the pictures of the woman wearing a dress using his card at the ATM (from the police) would convince Chase to change their mind. So he ditched the bank.

Update to story: After his story was posted on the Huffington Post, Chase apparently got the message they needed to deal with it, so they are returning his $6200. So now we all know the best strategy for dealing with Chase - if you can't get satisfaction, go to the press!

3/11/10: Man, where to start on this one. Customer gets approved for a temporary loan mod and pays for over a year only to find out that Chase had rejected a permanent mod and was about to foreclose. They never contacted him to inform him of any of this. Same customer deposits a check and Chase reads the amnount wrong and as a result the customer gets several NSF charges. He asks them to correct this so they ... close his account? Yea, that sounds like Chase. (story)

3/11/10: It is clear, at least to me, from all the stories I see, Chase's bad customer service is not isolated incidents, it is an epidemic. This customer lost their credit card and someone used it to make some fraudulent purchases. Chase refused their claim that the charges were fraud and won't tell them why.

3/11/10: Here is some info from a Chase insider. Among his claims, that his managers and district managers were constantly replaced and had no experience even close to managing banks. That Chase doesn't allow their employees to participate in ANY outside activities, including volunteering.

3/11/10: Oh Chase, do you really have to hire people that don't have a clue what they are talking about?

3/11/10: Chase has not countersued the FDIC and WaMu's former holding company to protect the assets being contended by the former WaMu holding company. (article)

3/11/10: In making claims that it changed its policy last year, allowing rejected business loan applicants to request a second review, which resulted in a significant increase in lending to small businesses, Chase is makings claims that can't be verified and it won't substantiate with any data. (article)

3/7/10: If you want to hear a Chase spokesman blame their lack of permanent loan modifications on other people, then go here.

3/7/10: Well this is interesting. A former Chase assistant vice-president is suing Chase claiming that they substantially misrepresented the value of thousands of credit cards accounts that were packaged for sale. (story)

3/5/10: There is apparently some momentum in the discussion of the $4B in disputed funds between the WaMu holding company and JP Morgan Chase.

3/4/10: Ok, this seems to be how a Chase loan mod works: You pay trial modification payments for a very long time (8 months, 11 months?) and in the end those payments do NOT get credited to your account and your loan balance actually goes up substantially. Oh great.

3/4/10: Here is the letter WaMu's former holding company has sent to shareholders, outlining the great injustice they felt was done by seizing WaMu and selling it to Chase. They are also talking about having an annual meeting.

3/2/10: This is bad. Chase has been accused in New York of some pretty foul and possibly fraudulent behavior around foreclosures. One example has Chase rejecting payments to bring a mortgage current, so they could foreclose instead.

3/2/10: Ah, the memories. I remember warmly when 18.99% was considered a high interest rate, but Chase seems to consider 29.99% the new 18.99%.

3/2/10: During the recent snowstorm in NYC, one customer reports the deli was open, so was the pizza place, but Chase somehow couldn't drag its doors open for customers.

3/2/10: As banks lick their wounds and try to increase profits after legislation that makes them act more reasonably, here are some tricks to watch out for according to Marketplace: They will encourage you to press the credit button when using your bank/debit card; this costs retailers more money. Use debit instead. They will call you and push you to sign up for overdraft protection, that worthless feature that will make your $5 latte cost an additional $33 or $39. Don't drink the cool-aid, opt-out of overdraft protection. If your checking account is out of money, use your credit card, or better yet, stop spending.

3/2/10: JP Morgan Chase has ramped up its lobbying efforts, a.most doubing money spend on lobbying in the 4th quarter 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.

2/27/10: Sometimes (much of the time) Chase just can't get the details right. Like this case where someone asked to have a debit card express overnighted to them and it was sent by regular mail instead? That's pretty basic stuff that a bank should have down.

2/27/10: Chase credit card fraud detection gone wild. Chase's solution, call them everytime you are about to use your card. Yea, that's actually what they said.

2/27/10: Another anti-Chase Facebook group. This one is called "Chase Bank Sucks Ass, WaMu was So Much Better."

2/26/10: This quote speaks for itself: "Mr. Staley [JP Morgan Chase investment banking chief] noted at JP Morgan 's Investor Day conference that the bank would respond to any stricter regulation by passing any extra expenses on to its customers ..."

2/24/10: This very well made video by a Chase customer chronicles very nicely all the nit-picky little fees and inflexible circumstances that caused him to finally dump Chase.

2/24/10: Here is a video from a news program that summarizes the investigations going on into the WaMu seizure. More and more people suspect that something fishy happened.

2/24/10: Chase Freedom card customers, you now have the choice of a $30 annual fee or switching to a different card that has much less generous rewards. Have a nice day.

2/23/10: A symbol of the waste ov WaMu, this WaMu branch in Texas was fully completed in a brand new building built just for WaMu but Chase decided not to open the branch and had the building demolished.

2/22/10: Yet another Facebook anti-Chase group, and now a anti-chase Twitter account.

2/21/10: If you are a Chase customer and don't plan on leaving anytime soon, the key to surviving Chase is to realize that despite their overall customer service issues, some branches are better than others. For instance, look at these ratings on Yelp, with branches in the Chicago area going from 1.5 starts up to 5 stars. Look for a branch near you that is rated highly.

2/20/10: Wow, this sure tops the Chase news for the week. JP Morgan Chase is FORCING former WaMu employees to sell their WaMu stock, which is currently a penny stock trading only on the speculation that there is some merit to claims that WaMu shareholders were robbed of value because of the inappropriate seizure of WaMu, and the former WaMu holding company's claims to billions in assets in bankruptcy court. Could this mean that JP Morgan Chase is nervous about this lawsuit and is trying to rattle the shareholders? (article)

2/19/10: Apparently to their poor customer service, Chase is the largest financier of mountaintop removal coal mining. (story and story)

2/19/10: Chase is among the banks accused of demanding kickbacks to approve short sales.

2/19/10: Its simple really; banks handle your money, so they should know how to dot the i's and cross the t's. So why then does Chase continue to take a car payment out of someones account after they sold the car and paid the loan off? Is this the bank you trust with your money?

2/16/10: This is a new one. Chase acutally forclosed on a homeowner who was actively enrolled in a trial modification. Worse yet, the house was sold (back to Chase?) for $100. (story)

2/16/10: We reported recently how formerly WaMu Free Checking is no longer free with Chase, but apparently another perk is no longer free, free checks. Yes, Chase charges for them now.

2/16/10: What I love about this blog post is what the Chase rep told the guy why his interest rate was increased from 9.9% to 19.24% - because Chase's cost of borrowing from the government increased so much. Of course, the Fed funds overnight rate is at historic lows of 0-.25%, so that was a worthless excuse.

2/16/10: Here is something we all knew: Chase's dropped score dropped quite a bit in the most recent annual customer service satisfaction survey.

2/16/10: More inquiries into the WaMu seizure. Apparently the smoker in this article is former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson having admitted at the time of the WaMu seizure that he knew WaMu was adequately capitalized.

2/12/10: This post has a good point - by charging non-customers $6 to cash a check drawn on a Chase account, in a Chase branch, they are assuring that those people will never become Chase customers.

2/12/10: Trevor discovered the hard way that Chase dropped WaMu's convenient "email when your account is below a certain amount" feature, and resulted in a bunch of overdraft fees. Gee, I wonder why they did that. (story)

2/11/10: My favorite line from a recent Craigslist rant against Chase is this: "I've stood in line at another location once and heard a teller and a customer in a screaming match. The teller asked how the experience was so far, the customer said it sucked then the teller got mad."

2/11/10: As this recent loan modification horror story shows, Chase is still completely disorganized when it comes to managing the loan modification process, including sending the wrong paperwork, losing paperwork, not returning calls, giving wrong information, and taking a LONG time to do anything.

2/11/10: Chase's latest way to weasel out of giving permanent loan modifications under the governments loan-mod program - claiming your hardship is not of a permanent nature. (article)

2/11/10: With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saying they will be repurchasing loans more than 120 days delinquent, there is some speculation this could mean they will eventually end up back at the bank they came from. So, if you have a loan from WaMu or Chase that was sold off and is owned by investors, which makes it harder to get a loan modification, this could help you at some point.

2/9/10: When I started this blog five years ago I was reporting WaMu ineptness and bad customer service. When Chase took over WaMu they continued the WaMu tradition of doing stupid things. The latest evidence of stupid Chase tricks is their so-called secure document system. For starters, for every new account they create in this system, the default password is "password." Any half-bred, third-generation-removed geek can tell you that is the absolute worst default password to use for anything. Read the link to find out more about why their system is so technically lacking.

2/8/10: Looks like at least one Chase branch will be open on President's day.

2/8/10: Yup, in addition to holding regular deposits for 4-5 days or longer, Chase does you the favor of holding direct deposits for that long too!

2/8/10. Oh man, this is good. Looks like Chase forgot to record the deed of trust for a loan they made back in 2003, a judge just afirmed a ruling that Chase must get in line with everyone else for the assets from a bankruptcy, rather than having their loan secured against the property. Oops!

2/8/10: Here's a troubling story: A couple paid off their mortgage in 2001, but a company that Chase uses to service loans filed foreslocure precedings, the couple never received notice, and the house was sold at a foreclosure auction. Chase was apparently completely unaware that this was going on. (court opinion)

2/5/10: An internal email from 2008 is helping to paint the picture that JP Morgan Chase might have behaved badly in its dealings prior to its acquisition of WaMu.

2/5/10: This potentially positive loan modification experience wiht Chase shows that even good outcomes must go through lost paperwork and plenty of other nonsensical bureaucratic snafus. It's not Chase's general unwilingness to work with people or admit to the realities of underwater borrowers, that is their perogative. It is the pure ineptness of their process that I find the most distasteful. That has ben WaMu/Chase's problem for a long time, generally unhelpful and inept people.

2/4/10: If you are having difficulty with your Chase credit card because they jacked up the rate and upped your minimum payment, so the fees keep adding up, take note of one customer who tried without fail to get Chase to be more reasonable and then months later they called her out of the blue to offer her a lower payments and a 6% interest rate. Strange. (story)

2/3/10: This persons post on her experience with a Chase trial loan modification does a pretty good job of outlining what is wrong with their program (in 34 points). One thing notable though is that although she was denied, she made more payments than she needed to because Chase conveniently forgot to notify her that she had been denied, or as a Chase agent said, "didn't someone call you?"

