250% increase in payment should be illegal, Chase

this same scenerio happened to me this Month August
2009..............Does anyone have a solution. I'm going to end up
going bankrupt. My family has between us at least 5 chase accts. We
can't possibly pay 5% on each card. Other Banks and Credit Cards are
not lending like they used to and the interest rate has increased on
several of my accounts. I've always paid my cards on time with either
the monthly amount due or more. This will surely ruin our lives and
credit. I've found there are only complaints on line no solutions.
Anyone have a suggestion or an organization that we can contact?
thanks!

Ditto, I have the same problem. Chase doesn't care about retaining
it's customers they are effectively loan sharking. Deal with Chase at
your own risk. They are not your friend.

Hello All,

I was one of the one that got the same minimum payment increase. I've
never been late and pay my balances as was promised to me. It's time
to fight back by all consumers. we are getting pushed around by all
these banks. We should make flyers and pass them to their customrs in
front of these banks and informing them on what is going on. if they
see the action people are taking they will understand their actions
wont go unpunished and they will loose business.

I got this information from the executive offices of Chase. I don't
know if it will help but it is worth a try.

Is Chase bank changing your rates and minimum payment due? If enough
of us compalain maybe we can stop them!!! File a letter of complaint
to :

Fax 1-888-643-9628 ATTN: Corespondence Dept. or

Mail to:
Debra Walden, Senior Customer Executive
Office of the President
2500 Westfield Dr.
Elgin, Ill 60124

As per your disclosure they can do these things. Does anyone read
their disclosures??

Thank you to all those who offered good advice, and for those who
didn't read the whole letter to Chase and just decided to ridicule me
for my debt, go get a life.

I also wrote a letter and mailed it to the CEO of Chase and they got
back with me today. They offered to convert the credit card to a fixed
rate loan with a 60 month payoff at 6%, no early payoff penalties, no
bad marks on my credit, payment of $218/mo. Obviously they would close
the credit card account which I haven't charged anything onto in 2
years anyway.

I want to say a big Thank You to Chase for working with me on this
because I do believe it is my responsibility to pay my debts in full.

By the way, the call came from the Executive Offices of Chase, and the
250% increase was non-negotiable. However, because it would cause a
hardship on me, they were able to offer me this option!

if you don't have any balance on the card... you won't be paying
either 222 or 555, yes?

i mean it's only 555 if your balance is $11,100
as it's paid off the minimum will drop to less than 555.

for example... if you paid off say 1000 right off, then it'd be
$10,100 and you'd only be paying $505 minimum, yes?

that's of course not including the monthly fees of interest...but I
don't know that part.


the best suggestion i can come up with is... many organizations offer
free assistance in budget planning, including how to get out of credit
card debt fast. and from what i've been told they've worked with
peope with debts well into the 20K range.

I totally agree with you, and in the almost exact same place with
Chase, a.k.a. the Credit Card Robber Barons, from here on. Chase
encourages customers to transfer balances to them, with attractive
offers like 5 or 6% FLOB (for the life of the balance, for anyone not
familiar with the deal), then they turncoat on us and do something
like this. I am going to protest to my Congress reps on this one, in
addition to Chase! They are shameless, but if we all protest to our
utmost, maybe they will back down, as they did on the fee issue
recently.
Chase needs to fire all of its PR people, because they are doing a
lousy job. Citi, on the other hand, still is friendly (so far!).
Nobody around here asked for this economy, the banks did more to cause
it than we did, and those of us being careful to make our monthly
payments and not go deadbeat on anyone should NOT be punished for it!

ahead of the nanny laws that Barry Obama signed into law to handhold
future credit card holders every step of the way.

The laws passed because people couldn't take personal responsibility
and read the terms of their agreements with their credit card
companies.

Making credit harder to get for actual responsible cardholders is all
this legislation does.

Card companies are going to lose a fortune in fees that they make.

So they are cranking up the heat before the laws take effect.

If you are really paying on time every time, I'd get a 0% interest
transfer and put it on auto-pay. Even if you pay a flat 3% once on
the balance, you don't continue to pay interest on your balance after
that. You can either decide to have the auto-pay pay the maximum
amount you can or set it up so it only pays the minimum. Then you
could pay extra, whatever you could afford, on top of that so you have
more control over the amount each month. DON't use the card and be
sure to make the payments until the auto-pay is established. Keep
some cards that have a lower regular interest rate in case you can't
pay the entire 0% balance off so you have a choice rather than going
credit card hunting when you are deperate. You may even be able to
pick up another 0% offer again on another card and continue to pay it
completely off.

This is apparently something Chase is doing to all users. I have seen
numerous of the same complaint on a message board I troll.

Minimum payment of 2% of the balance?!?! I am not familiar with CC
minimum payments, but wouldn't most of that payment be just interest?

If you have so much debt and you just pay the minimum each month, even
if it is on time, you are still a high risk, and they want to minimize
any loss. You owe the money, face it and pay up.

You should have the option to decline to agree to this change in
terms. It means you will have to close your account, but so be it.
Close the account, pay it off and move on. I have had the same thing
happen to me and honestly the only way to be heard is by taking your
business away, which I highly encourage you to do. If enough of us do
that, it will hurt them.

My husband got a letter from his HSBC MasterCard last week informing
him that because of his history with THEM, they had made the difficult
decision to reduce his credit line by over 50%. It's interesting to
note that his history with them is one of never having made a late
payment and never having made a payment less than the FULL balance.
He canceled the card. You need to do the same thing!

Ruth

You figured it out yourself, and what they did it typical of what the
banks are doing. Actually, it is partially in response to being told
by regulators to raise minimum payments, so that people pay their
cards off in a reasonable amount of time. I think 5% is now typical,
especially for people with substantial debt.

You say BoA did the exact same thing. There is another datapoint.

The main point is the bank was actually told to do this - you can
thank the government. I don't think you will get past square one with
an attorney.

Unfortunately, it sounds like they increased your minimum payment
because you have so much credit card debt. Banks are looking closely
at their customers debt and credit history and adjusting interest
rates and minimum payments accordingly. There may not be much you can
do but it is worth a try.