2/3/10: This is the kind of stuff banks do that make us all crazy. This one customer set up automatic bi-weekly payments from his Chase checking account to pay his Chase car loan and Chase credit card. The car loan automatic payment just disappeared from the system with no explanation. The credit card auto pay caused problems because the credit card billing cycle varies and differs from the statement cycle, so one payment falls in the wrong month and leaves him with a late payment, another one falls on a weekend and gets extra long processing time. (story and story)

2/2/10: I suppose any pair of big banks could be involved in something like this, but since one of the banks is Chase, it is being reported here. Seems some fine folks took out a mortgage from Bank of America, which was then immediately sold to Chase. But Chase somehow got the address wrong and so the homeowners never knew to send their checks somewhere else. So BofA was happy to cash checks it didn't have a right to and Chase started calling them several times every day for collections. Neither idotic big bank was any help when trying to straighten out the mess. (story)

2/1/10: Just for laughs, here's a story about the president of Chase Bank of West Ohio defaulting on a small business loan.

2/1/10: Chase apparently thinks harrassing a customer who is 30 days behind on their mortgage will somehow help.

1/31/10: The way Chase is treating customers sure seems generate some strong opinions. (opinion, opinion)

1/31/10: Here is a funny blog post where someone from Sheepshead Bay NY rants about Chase opening up more and more branches and staffing each one with less and less people as customer service goes down the drain. (blog)

1/31/10: If you are a member of Facebook and hate Chase, consider joining one (two, three, four) of the many Chase sucks groups.

1/30/10: Bin tells us Chase started charging him fees for his former WaMu free checking account and non-Chase ATMs not cost, where WaMu never charged for them. (story)

1/30/10: Does Chase automatically deny fraud claims when your ATM card has been compromised and your account drained? Sounds like insurance industry tactics. (story)

1/30/10: Chase approved Carolyn's HAMP mortgage modificaiton on Jan 6th and then denied it on Jan 22nd saying their guidlines had changed. The problem is, the government sets the guidelines, and those haven't changed. WTF Chase? (story)

1/30/10: If you are following the saga of the former WaMu holding companies bankruptcy, their request to get their hands on FDIC papers related to the seizure and sale to JP Morgan Chase (and what started a further downward spiral in bad customer service for WaMu customers) was denied by a Texas judge.

1/28/10: Sigh. What WON'T banks do to make a sleazy buck these days. Apparently some Chase mortgages come with an EARLY payment penalty. No, that's not a PRE-payment pentalkty, it is a penalty if you send in your monthly payment too early.

1/25/10: Looks like Chase may be in hot water for raising credit card customer interest rates without written notice. This lawsuit is haunting them back from 2006. (article)

1/25/10: A Chase customer was having a hard time getting an answer to their question so they posted the question in an online forum. A Chase employee from a random midwest branch answered his question online, very competently. This is a clear indication that Chase DOES have some helpful people working for them. As a customer, you are best served by finding the useful people; go to several of the branches around you to find which has the friendliest and most helpful people and develope personal relationships with them. This is one way to survive Chase.

1/25/10: Chase has been trying to polish their battered image through their Facebook community giving campaign/contest, but it looks like there are more allegations of fraud realted to the contest.

1/24/10: With all the fraud protection Chase promises on it's debit card, one customer didn't feel quite so protected.

1/23/10: Hmm, a former WaMu customer reports that a lot of things still don't work, like transfers between acounts (says successful but money never shows up) and email alerts that never come to indicate low funds, resulting in overdraft charges. Hmm.

1/23/10: This post from someone trying to work with Chase for a loan modification outlines what we al already know, that Chase lacks some of the most basic elements of good customer service.

1/22/10: Looks like Congress is finally taking notice of the former WaMu's holding company's suit against the FDIC and JP Morgan Chase and is doing some investigating of its own. (another link)

1/20/10: Despite the mostly unsympathetic comments, this thread clearly highlights the shenanigans that Chase plays with your withdrawal and deposit order to maximize overdraft revenue. In short, customer deposits money in a nearly empty account, and then makes a withdrawal of some part of the deposit. Chase processes the withdrawal first, which drags the account negative, and assesses overdraft fees.

1/20/10: Chase shares confidential client information with other companies, accidentally posts it online, and then takes 3 months to tell people about the mistake, as reported by the LA Times.

1/19/10: Here's a blog post about a customer in good standing who pays his bill in full every month being one day late on his credit card payment and trying to get Chase to waive the late fee. They of course won't, and he tries to threaten them with canceling his card, which they let him do without any objection. As a pay-in-full customer myself, I've had a similar experience. The current poor state of Chase's and other banks' credit card portfolios makes me wonder when banks will kick the bad-customer fee habit and start appreciating good customers for what they are - a way to bring in steady, dependable, low-risk income.

1/17/10: Chase stands among the second-lien-holding banks accused of demanding off-the-books payments from real-estate brokers and buyers to allow a short sale to go through. (story)

1/17/10: Chase apparently has the mothers over at the Baby Gaga forum pretty pissed off. Funny to see this type of NSFW language on a baby-mama forum.

1/16/10: Chase acnowledged yesterday that thousands of CA and NV customers had their ATM charges double posted. Be sure and check your account statements to insure that if this happened to you, it gets fixed. Just another step in the smooth transition from WaMu to Chase I am sure. (article)

1/15/10: Years ago I read an article about a guy that started a collections firm whose guiding principle was to be nice to people. The company was hugely successful based largely on that tenet. Perhaps JP Morgan Chases $1.5 billion in loses for the 4th quarter 2009 on their mortgage and credit card portfolios have much to do with the fact that they seem to have taken a strictly adversarial relationship with their customers, the good and the bad ones. Perhaps they should try being nice to their customers instead.

1/13/10: Whew, an overwhelming amount of negative Chase news stories today. You might enjoy this short film entitled Bank of Evil, that features a fictional Chaise bank. (link)

1/13/10: A customer claims that despite refusing to authorize a payment on the phone, twice, Chase went ahead and pulled money from his account at another bank anyways. (story)

1/13/10: Time for a little good news. Chase is opening 24 more home ownership centers to help people with their loan modifications. (link)

1/13/10: Real all about Chase's parallel foreclosure operations, where they start foreclosure procedings in parallel with trying to modify loans with homeowners. I'm all for people being responsible for committments they make, but I also think Chase should be UP FRONT about what it is doing.

1/13/10: I'll leave it up to you to decide if a Senior Vice President of customer service at Chase really said they want their customers to take their business elsewhere. (link)

1/13/10: Really Chase, do you have to be this inflexible? One customers parents died but they won't let him close the account from where he lives; he has to go across the country, which would cost more than the account is worth, to the branch where it was opened. Stupid. (story)

1/13/10: Chase customers, this is how you bank treats it customers. If you lose your job and go through tough financial times, but try everything to make things right, Chase will milk every last penny they can out of you and then still repossess your car. (story)

1/13/10: Is Chase trying to drive the good customers away too? One customer with a Chase credit card was a 10 year customer never late paying. Chase lowered his credit limit. Then, when he went over balance (how the heck can you go over balance, shouldn't charges get rejected?) they raised his interest rate to 30%. (story)

1/12/10: Another of the disqualified organizations for the Chase Facebook charity contest speaks out. They just want Chase to admit they disqualified them because they don't agree with their mission.

1/11/10: Daniel Hill was late a couple of times on his credit card in 2005 and in 2006 Chase jacked up the rate on his card to prime + 20.99%. Apparently they messed with the wrong buy because what followed was a four year legal tussle that ended with Mr. Hill losing on all counts but surely wasting more of Chase's money than the $13,000 or so Chase claimed he owed them at the end. Kind of interesting reading if you have the time. (legal opinion and order)

1/10/10: Here is the Facebook charity scandal (where Chase unilaterally took certain charities they didn't like out of the list of qualified charities for their Facebook charitable giving contest just days before the contest was to end) from the perspective of one of the charities (story)

1/10/10: I understand that banks aren't charities and need to collect from people who aren't current on their loans, but when you tell someone they can pay all their back payments to make their loan current and keep the loan, and then reposess their car anyways, that's just mean. (story)

1/6/10: Oh Chase, can you really be this incompetent and uncaring? A customer goes in to to a branch and pays his mortgage payment in person. They lose the payment. He shows them the receipt, the cancelled check, the statement showing the payment gone from his checking account. They refuse to credit his mortgage account. Only when he contacts the local media and they contact Chase does he get justice. (story)

1/5/10: Now might be a good time to leave Chase an other big banks for a smaller bank, and participate in the Move Your Money campaign to send a message to big banks: "Stop screwing us."

1/5/10: 29 overdraft fees in 27 days, an even Chase can't tell the customer exactly what they were all for. (article)

1/4/10: A funny story from someone that tried to trade in a ripped $5 bill at a Chase branch. Chase refused, of course.

1/4/10: If you are following the lawsuits around the WaMu seizure by the FDIC, the latest article from the Puget Sound Business Journal points to JP Morgan Chase having inside information and planning on an FDIC sale long before it happened.

1/3/10: One Chase customer reports that he has never had holds put on checks deposited via ATM but now all of a sudden deposits are not fully available for some time.

12/30/09: After making all 8 loan modification payments on time or early, one Chase mortgage customer was accidentally (according to Chase) dropped from the program and received a foreclosure letter. (story)

12/30/09: Puerto Rico is a US territory and uses the US dollar as its currency. Why then does Chase charge a 3% surcharge for any credit card purchases made in Puerto Rico to convert purchases to the dollar?

12/27/09: Why is Chase so reluctant to allow you to contact individuals you are working with on an issue with the bank? They seem to go so far as to give you bogus extension numbers just to get you off the phone. (story)

12/24/09: Chase this week settled a class action lawsuit filed against them for charging a post-closing mortgage fee for services they never provided. (story)

12/23/09: Chase announced that they are dropping out of the FDIC's Transaction Account Guarantee Program. This is different than the general FDIC protection for your bank account, but provides additional protection above and beyond the $250k limit of the general FDIC program. This is not a good thing. They are doing this to escape some of the regulations that come with participating in that program. (article)

12/23/09: Chase found a new trick to generate overdraft fees: automatically transfer some of the funds deposited into checking into the account holders savings account. (story)

12/23/09: Apparently one Chase customer became so frustrated with the teller he was working with (my interpretation) that he picked up and three the tellers computer at him. (story)

12/22/09: In search of one of the new Chase ATM's that can take deposits without envelopes, and pring fancy receipts, one customer discovers broken, not fully functional, hard to find, and out of date ATM's. (story)

12/22/09: To clean up their corporate image, Chase started a $5 million charity fund and allowed Facebook users to vote on which charities would receive the funds. But when charities that they didn't like made it into the top 100, they changed the rules to exclude them. You can read more about this here, here, here, and here.

12/22/09: Here is one thing that is NOT Chase's fault: Their brand and URL was one of the three most frequently phished in 2009. So, if you are a Chase customer, be careful about responding to emails that look like they are from Chase. (article)

12/22/09: One Chase Bank visitor was impressed that Chase showed him so much attention trying to sell him their services. I see it as just more annoying sales pitches.

12/20/09: This LA Times article provides yet more evidence that Chase continues to maximize overdraft revenue by rearranging the order debits and deposits are recorded to be as favorable as possible to the bank. Chase claims that next year with its new overdraft policy it will start applying transactions in chronological order (except for checks, which will be biggest first), but for now, they are still up to the same old shenanigans.

12/18/09: From the bizarre but true files, some blogger pointed out that if you search Google for "chase bank logo" right now, this is what shows up. I agree, offensive.

12/18/09: Burried deep in this mans rant about Chase Bank is the real reason Chase has been increasing everyones interest rates: simply to make more money. It has nothing to do with an individuals risk profile.

12/18/09: If you were a WaMu shareholder during the time WaMu was sold to Chase, the good news is that the fight is getting hot. The latest news is that a new suit has been filed against JP Morgan Chase accusing them of intentionally driving down WaMu's share price (article) and WaMu banks former holding company is asking the government to turn over documents related to the bank seizure.

12/15/09: Chase's fancy new envelope free ATMs make an already long wait for funds to be posted to your account even longer if it misreads a check - it mails it back to you and you have to redeposit it in person with a teller. (story)

12/13/09: A funny interraction between an attorney trying to handle a deceased persons account with Chase.

12/12/09: Chase has apparently slipped a little change into September checking account statements for former WaMu customers: In addition to what the out-of-network ATM bank charges you, Chase now charges you $2 for using an out of network ATM. What?

12/12/09: As reported by the Puget Sound Business Journak, the governments reluctance (read, refusal) to release internal communcations regarding the siezure of WaMu is lending more credence to the theory that WaMu should not have been siezed and sold to JP Morgan Chase.

12/12/09: In the Center for Responsible Lending's study on abused by credit card companies, one example is of Chase claiming a payment is late by one day because the due date was on a Sunday and the payment wasn't posted until the following Monday.

12/9/09: From the not sure if this is true department, this anti-Chase rant claims that the BBB evaluated Chase's home mortgage centers and gave them an F.

12/9/09: The madness continues, as evidenced by this guys frustrating experience trying to get an expiring CD cashed out.

12/8/09: Chase reported statistics today on its mortgage modifications. Truly interesting is why Chase is so much more successful at permanently modifying mortgages under its own program than under the government programs. Given the reams of reports from borrowers who insist that Chase keeps losing their paperwork and making them start over, Chase doesn't seem motivated to make the government sponsored mortgage modifcations permanent. One thing is clear, the statistics they reported surely indicate something fishy is going on.

12/8/09: There is growing evidence that WaMu was improperly siezed and sold to JP Morgan Chase, that it had ample liquidity and was adequately capitaized, both measures exceeding regulatory thresholds. (article)

12/7/09: This story from the archives reminds us of why this all started with WaMu: In this case, they drafted a check from the wrong account and then called it fraud rather than admitting their mistake.

12/7/09: This New York Times article on why mortgage modifications fail reads like Chase PR ad copy. Chase claims that the biggest reason the modifications fail is that people fail to file all the correct paperwork; they try and try to get it but people just won't submit everything. This is in stark contrast to all the stories we've found from people claiming that the process drags on for months and months and Chase loses the paperwork multiple times for each borrower and they have to repeatedly start over. You can read some responses to the story here.

12/7/09: More on Chase's loan modification strategy: tell the borrower they are getting approved and then deny them at the last minute. (story)

12/5/09: The site My3Cents.com allows you to review businesses. You would think that this means that some people who "review" a business would have good things to say, but for some reason, all the Chase "reviews" are bad. Hmmm. :)

12/3/09: According to this WSJ article, very few of the 650,000 trial loan modifications issued by banks have been made permanent. It is expected that only 25% to 35% of trial loan modifications will be made permanent. Are trial loan modifications just a way to get more money out of homeowners before foreclosure?

12/3/09: This seems to be a pretty common story with Chase - they close someones credit card and claim that they notified them by mail, but the card holder never got a notification.

12/3/09: Why in the world would Chase be releasing an iPhone app for tracking your gift buying?

12/3/09: Stories from Chase insiders.

12/1/09: Looks like Chase is now enlisting bank tellers to pull the bait-and-switch high pressure sales tactics. This guy (story) was convinced to sign up for a credit line tied to his checking account which turned out to be a credit card, which he didn't want. So he said no thanks, but was signed up anyways by the teller.

12/1/09: Should Chase be worried? Even the WSJ is reporting about the former WaMu parent companies suit against Chase for $4 billion in assets it claims it owns and Chase took inappropriately. (article)

12/1/09: The first (and only at the time of this writing) comment on this story is just classic Chase. The commenter writes that her mom paid Chase faithfully every month, but missed a payment the month she died. That didn't matter to Chase which raised the interest rate on the account from 6% to 29.9%. Get it, the account holder died, but for Chase that isn't a good enough excuse.

11/27/09: I've been arguing for years that there were too many bone headed policies and clueless employees at WaMu, and this story clinches it: WaMu make a second mortgage to O.J. Simpson, despite a $33 million civil judgement against him, because he told them the judgement was no good because he didn't do it.

11/27/09: This story draws into question how well Chase has been able to integrate WaMu's mortgage processing unit into their own system, despite their claim that the integration is done. Anyone out there having problems with thier WaMu mortgage servicing by Chase? :)

11/25/09: As a non-fan of Chase, I can't say I am much of a fan of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, which means I am not a big fan of the recent rumors in the media that he is a possible candidate to replace Treasure Secretary Timothy Giethner. Chase customers, how would you feel having the guy ultimately responsible for all the bone-headed Chase policies being responsible for banking and foreclosure policy, among other things?

11/24/09: Chase's statements about its foreclosure dissected.

11/23/09: This great article from the WSJ talks about the slowing growth in bank overdraft fees and how that is not enough to keep legislation at bay. Good! The best quote from the article is from Congressman Carolyn Maloney who said "... most banks still manipulate the posting order of transactions to maximize fee income." WOW! Given that most big banks would be breaking their own posted rules by doing this, it is HUGE that at least some of our elected leaders are on this.

11/23/09: In a case that might make history, and a lot of trouble for Chase if others copy his tactics, one man might be able to stop Chase's foreclosure of his house and wipe out his mortgage debt because Chase can't produce the deed to his house. (story)

11/23/09: Trial modification = a way for Chase to get a little more money out of you before they deny your trial modification and foreclose. (story)

11/23/09: Chase is playing sneaky with fees with customers trying to refinance or applying for a loan. This story is a great example. If you were charged $750 for an aborted refinance or mortgage application, don't stop until you get your money back.

11/23/09: Another story of people unable to get a clear answer from WaMu/Chase - everyone they talk to gives them different information. (article)

11/20/09: Well this is good news. Chase attempted to have the class action against it for closing HELOC accounts thrown out on the grounds that it didn't owe any responsibility to WaMu customers. The Judge denied their motion. If you are a Chase customer, this is how the company you bank with thinks: they should be allowed to do whatever they want. (article)

11/20/09: More good news: Chase has dropped mandatory arbitration from its credit card contracts. (article) The statistics for arbitration outcomes are really one-sited; about 95% of the outcomes are in favor of the credit card companies. (link) Even some cases where the consumer is obviously right. (article) So this is a very good thing.

11/20/09: Sean was kind enough to send me a phone log of all his calls to WaMu/Chase over the last year trying to get a loan modification. Want to know what it is like dealing with there? Here are the intimate details. (story)

11/20/09: Think your loan mod with WaMu/Chase will go quick? One customer's attempts have gone on two years, with repeatedly lost paperwork. Then Chase without any warning foreclosed and auctioned the house. (story)

11/16/09: For the record, JP Morgan Chase is among the banks sued by a California public utility over allegations of price fixing in municipal derivatives auctions. Yea, I don't know what those are either.

11/16/09: This Marketplace story tells us what the readers of this site already know: Banks are sneaky little tricksters. Chase is one of the sneakiest.

11/15/09: Despite being up-to-date on their trial loan modification, Chase foreclosed on one couples home anyways. The first they found out about it was when the new owner came by to kick them out. Chase later appologized for the mistake. (story)

11/15/09: I guess the days of trusting banks to provide you with all the information you need to make wise financial decisions are over. A couple in Texas put a stop payment on a check the the banks website after looking up the business on the BBB and finding an F rating. Turns out that Texas law says stop payments are only good for six months, and the owner of the business they wrote the check to cashed it 6 months and 6 days after the stop order was placed. Chase denies all responsibility and points to their policy on stop payments. Unfortunately, none of that information was provided online when the stop payment was placed. (story)

11/15/09: Don't quite know what to make of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's recent comments. It sounds like he wants to be allowed to be too big, and to be allowed to fail if they screw up. Does that give ANYONE confidence?

11/15/09: Chase doesn't have time for the small details. (story)

11/15/09: A Chase credit card call center employee admits that they are never allowed to reverse late charges, even if it is their fault. (story)

11/12/09: Our friends at the Federal Reserve have issued new rules for banks that force all banks to provide overdraft protection on accounts only if the account holder has explicitly opted-in. The new rules take effect next July. Great. Haven't regulators learned that giving banks plenty of time before a rule takes effect allows them to find ways to work around the rules before the take effect? We saw this with the new rules on credit cards that take effect in January. Most banks raised rates before the new rules take effect or converted accounts to variable rates to get around the new rules.

11/10/09: Chase to hire 1,200 new loan officers. Translation: when Chase is done foreclosing on its current customers, it's going to need new ones.

11/10/09: What a great quote from this article: "The nation's second-largest bank [Chase] said a new law that limits unfair rate hikes and hidden fees will cost it as much as $750 million a year." Wow, so being fair makes Chase lose money.

11/9/09: Quote of the week: In talking about the change Chase is implementing next year that allows customers to OPT OUT of overdraft protection on their debit cards, Chase spokesman Mike Fusco says "There's been a lot of growth in debit card usage, so that's why we're changing." No Mike, if you don't allow people to opt out of overdraft charges soon, Congress is going to skewer you with new laws, that's why you are changing. (article)

11/7/09: How does a Chase card with a 23.4% APR (for a low balance, on-time, more-than-minimum paying customer mind you) show an effective APR of 47.4%? Perhaps only Chase knows. (story)

11/5/09: When Chase closes your credit card account because you don't make them enough money, why don't they just say so, rather than saying you are too high of a credit risk when it just isn't true. (story)

11/4/09: One Chase customer got 29 overdraft charges in 27 days. For the life of him, he can't figure out why. All this happened on October, and he received 7 overdrafts in one day despite Chase's announce in late September that they would stop charging more than 6 per day. A close analysis of his deposits versus his debits may be the smoking gun that proves that Chase micromanages deposits and debits to maximize overdraft fees.

11/4/09: One shocking thing I come across almost weekly is the simply rediculous number of times some Chase branch somewhere is robbed. Here is one, two, and three roberies just this week alone! For all that I like to point out the failings of Chase Bank, my best wishes go out to Chase employees to keep out of harms way.

11/3/09: Ouch! Another Chase teller arrested for stealing money from a customers account.

11/3/09: Finally some good news having to do with Chase. As a fan of the iPhone, I can say I am a little bit jealous that Chase now has an iPhone app, which has gotten at least one good review. I love my bank, but an iPhone app would be nice.

11/2/09: This is odd: One Chase customer reports that Chase collections have been calling him and immediately hanging up. They then write whatever made-up notes about the call that didn't happen they want. (story)

11/1/09: (Don't forget to turn your clock back 1 hour) My favorite recent Twitter search results for "chase sucks": "Geocities called. Even they think your site sucks." :) The most common complaint found there seems to be how much people dislike Chase's online interface. It is hard to measure, but it seems like the volume of "chase sucks" tweets has gone up dramatically in the last couple of months. In one tweet, someone acutally counted the number of tweets for an against Chase (12 for vs 294 against).

10/31/09: (Happy Halloween) Here is an article that specifically provides information on dealing with Chase on a short sale. It seems as if Chase has seen the light and realizes that in many cases approving a short sale quickly will save them quite a bit as compared to foreclosure.

10/31/09: Steve had an overdraft but they waited three business days to put a notice in the MAIL while he got charged daily overdraft fees. Is Chase doing this to make more in overdraft fees? Why didn't they call him? My current bank (First Republic) calls me within an hour if there is an insufficient funds situation. (story)

10/30/09: When someone posts how much they hate Chase on the Arcad Museum forums, and no-one complains, it means most people agree.

10/30/09: This story of someone seening a loan mod from Chase is a good example of how incompetent and frustrating the process is. They tell you everything is good until they deny you.

10/30/09: Here is one customer complaining of a lot of WaMu branches being closed near them. Have they closed branches near you?

10/29/09: One part of Chase must not be talking to another. They sent one couple consolidation checks along with their credit card statement. You know, the kind where you can pay off another credit card? They deposited one of these checks for over $3,000 to catch up on some bills, still leaving them well under their credit limit and proceeded to write checks against the deposit. Chase changed their minds and decided to not honor the check and lower their credit limit. Bounced check and overdraft fee galore. Not very nice Chase! (story)

10/29/09: This is strange. Chase swallowed up Bank One back in 2004. This person had a previous Bank One account that had been overdrawn back in 2003 but the bad debt had already been written off and the account closed. At some point they opened a Chase account, Chase put two and two together, and without warning satisfied the old Bank One bad debt by taking it out of their Chase account. Have a nice day!

10/29/09: Here is one persons story about how they got WaMu to accept $24,500 as payment in full on a $165,000 HELOC. This is a lesson for everyone dealing with WaMu on issues like this: persistence.

10/28/09: Could this happen at any bank, or are Chase's internal controls too lax? A Chase investment advisor is in jail after being accused of stealing a six figure sum from a clients account. (story)

10/28/09: Here is a very detailed inside look at the last days before WaMu was siezed and sold in September 2008.

10/27/09: A two part series in the Seattle Times about WaMu (part1 part2) calls WaMu a predatory company because of how much they pushed inappropriate mortgage products on consumers. Perhaps when speaking to Chase loan modification folks, mentioning the predatory nature of how YOUR loan was set up might make them a little more willing to work with you.

10/27/09: Here is an interesting summary of all the lawsuits the former WaMu holding company has brought against JP Morgan Chase and the FDIC.

10/26/09: Oops! Chase went and raised the interest rate to an unconscionable 21.24% on a Ann Minch, who just happens to have fought a very public battle with Bank of America about the exact same thing (and won) and founded an organization called Debtors Revolt. Chase, perhaps you should be a little more sensitive about who not to annoy. (story)

10/26/09: Is YouTube the new way to communicate with your bank? (story)

10/24/09: Chase gets you if you pay late, we know that. Now they get you if you pay too early too. (story)

10/24/09: More drama as the former WaMu holding company asks a judge to make JP Morgan Chase return $4 Billion in money it says belongs the them and was illegally siezed. (story)

10/24/09: If you live in Nevada, a new Nevada law lets you force your bank into mediation before they foreclose on you. Here is a story about one guy that did it to Chase.

10/21/09: We've previously reported on Chase's automatic overdraft protection and how they plan to change it to opt-in early next year. What is unclear is whether it is possible to opt-out now. According to this article, they don't allow customers to opt-out at this time but we have seen other sources that indicate you can opt-out. The one best thing you can do to save yourself money is to call them and try to opt-out of the automatic overdraft protection for debit cards.

10/21/09: There is a new class-action lawsuit going after abusive overdraft fees that includes JP Morgan Chase. (press release) If you are interested in joining the lawsuite, go here.

10/21/09: Here is another site dedicated to sharing Chase frustrations.

10/21/09: Another reason not to bank with Chase: they have draconian penalties associated with early withdrawl from a CD. (story)

10/21/09: Think WaMu was the only part of Chase that was doing mortgage shenanigans? This story might convince you otherwise.

10/19/09: Not sure how much Chase paid for the positive spin to be added to this story in the Orlando Sentinal, but it says such humorously untruths as (with regards to the former WaMu branches):

"... Chase has been focused on stopping the bleeding, healing the wounds and restoring healthy growth to the former WaMu branches."

From the stories we get, it would seem that Chase has been doing anything but trying to keep the former WaMu customers from leaving.

10/18/09: Did Chase foreclose on a property without informing the borrowers? (story)

10/15/09: Diana discovered an old CD and a bank book from banks that were swallowed by WaMu, before WaMu was swallowed by Chase. Now she can't get anyone to help her get the almost $2,500 that is rightfully hers. (story)

10/14/09: JP Morgan Chase reports a strong profit for the third quarter. While investors may love JPMC, the comments on this story about their 3rd quarter profits are typical of what every else things about them. (Hint, people don't like them)

10/12/09: This is a little funny: some unhappy Chase customer created a user on Twitter called J_P_MorganChase to share their discontent.

10/12/09: Goodbye WaMu, and thanks for all the memories. A 12 year customer leaves and they don't even ask why? (story)

10/12/09: If location, location, location are the three most important things in real estate, the three most important things in getting a Chase loan modification must be wait, wait, wait. (story)

10/10/09: Think Chase is hard to work with getting a loan modificaiton on a 1st mortgage? A 2nd can be even harder. (story)

10/4/09: If you are going to refinance with Chase, beware, their $750 application fee is NON-REFUNDABLE, even if they reject your application or your refinance takes TEN MONTHS, like it did for this couple. To be fair, the other couple in the story did manage to pester Chase to return their fee but I think cointacting the media had something to do with it.

10/2/09: Here is in interesting article that says, basically, if you are a WaMu credit card customer, Chase doesn't want you.

10/2/09: Here is a guy that after 5 years of a perfect Chase credit card payment history, is 3 days late with the payment for the $25 balance on his card. So Chase jacks his rate up to 26.99%. Seriously Chase? Is this person really a risk or are you just trying to get rid of all your customers now? (story)

9/30/09: Here is one angry homeowner that posted a video extoling the depths of her frustrations with Chase's loan modification program. While the video is rather funny, it is typical of the frustrations that people are having with Chase's loan modifications.

9/30/09: Here is a radio broadcast entitled, The Fall of WaMu, One Year Later, which examines the aftereffects of the WaMu seizure and sale to Chase. Some highlights if you don't want to listen to the hour long program:

• People who experienced a smooth transition from WaMu to Chase are in the Minority.
• Huge numbers of WaMu customers have left WaMu since 2007.
• There is still an overall outflow of WaMu customers now (more leaving then joining).
• The largest number of people still planning on leaving their bank (of any bank) are Chase customers.
• Former WaMu customers still identify themselves asWaMu customers, not Chase customers.
• The largest number of customers leaving WaMu headed for a credit union, followed by Wells Fargo.

9/30/09: The permanent Chase sign is up at my local WaMu branch in Menlo Park, CA, but WaMu still lives on there in Google Maps street view. (signs)

9/30/09: For what it's worth, a Judge has ruled against JP Morgan Chases argument that he does not have jurisdiction in the case of Washington Mutual Inc (former owners of WaMu bank) vs JP Morgan Chase to recover some $4B in funds that WaMu Inc had deposited with WaMu bank.

9/25/09: I recently checked our web logs and discovered that we've had 473 pageviews from chase.com IP addresses over the last 12 months. I can only hope they are learning something from all the complaints posted here. Chase, for the record, I'd like nothing more than for you to become a better bank. We need some standup banks in this country.

9/25/09: Here is another blog dedicated to Chase's home finance unit sucking.

9/25/09: Happy one year anniversary of your seizure by the FDIC and sale to JP Morgan Chase WaMu!

9/23/09: Customers love the deposit drop box. It is simple and quick and it just works. So why did Chase rip out all of the WaMu deposit drop boxes? Because it is their corporate policy (story)

9/23/09: Even as bad as I thought WaMu was, I would here an occasional story about a well run branch that people liked. Here is one person who liked their WaMu experience and now hates what it has become with Chase. It has a good summary of what has changed with Chase (story)

9/23/09: Here is a pretty good anti-Chase rant that makes a lot of sense.

9/23/09: Ahead of (and in response to) a bill in Congress that will limit overdraft and other bank fees, Chase and BofA announced overdraft fee and debit policy changes. The changes for Chase include no overdraft if an account is overdrawn by $5 of less and a maximum of 3 overdraft penalties per day instead of 6. They will also start handling debits chronologically rather than lumping them together at the end of the day and processing the largest amounts first. Chages to take effect in the 1st quarter in 2010. The NYT article also claims that Chase will begin allowing people to turn off automatic overdraft protection, although their disclosure statement seems to indicate this is already possible.

Bottom line: it is still possible to rack up significant overdraft fees using a debit card. Chase and other banks need to stop automatically enrolling customers in these overdraft protection schemes. (WSJ & NYT)

Update: according to this LA Times article, Chase will in fact still process the largest charges first, giving you more of a chance of an overdraft. The article also says Chase is switching to opt-in for overdraft protection, but doesn't say what will happen to existing accounts (i.e. will they turn it off if you never asked for it in the first place).

9/23/09: Clueless or malicious? Guy Strickland paid off his WaMu equity line after losing his home in a fire. By California law, early payment penalties are not allowed after a home is lost in a disaster. Chase corporate even gave him a letter waiving fee. But when he went into a local WaMu branch, they refused to waive the prepayment penalty despite the letter and the law. He took them to small claims and won. He sent the Sheriff with a court order to collect the money. They refused. It was only after a reporter started poking around that Chase corporate refunded him the money and sent an appology letter. (story)

9/23/09: In a similar story, WaMu took someones loan application fee even though they didn't offer the type of loan the person wanted. They refused to refund the money until reporters started asking questions.

9/22/09: A story in yesterday's NPR Marketplace claims that banks are racheting up debit card fees to make up for lost revenue from credit card fees. Among the big fee generators is overdraft protection, something that comes enabled for most new checking acocunts and generates about $38 Billion a year for banks. The story also claims that many banks do not allow you to turn off overdraft protection. According to Chase's checking account disclosure, you CAN turn it off but you must visit a branch or put the request in writing. Our most important tip to Chase customers is TURN OFF AUTOMATIC OVERDRAFT PROTECTION! It will bit you sooner or later.

9/21/09: This fridary 9/25 is the one year anniversary of WaMu's seizure by the FDIC and sale to JP Morgan Chase. This is a good time to reflect on whether things have gotten better or worse under Chase than they were under WaMu. In the past year I haven't heard a single story about a WaMu customer being pleased that their bank is now Chase.

9/19/09: More lawsuits against Chase for revoking home equity lines. The latest one in California.

9/18/09: Charles sent his credit card payment to the address listed on his credit card companies website. That company also handled some cards for WaMu. Somehow the payment ended up in WaMu's hands and they cashed the check even though it wasn't made out to them. Now they won't give the money back. (story)

9/17/09: Chase is launching the new blueprint credit card that allows you to separate and pay off certain types of purchases, such as groceries, each month (your Full Pay categories), while carrying a balance for other purchases. It gives you tools to set goals for paying off large purchases over time. Most importantly, it waves the interest between the date of purchase and the due date on Full Pay category purchases. Oh wait, my Bank of America credit card (and most other cards) already does this, it's called THE GRACE PERIOD! Nice try Chase.

9/16/09: There is no way around it, debit cards are dangerous - not only do you risk overdraft fees for many small charges if you banks automatic overdraft protection is in place, but disputing a charge can be infinitely harder than with a credit card. If you do have to dispute a charge, here is a handy guide. The best advice we can give you is to stay away from using debits cards for purchases. If you do need to use a payment card, use your credit card instead and pay the bill as soon as it comes to avoid fees.

9/16/09: If you have never taken a cash advance on your card, pay your bill on time, and don't use your card often enough, Chase claims you are a high risk and will raise your interest rate. (story)

9/12/09: One California homeowner (and fire victim) was charged a cancellation fee for paying off his home equity line, despite that practice being against CA law. He informed WaMu/Chase about the law, but they were clueless. He took them to court, but they didn't show. He contacted the press, and Chase finally said they would do someting about it. Is that what is necessary to get Chase to get a clue?

9/11/09: According to this article, Chase may be more willing to negotiate to help customers get out of debt. It is worth a try.

9/10/09: This Business Week article details how banks (including Chase) are adapting to the new credit card rules by adding new fees to make up for the onese they lose control over. My bottom line suggestion: pay attention to your card and the notices you get. Don't be afraid to switch to a better card from a better bank.

9/10/09: On a smaller note, Chase apparently lost a backup tape with customer personal information on it. But, surely this could happen to anyone.

9/10/09: Read the comment on tnis blog post to find out why Chase won't every be your local bank.

9/9/09: Consumer's Union has joined two other organizations in calling on Chase to stop raising minimum payment terms from 2% of the outstanding balance to 5%. Chase agrees to drop the minimum payment back down to 2% on loans with a guaranteed low interest rate only if customers agree to a doubling of their interest rate. Low minimum payments are a scheme originally cooked up by credit card companies to get customers to remain in debt and therefore pay more interest and other fees (see the Secret History of the Credit Card for more info).

9/7/09: (Happy Labor Day) WaMu gives a guy an equity line credit card on a house he already sold instead of a regular credit card, freaks out when they find out about the mistake, sues him, the stress causes him to have a heart attack. They finally admit THEY made a mistake, and then are seized and sold the Chase. Now he is in limbo. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up. (story)

9/7/09: Here is one couple's experience from when their WaMu account was transitioned to Chase:

• Savings account overdraft protection was unlinked without notice
• Debit cards stopped working before new ones arrived
• Deposits used to be available same day, now multi-day holds are placed
• Auto bill-pay stopped working so bills that should have gotten paid didn't

9/5/09: WaMu/Chase claims to put a longer hold on deposits made via ATM. (story)

9/3/09: Here is a blog chronicaling someones experience trying to short sell their house. What is interesting is the entry on Sept 2nd that says "WaMu's computer system down/updating until 9/4." Wow, pretty terrible to tell a customer "we can't help you because our computer will be down for two days."

9/3/09: JD Powers & Associates released their 2009 credit card survey, which rates credit cards by surveying 9000 users. No surprise, WaMu rated very low. What is a surprise however is that Chase rated much higher (but only industry average). Relative to the 2008 survey, Chase is about the same but WaMu has dropped a ton. It seems that Chase is trashing the credit card holders it picked up from WaMu but holding steady with its own card holders. American Express seems to be the best of the lot as it has rated far higher than others for the last three years.

9/2/09: I've made no secret of the fact that I thought WaMu was a poorly run organization and had terrible customer service BEFORE they were sold to Chase. But when the WaMu fanboys (and girls) cry foul since Chase took over, you know things are getting bad. (story)

9/2/09: Chase, the place where incompetence meets malfeasance. (story)

8/31/09: Liz was told by a Chase bank employee that because she didn't have a high value account, they didn't care if she stayed with the bank or not. (link)

8/31/09: One of the things WaMu has historically been particularly bad with is if you are using your account in a different state than where you opened it. This has gotten exponentially worse as Chase converts WaMu branches in different states at different times. A recent blog entry by a WaMu customer confirms this and shows many other problems from badly trained WaMu & Chase staff.

8/31/09: Despite J.P. Morgans claim of processing lots of mortgage modifications, from customer perspectives, it still looks like nothing is happening, as evidenced by this discussion on the LoanSafe.org loan modification forums; lost paperwork, lack of call back, delay after delay, and clueless staff.

8/26/09: This makes perfect sense: Chase is giving away $20 for people that sign up for automatic payments with their debit card. According to the Center for Responsible Lending's Debit Card Danger document, banks steer customers to use debit cards because all new accounts are signed up for automatic overdraft protection, which leads to huge amounts of overdraft fees, primarily from debit card use. Using debit cards for automatic payments will just create more overdrafts and thus more fees.

8/26/09: But then again, perhaps there is a silver lining. A blogger over at About.com claims that if you have one of those Chase overdraft days, where you use your debit card at 5 or 6 different places and each one gets you an overdraft charge (called a rolling overdraft), Chase will often reverse all the the first overdraft. Worth a try.

8/25/09: A source who regularly attends foreclosure auctions, the ones held on the courthosue steps when a property is first foreclosed upon, says that WaMu/Chase are among the banks that are dumping properties at these auctions at below market value just to get rid of them. Not very positive indicator of their desire to mitigate foreclosures.

8/21/09: Chase is just determined to prove it can do whatever it wants. After getting a change in rate notice, this guy decided to opt out of the change and close his account. They changed the rate anyways on his balance as he paid it down.

8/21/09: Here is a story about a guy who got caught by Chase's famously long deposit hold policy but managed to get all overdraft fees reversed by talking to Chase executive customer service (see phone numbers listed under our front page, other information).

8/21/09: Why is Chase targeting people searchging for WaMu overdraft information on Google AdSense? Seems like the least likely audience to me. (article)

8/21/09: If you take a check you've received that is drawn on WaMu/Chase to a WaMu/Chase branch to cash it, and don't have an account with them, they will charge you a $6 fee. (story)

8/20/09: A lawsuit has been filed against Chase for violating Federal lending laws in their use of automated and inaccurate valuation methods when they cut peoples home equity lines. The suit is seeking class action status. If you've had your equity line cut by Chase, you may want to try and get on board. (article)

8/19/09: In this compilation of mortgage modification nightmare stories, one writer claims WaMu/Chase lost their papers NINE TIMES! (link)

8/19/09: Here is a case where WaMu auctioned off the wrong house by mistake. Apparently, the clerk of the court made a mistake, but shouldn't WaMu have caught it? (story and story)

8/17/09: Here is a story of a guy that fell one month behind on the mortgage on his apartment building in Harlem in 2008, then made every effort to make good. WaMu/Chase refused every subsequent payment he sent, and didn't notify him that they had filed foreclosure proceedings. Why did they do this? One theory is that they wanted to foreclose because the building was worth more than the mortgage. Luckily, the judge saw through this. (story)

8/14/09: Don't count on Chases $0 Liability Fraud Coverage to actually cover any fraud with all the loopholes the've left themselves. (story)

8/14/09: 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)

8/13/09: 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.

8/12/09: From the recent growth in news stories, blog posts, complaints we get, and even now mainstream TV news coverag, 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.

8/12/09: Another unreasonable deposit hold time resulting in bounced check charges story. I get so many of them. (story)

8/12/09: 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 pur a 5 day hold on a payment, presumably so more over limit fees would pile up. (article)

8/10/09: 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.

8/7/09: 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)

8/6/09: A new class action claims that Chase isn't honoring the terms of its auto loans, specifically, the clauses about auto reposession. (article)

8/6/09: One WaMu/Chase customer reports that since her checking/savings statements have started coming from Chase, there are tons of errors, which, according to her local brand representative, are "because of the computer switchover." Be sure and check your statements for accuracy. (article)

8/2/09: This is the WaMu/Chase the we so despise: you apply for a loan modification (100+ pages) but have to wait two weeks to receive an acknowledgement that the fax was even received. (article)

8/20/09: Sleazy no matter how you slice it - a group of former WaMu execs are suing the FDIC to get their golden parachutes. Yup, this is the same group responsible for the subprime loans and the horrible customer service. (article)

8/1/09: One agry WaMu customer, after getting hit with $1,200 in overdraft fees in 8 months because of WaMu's unnecessarily long deposit holds and ATM overdraft fees suggests the following: continue to order free checks from WaMu month after month (you can only order once a month). It isn't much, but perhaps it will help you feel like you are getting some of your money back.

8/1/09: Oh, this is just too precious. WaMu used to traded on the NYSE as 'WM'. This ticker symbol is now being taken over by Waste Management. That goes right along with what most people thing of the bank. (article)

7/31/09: I've written about Chase raising minumum payments before, but what gets me about this article is how they characterise chase: "Chase is clearly earning a reputation as the bank that practices tough love with customers and isn't shy about shaking them down for extra cash." Yup, that's the LA Times talking. (article)

7/29/09: Alan really got screwed by WaMu - he did everything right, they did everything wrong, and his credit got screwed as a result. This is a cautionary tale for us all: MAKE SURE WAMU IS DOING WHAT THEY TELL YOU THEY ARE DOING! It might be a good idea to double and triple check what anyone there tells you. Document every interaction you have with them. (story)

7/29/09: From the files of whether the seizure of WaMu and sale to Chase made things worse for WaMu customers, a judge has ruled that Washington Mutual Inc (i.e. the former bank holding company that is now just a shell) may go ahead of its investigation of JP Morgan Chase for evidence that Chase sabotaged WaMu in order to get its assets. (story)

7/29/09: How stupid does Chase things students are? They offer anyone a $100 bonus for signing up for a checkign accounts but have a new deal for students that only gives them $25?

7/29/09: On WaMu loans that Chase services (but doesn't own) it appears to be modifying interest rates no lower than its own servicing fee percentage. (story)

7/29/09: Best excuse yet: Chase tells a customer that overdraft fees are from WaMu and there is nobody left from WaMu with the authority to overturn them. (story)

7/28/09: Unconfirmed rumor says that when your WaMu account is integrated into Chase.com, it will only include a few months of historical data. Be sure to download all your data NOW! (link)

7/28/09: Do you have a car loan with Chase that features automatic withdrawls from your bank account? If you pay it off early, make sure you call them to ask them to stop withdrawing payments every month from your bank account or they will continue to do so for the original term of the loan. I can't decide if this is just stupid red tape or actual stealing. (story)

7/25/09: Here's a link to complaints about Chase credit cards over at consumerist.com (318 pages of them since April 2006).

7/25/09: I previously reported on Chase's unwillingness to believe a customer's fairly obviously believable claim that their ATM card info had been stolen. In this case, WaMu/Chase doesn't believe the customer despite that fact that the police caught the thief. Incidentally, this story has some excellent commentary that outlines how to complain about WaMu/Chase to their regulators.

7/25/09: More evidence that the switchover from WaMu to Chase is having problems: WaMu customers in 4 states were not able to access their accounts through ATMs for 90 minutes on Friday (story)

7/23/09: Latest Chase strategy: closing the credit card accounts of low and high risk former WaMu customers alike, and in some cases not telling them. (story)

7/22/09: Frances was a WaMu customer, is now a Chase customer, and is told by Chase that she will be charged to use any ATM but the ones that were formely WaMu. (story) Any one else having this problem?

7/22/09: Now you can follow people's tweets about chase at #chasesucks or chase+bank. A lot of people have bad things to say about Chase on Twitter.

7/22/09: Has chase unilaterally altered the terms of their low-fee/no-fee savings accounts and started charging a monthly fee without telling account holders? (story)

7/22/09: The exit of two major arbitration firms from hearing consumer credit disputes (WSJ article and analysis of the implications) means that if you challenge WaMu/Chase to artibrate your dispute, they may not be able to find an artibrator in a timely fashion, giving you more leverage against them and the possiblity to sue them in a real court. Go get em' tiger!

7/21/09: Cheryl was a loyal happy WaMu customer for 23 years with perfect credit and over 50% equity in her house. She started a refi process in Jan 09 and was charged $875 for the privilege of applying for a refi. Since then, Chase has continuously dropped the ball and still hasn't completed the refi. (story)

7/20/09: Charles is another person, like me, that decided to do something about his bank's bad behavior. Read all about his struggle to get $165 in bad charges back from Chase in his blog.

7/20/09: This analysis is one possible explanation of why J.P. Morgan Chase's report second quarter profits are due to an accounting rule and not an indicator of a healthy bank.

7/20/09: Here is an example of how to write a letter to your State's Attorney General to complain about Chase's changei n minimum payment requirment.

7/16/09: If you feel that you have been ripped off or treated unfairly by WaMu/Chase contact Melinda to have your story included in a documentary about WaMu/Chase: bankdocumentary@gmail.com.

7/16/09: SCAM ALERT - Chase is apparently mailing out "leisure rewards" debit cards that carry a $25 yearly fee in such a way as to confuse people into believing they are simply activating a replacement debit card. (story)

7/15/09: People are resorting to complaining about WaMu/Chase on Craigslist now. (rant, or here if expired)

7/15/09: The new Chase page to welcome WaMu customers, or, a study in how to say something without actually saying anything.

7/15/09: Chase is among the banks with the worst overdraft policy according to this USA Today article.

7/15/09: Chuck is a software engineer that has worked for banks and claims that big banks routinely and knowingly break the law. He started a blog to discuss is dissatisfaction wth Chase. (blog)

7/14/09: Chase blame a large minimum payment requirement on a HELOC loan on a computer glitch. Another "transition isn't going well" antecdotal story. (story)

7/12/09: What would you do if WaMu/Chase accidentally credited you $500? (story)

7/12/09: Another customers is driven away by problems from the WaMu is becoming Chase transition. (story)

7/10/09: When your bank screws up, and you can't get money as a result, you would expect them to bend over backwards to make things right? Not WaMu. Milissa's nightmare began with someone elses check being drawn against her account, resulting in a bunch of overdrafts and no balance to withdraw. (story)

7/9/09: After reading Jenny's story you'll wonder if you can believe anything WaMu/Chase tells you when you are trying to get a loan modification.

7/9/09: If I understand the legalese correctly, Raymon and Rhonda Payne have been able to keep WaMu from forclosing on their property since 2003 by continuously filing motions in the courts. (story)

7/7/09: This is creepy. Is Chase intentionally making it hard to request a copy of the cardmember agreement? (story)

7/6/09: Is it Chase policy for tellers to discretely collect personal information about customers through friendly conversation? (story)

7/6/09: Chase claims to have approved 138,000 loand modifications, so why can't Deanna get the straight story on hers? (article)

7/6/09: Luke has ordered checks 5 times but they can't seem to get them to him. This is a very typical example of the WaMu incompetence people have been experiencing for years and has intensified as the few smart people left as WaMu crashed and burned. (story)

7/5/09: Of all the things WaMu and Chase have done, changing credit card minimum payments form 2% to 5% is really getting a lot of negative attention, like Bloggers Against Chase. There are also many lawsuits against Chase for this.

7/2/09: Heres WaMu from a realtor's perspective - gumming up the works in a short sale. (link) For the record WaMu/Chase may be the worst as noted by the realtor, but they certainly aren't the only bank holding second mortgages that are killing short sales with unrealistic expectations.

7/1/09: It sure seems like Chase is fishing around to see what they can get away with. For instance, are they raising minimum payment amounts from 2% to 5% to get people to default so they will have more cause to raise interest rates? (article, article, and article)

7/1/09: An important milestone happened on Monday - the US Supreme court made a rulling that will effect States ability to regulate Federally chartered banks, like Chase. The moral of this story is it may be time to start complaining to your State's Attorey General and Department of Consumer Affairs.

7/1/09: A look at reasons for joining a credit union instead of a bank.

7/1/09: Old WaMu free checking overdraft commercial reminds us of something that never really existed - WaMu waiving an overdraft.

6/30/09: It may not work, but you must admire this blogger for trying to get help against Chase for raising his minimum required payment by contacting his states Attorney General and Senator.

6/30/09: Chase is claiming to have approved 138,000 trial mortgage modifications since April 9th. This sounds like a lot but will someone explain to me what a trial modifications is? (article)

6/26/09: This heartbreaking story seems to confirm WaMu/Chase's ranking as least helpful with loan modifications.

6/20/09: Apparently transitioning account from WaMu to Chase is not going smoothly. (story) Here is some of what is happening:
- Link to savings for overdraft protection disabled
- Bills set to auto-pay not going through
- Debit card stops working before new one arrives
- Deposited funds availability takes longer

6/20/09: More lawsuits have been filed against Chase for suspending HELOC (home equity) accounts. (story) This is good news as it puts pressure on Chase to start behaving reasonably.

6/18/09: Katherine's experience tells us that chaos still reigns at WaMu/Chase. (story)

6/17/09: Chase has apparently transitioned all of its WA, OR, ID, and UT WaMu branches fully over to Chase branches. (article) That's great unless you opened your account in one of those states but now live in another state, in which case a former WaMu branch can't help you nor can a Chase branch. (blog)

6/11/09: An Ohio group claims that every other bank except Chase has been helping borrowers in trouble. (article)

6/11/09: WaMu/Chase refuses to cover fraudulent credit card charges, a story we have heard before. (article)

6/10/09: Did Chase illegally freeze or reduce your home equity line? At least one person has filed a lawsuit against Chase for this.

6/10/09: If you have a WaMu or Chase home loan and are facing foreclosure, here is some information on finding the right people at Chase to talk to.

6/3/09: Reminder: for former WaMu customers some or all banking functions (such as making a deposit at an ATM) are only avilable at Chase branches which were formerly WaMu branches until possibly September. (article)

6/2/09: If you have a home equity line (HELOC) with WaMu/Chase, you shoud educate yourself on Regulation Z, which limits under what circumstances they can change your terms, including your credit limit. (link)

5/30/09: WaMu mortgage holders, now is a good time to check to see if your due date has changed as your account gets moved over to the Chase systems. One blogger has their due date moved up without warning. (blog)

5/28/09: WaMu customers beware! Your debit card doesn't work like you think it does. When your account has no more money, charges will still go through and you will get charged a $34 overdraft for every single transaction. They will use the slowest possible method to contact you to let you know there is a problem. WaMu calls this a courtesy and apparently you can't turn it off. (story) Update: this article notes that most overdrafts are triggered by small-dollar debit card transactions.

5/28/09: A blog posting titled "WaMu and Chase: Should you stay or should you go?" got quite a few comments, 95% of which said they were leaving WaMu/Chase. These are the people that liked WaMu! (blog)

5/27/09: WaMu refuses to refund Mindi what was clearly fraud from card skimming. Read this story to learn more about what to do when the bank refuses to do the right thing. (story)

5/26/09: Adding more fuel to the question about whether WaMu was siezed improperly by the FDIC and then sold to Chase, JP Morgan Chasse may have written down WaMu assets by $29 billion too much. If it wasn't as bad as they thought, should WaMu have been siezed, causing all this transitionary turmoil for WaMu customers? (article, article, and article)

5/24/09: In Forresters 2008 Customer Experience Rankings, Washington Mutual fell to 90th place out of 114. Chase didn't fare much better at 88th place.

5/23/09: Not sure what this means for customers (change in card number?), but Chase is moving all the WaMu debit cards from Mastercard to Visa (article)

5/22/09: Want to see what a WaMu loan modification approval and letter looks like? You can find one here.

5/21/09: A Federal district court ruled that while Chase can raise credit card interest rates as high as it wants, for any reason that it wants, it must disclose the reasons why it might raise rates and the rates it would use "clearly and conspicuously" in the cardholder agreement in such a way that a "reasonable cardholder would notice and understand." (article)

5/21/09: One WaMu customer writes that she can't make deposits into her formerly WaMu account at Chase branches yet. (blog)

5/20/09: Stories like Diane's make me wonder if WaMu/Chase is just paying lip service to loan modifications and just planning to foreclose on people anyways. (story) And here is another woman who was foreclosed upon by mistake. (article)

5/17/09: Shoud I file this under incompetence or sleazyness? One WaMu home loan customer was working towards a loan modification and was told by WaMu that a trustee sale was postponed. WaMu sold the property anyways. (story)

5/15/09: A critique of Chase's website, on flickr. (Hint, roll over the image for comments.)

5/15/09: Why are Chase/Wamu refi's taking so long to complete? (blog)

5/14/09: Finally some good news from Chase: they have extended bank hours for some 2500 branches, (including 700 in CA starting June 1st). (article, press release)

5/13/09: Sleazy business, charging customers $500 early cancellation fees on "No Fee" home equity lines, WaMu. (story)

5/12/09: Bad news for people with WaMu mortgages in arrears: they appear to be seriously stepping up foreclosure activity. (article)

5/11/09: Just getting a mortgage refinance estimate from WaMu/Chase will cost you $750, non-refundable. (article)

5/11/09: While I am clearly no fan of the pre-FDIC-seizure WaMu due to their bad customer service, there are more and more questions about whether they deserved to be seized by the FDIC and sold to Chase for a song, something which probably wasn't good for WaMu's customers. The latest fuel for this fire is the results of the JP Morgan Chase stress tests. (link)

5/4/09: What? Really? WaMu/Chase charges you an insufficient funds fee if a check you deposit into your account (from someone else) bounces? Now that's just greedy. (blog)

4/30/09: One person is getting harassing calls from WaMu before the late date for a home loan they have not missed a payment on in 5 years. Are you getting these calls? (link)

4/28/09: When even the avowed non-complainers are quitting WaMu due to Chases agressive fee increases and the like, you know the transition is not going well. (link)

4/27/09: I personally find the new Chase commercial for California suspiciously devoid of actually saying anything good about the bank.

4/27/09: Swearing at Chase customer service representatives will only get someting put on your permangent record. (story)

4/24/09: Fed up with WaMu/Chase? Lots of people are bailing on banks for credit unions, which are not-for-profit organizations and don't suffer from the same greed motivations that banks do. (article) Smaller local banks are another option. (post)

4/24/09: Wow, Chase pissed off this person so much the started their own protest site dedicated to getting Chase to reverse its minimum payment and interest rate increase on credit cards.

4/23/09: All banks are trying to milk their credit card customers for as much as they can to make up for record defaults. Don't stand for it!

4/23/09: WaMu branches may look like Chase now, but under the hood they don't seem to be yet. One customer tried to deposit a check into a Chase account at a WaMu branch; it had to get mailed to a "real" Chase branch for deposit. (link)

4/20/09: Sigh. It just doesn't seem to be getting any better at WaMu/Chase. Peter had a nightmare of a time trying to clean up the mess from attempting to use his debit card for a large purchase . (story)

4/19/09: John hated Chase and left for WaMu. Now he finds himself back with Chase, which charges him overdraft fees even when he has sufficient funds in his account. (story)

4/18/09: Chase expects to write off between 18% & 25% of the WaMu credit card portfolio. Imagine the fees they need to charge you to make up for this (this doesn't look good). (article)

4/18/09: One commenter who thought WaMu had decent customer service before, claims it has gone downhill severely since Chase took over.

4/16/09: Apparently, a lot of people are not happy with Chase jacking up their credit card rates. (blog and see entry above)

4/15/09: As Chase continues to set up homeownership centers to help people with troubled mortgages, they are also stepping up foreclosure activity. Which is it Chase, good guy or bad guy? (WSJ article)

4/15/09: From the bizarre but true department, Chase's collection agency threatened a customers daughter on MySpace. (article)

4/13/09: The WaMu to Chase change could be a little hard on customers who use Quicken. (story)

4/7/09: Chase is making over many of WaMu's branches (WSJ article) to make them less "fun.". Read more about this below.

4/7/09: WaMu won't give Shashi's money back after cashing out a CD on maturity. This is a blatent example of what appears to be severe ineptness on WaMu's part. (story)

4/5/09: Getting harrassed by WaMu's debt collection? Educate yourself on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act like LeeAnne did. (story)

4/4/09: Chase is in the running over at consumerist.com for the Worst Company in America title (link)

4/3/09: I had high hopes that perhaps being bought by Chase would help WaMu get a clue, but it seems that quite a few Chase customers (and new Chase customers via WaMu) are unhappy with the bank, if you believe the 135 complaints over at complaints.com.

4/3/09: Dee deposits cash in the morning to cover checks in the afternoon, but gets overdrafts anyways. (story)

4/3/09: Despite 100% equity in their home, Mark & Dannie's home equity line gets cut, then closed by WaMu. (story) Other people are having the same problem. (article)

4/1/09: Chase has announced with great fanfare that the WaMu name is gone from CA. Is it really? (story)

4/1/09: One WaMu credit card customer gets converted to Chase and gets an interest rate drop. (article)

3/31/09: It's official; as of Monday morning, WaMu sign's are gone from California. Chase hopes WaMu customers won't have as much fun (yes, they really said that). (article & article)

3/31/09: Chase surprises credit card customers with a hidden fee, get spanked by NY AG, refunds fee. (article)

3/27/09: As of next Monday, all California WaMu branches will open anew as Chase branches. (article)

3/26/09: Those of you burned by WaMu's overdraft fees (like enrolling you in automatic overdraft protection with the high fees without telling you), The Federal Reserve's public comment period on overdraft fees ends March 30th. You can comment here or send an email with "Docket No. R-1343" on the subject line. (WSJ article)

3/24/09: Chase moves a customers credit card due date forward without notifying him. (article)

3/20/09: WaMu's no-cause interest rate hikes makes the TV news. (article)

3/18/09: Finally some good news: Chase opens "homeownership" centers to help people with troubled mortgages work with someone face-to-face. (article)

3/17/09: Take a walk down WaMu bad mortgage memory lane.

3/17/09: The demise of WaMu, pictorial version. (link)

3/17/09: WaMu branches are becoming Chase branches (story) but don't try calling Chase customer support yet. Rae recently tried that and they said they couldn't help her yet. Reports say it won't be until September until customers of either bank can go to any branch.

3/17/09: For those of you that have a WaMu home loan and are behind, here is there link to their borrowers assistance page.

3/16/09: Having trouble with the people at your WaMu branch? Check the BBB to find a nearby branch with a better rating. (story)

3/16/09: Rae spent a year trying to get a refund for a stolen WaMu check with no luck. (story)

3/13/09: You ask WaMu about refinancing, you don't like their offer so you reject it, they send you the package anyway, you tell them NO again, they slap you with a credit denial. Just another day dealing with WaMu. (article)

3/13/09: WaMu online credit card site is down for FIVE days for upgrades resulting in one customer to get late charges and a higher interest rate (he couldn't make a payment). (article)

3/11/09: We reported last week about how Jess's account got frozen as a result of complaining about a long check hold. WaMu forced Jess to close the account or lose the money. (story)

3/11/09: Dolly gets her WaMu account frozen for no good reason while out of the country (seriously WaMu, when are you going to stop doing this to people?). (story)

3/10/09: WaMu-Chase doesn't understand the what the "secured" in secured credit card means. (article)

3/6/09: WaMu accepts a loan modification (good) but does just about everything wrong to get there (bad). (article)

3/5/09: WaMu won't let Jenny pay off her entire balance. (story)

3/5/09: Jess's BBB complaint against WaMu results in frozen accounts after rude an incompetent customer service. (story)

2/29/09: Heidi spends 30 hours trying to fix WaMu's mistake. (story)

2/27/09 I was surprised to get a mailer from WaMu trolling for new customers. Seems odd when they are currently paring down customer accounts.

2/23/09: If you are a WaMu credit card customer, it looks like your transaction history (and older statements) will no longer be available after March 1 2009. (article)

2/16/09: A WaMu credit card customer has a nightmare trying to deal with a credit card error. (article)

2/14/09: WaMu is laying off the wrong people, like this smart guy who thwarted a burglary by driving off in the thieves getaway car. Just a thought, perhaps they should keep the smart ones.

2/8/09: Chase shows WaMu customers it's true colors, and it isn't pretty. (story)

2/6/09: WaMu incorrectly processes paperwork (surprised?) and almost evicts 88 year old woman. (article)

2/5/09: JC finds WaMu voicemail hell (story)

2/4/09: WaMu attempts to make a class action go away. (story and editorial)

2/1/09: WaMu posted someone elses check into Stephanie's account & created all kinds of problems for her. (story)

2/1/09: More cancelling of credit card accounts due to inactivity. (story)

1/30/09: 2,100 WaMu employees in CA were laid off today. A WaMu says "customer service will not be affected." Is that the same as saying it can't get any worse? (article)

1/27/09: WaMu freezes an entire families accounts for two weeks, won't say why. (story)

1/27/09: More overdraft fee funnybusiness, something WaMu is famous for. (story)

1/27/09: WaMu limits the number of checks you can deposit in an ATM, arbitrarily and without telling anyone (story)

1/27/09: 1/24/09: In another turn that shows how poorly WaMu has been run, they managed to rack up a $12.5 billion back tax bill. (article)

1/17/09: If you are having difficulty with your WaMu home loan and the normal customer service isn't getting you anywhere (expected), try Chases new troubled mortgage hotline at 1-866-550-5705. (article)

1/14/09: From the bizarre files, a lawsuit has been filed against WaMu for taking out life insurance policies on employees without their knowledge and then collecting when the die. (article)

1/13/09: Say goodbye to the WaMu name, starting in California on March. (my comments and article)

1/13/09: Ok WaMu, this is low, even for you, taking money out of a 16 year olds account because his mom and cosigner was overdrawn. (story)

1/10/09: A small but poignant example of people bailing from WaMu. (article)

1/9/09: Why does WaMu raise credit card interest rates to rediculous levels: because they can. (story)

1/6/09: BJ has problems with inconsistent check holds (story)

1/6/09: Why do bank robbers keep targeting WaMu branches? Is it because they know what we know, that most WaMu employees don't have a clue?

12/31/08: Passing the buck, WaMu style. (Will Chase be able to fix WaMu?) (story)

12/29/08: When it came to loans, WaMu couldn't say no. Read this excellent article about bad behavior in WaMu's loan unit.

12/19/08: Dealth by small fees. (story)

12/19/08: WaMu calls an overdue customer 5 times per day and then lies about it. (story)

12/19/08: Enjoy the convenience of online account access even after they've closed your account for no good reason. Chase continues to slash and burn WaMu credit card accounts. (story)

12/18/08: Is Chase cancelling all WaMu credit cards? (story)

12/15/08: Is WaMu using old customer credit information to justify charging higher rates? (story)

12/14/08: WaMu is slashing and burning their credit card customers - even the great ones! (story)

12/12/08: Trouble getting new accounts set up. (story)

12/11/08: A customer tries hard to do the right thing but WaMu refuses to deal. (story and editorial)

12/8/08: Another credit card account closed for no reason. (story)

12/7/08: Two more WaMu customers get their credit card cancelled for not using them enough and their credit score drops. (story and story)

12/4/08: It's not nonsense, its WaMu sense! WaMu overreacts (again). (story)

12/3/08: Overdraft protection you didn't ask for an don't want. (story)

12/1/08: An insiders view into the WaMu loan approval process.

11/27/08: For those of your screwed by a WaMu mortgage broker, the Federal takeover and sale apparently absolves WaMu of any liability. (article).

11/25/08: WaMu has ESP for preemptively assessing an NSF fee before an overdraft actually occurs and locks an account for a grandiose expenditure of $4.11 at 711. (story)

11/23/08: Larry is yet another victim of unreasonable credit card interest rate hikes (story)

11/20/08: An article in today's Wall Street Journal descirbes recent term changes by credit card companies and offers an interesting tip. (read more)

11/19/08: It gets worse: WaMu won't just lower your credit limit, they might just close your credit card account with no warning and no justification. (story)

11/14/08: Glenn complains about something and his account gets closed. Hmmm. (story).

11/13/08: Debra experienced what a lot of credit customers have been experiencing - a reducing in credit limit with no justification. (story)

11/12/08: This story from the Wall Street Journal tells us what we already know: banks, including WaMu are jacking up fees like overdraft fees to record levels. The last few paragraphs are about an interesting alternative to the traditional checkign account.

11/11/08: This story reports that between January and June 08 37% of WaMu online banking customers researched BofA checking accounts.

11/5/08: Sarah gets her credit card rate jacked up for no good reason. (story)

10/29/08: Tim can't access any of his accounts. (story)

10/28/08: Christy faces balance and overdraft shenanigans. (story)

10/26/08: While I thought WaMu might eventually fail, the seizure and quick sale of WaMu when it happened did seem rather sudden and based on information I've seen since them, possibly unjustified. If you are a WaMu shareholder or other interested party, you can join the folks at wamurape.org to seek legal recoure to these events. (press release)

10/24/08: Another payment to WaMu went where the missing socks go. (story)

10/23/08: First JP Morgan complaint. (story).

10/22/08: Miguel's overdraft protection woes (story)

10/15/08: Feds investigating WaMu failure. What are they looking for? (article)

10/15/08: In this article, Tom Kelly describes why WaMu failed.

10/15/08: WaMu denies returning a valid check that they returned. (story)

10/14/08: A Business Week article reports that more than 45% of WaMu's credit card debt is subprime. Just another data point on why they failed.

10/14/08: From the small consolation department: WaMu customers can now use Chase ATMs for free. (article)

10/9/08: WaMu and predatory lending (story)

10/9/08: Was WaMu siezed too quickly? Senator calls for investigation. (article)

10/7/08: How odd that Washington DC's NPR station is called WAMU (link)

10/7/08: Wamued, The Story is a great read and a must see resource if you are a burned WaMu shareholder. (link)

10/6/08: Matthew gets his card cancelled for disputing a charge (story)

10/3/08: JP Morgan axes many high level WaMu execs. Probably a good thing to get rid of the bad customer service juju. (article)

10/1/01: A bad 3rd party check policy and transition chaos give a bad time to Janni. (story)

10/1/01: Here is information from Chase for WaMu customers.

9/30/08: Things are still crazy at the former WaMu. (story)

9/27/08: The Seattle Times is working a story on the victims of the WaMu failure. If you fit that description, they want to talk to you. (more)

9/26/08: SAY GOODBYE TO WAMU (WSJ story and see editorial)

9/25/08: As reported in the Wall Street Journal today, WaMu is looking to be bought.

9/24/08: "R" reminds us to be nice to the people that work at WaMu; they can't help the bad leadership. (story)

9/22/08: Amy deals with dirty rotten scoundrels! (story)

9/22/08: It shouldn't take 13 days to credit a deposit, should it? (story)

9/19/08: Preapproved for a credit card? Uh, let me rephrase that ... DENIED (story)

9/18/08: Another Christine! (story)

9/18/08: Susan's story comes from inside WaMu (story)

9/18/08: (Updated) Christine's story is another example of WaMu employees that don't know the correct answers to questions. (story)

9/12/08: Another story about WaMu raising credit card interest rates for no reason (story)

9/10/08: For even more WaMu stories, see the posts at consumeraffairs.com (link).

9/8/08: WaMu's CEO got his walking papers today (WSJ story). While I am sure this is because of WaMu's bad subprime lending history, I hope the new CEO will address their poor customer service as well.

9/6/08: Marisa has plenty of funds but they are refusing payments. (story)

8/31/08: I can only hope if my bank account gets compromised, I don't have to go through what Paul did with WaMu. (story)

8/27/08: Their free checking isn't free! (story)

8/26/08: Leon signed up for automatic withdrawl but they won't send him any documents. (story)

8/21/08: This one will make you laugh; where do they find their employees? (story)

8/21/08: Lies, lies, and damn lies. (story)

8/19/08: More interest rate shenanigans. (story)

8/14/08: Kelly was a good credit customer for years and they jacked her rate for no reason. (story)

8/6/08: At long last, a positive experience. (story)

8/4/08: Martha gets the runaround. (story)

7/31/08: Word from a friend at one of the big investment banks is that WaMu is the next big bank in danger of being taken over by the FDIC. That was before today's infusion of investment in WaMu.

7/28/08: Does anyone at WaMu know what they are doing anymore? Terry's story makes me think not. They screwed everything up. (story)

7/27/08: Henry suggests reporting WaMu to the Federal authorities rather than trying to deal with their poor customer service. See below for more information.

7/23/08: Would you like your credit card interest rate doubled for no reason? That's exactly what Patty got from WaMu. (story)

7/21/08: WaMu completely flubbed a counterfeit bill investigation. (story)

7/17/08: Is WaMu going backrupt? This guy thinks so (link)

7/16/08: Sherry has a nightmare dealing with fraud on her account. (story)

7/15/08: WaMu is bouncing Liz's checks for $11,000 despite having over $30,000 in her account. Is WaMu running out of money?

7/14/08: The put unnecessary holds on Jeanie's deposit. (story)

4/08: How WaMu makes money from credit cards, part 1.

4/08: A classic nickel and dime story.

This poor guy had a much worse experience than I did.

More problems with WaMu home loans.

Yet another bad experience.

Their security is a joke too!

Ok, this is getting old. Yet another article.

Here is what one frustrated woman wrote me.