Chase Credit Cards: Interest Rate Hike? Letter of Doom.
January 28, 2009 by Troy
25 Comments
On Tuesday, I received a call from my boyfriend that I had a letter from Chase credit cards. After he opened it he told me that Chase was increasing my interest rate on my credit card from 9.99% to prime-rate plus 9.99%. Holyfuckonastick.
What gives? What did I do? Did I miss a payment or something? I didn’t know, so last night I read the letter when I got home and low and behold there it was:
Chase:
We are sending you this notice to let you know that we will be making some changes to your credit card account in response to market conditions and to maintain profitability on your account. These changes will be effective with your MARCH 2009 statement.Here’s a summary of the key changes:
- The standard Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for purchases and balance transfers will change to: the Prime Rate plus 9.99%, which as of December 15, 2008 would be 13.99%.
- [...]
Market changes and maintaining profitability on my account? Am I missing something here? I pay $60+ in interest a month, how the fuck are they not maintaining profitability off that? I understand the market changes, but wouldn’t you think in a spiralling-doom-and-gloom-bleeding-to-death-over-bank-corporate-jets-economy we’re in, Chase wouldn’t even think of jacking up credit card interest rates? Think again.
I was so pissed over reading the letter that I called Chase up and wanted to verify that indeed the letter was true. Much to my dismay, it was. I told the Chase representative that I wasn’t mad at her, but her company. How can someone just up and change an interest rate that made me chose their card in the first place? I asked her if it was legal and she said, “Sir, we wouldn’t have sent you the letter if it wasn’t legal.” Seriously, how can a credit card company do this? Is anyone out there knowledgeable in this situation? I told her I wanted a copy of the agreement I signed stating that they could do this. She told me she would send me a copy of my agreement but I did not sign it, I just agreed to it.
What’s even more disturbing is that when I was at a local bank today discussing the idea of getting a credit card with them and transfering my balance to them, the banking lady told me that when they send these letters it’s usually to everyone, not just individuals. Has anyone else received this letter from Chase? Or, am I the only one that’s getting screwed royally?
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chase sucks, so do all the rest of them. i dont know if thats legal for them to do but i would look in to it. i have a chase credit card but i haven't received a letter……yet. and I better not or i'll be fucking pissed too.
Aint it the truth… There like politicians. There all crooks…
Robyn
They took mine from 12.99 to 21.99 over night I am pissed off too. I asked them why because I have never been late and I pay double each month they replied risk management. I said so another words we are paying the bills of those who arent paying. They are violating us.
Holy crap! They hiked your interest rate to 22%? Did you get a letter like I did?
They said they sent one but I never seen one. My interest on $5200.00 is $98.00 a month on my card and $66.00 on my husbands card. I have been sending them every penny I can get my hands on to pay this off fast and close my account. This will not happen to me again.
I would call chase and tell them since you never received the letter that you want to cancel your credit card and you want the interest rate you started at. See, I went ahead and cancelled mine and I got to keep my interest rate until it’s paid off. It will take some time ($8,000) but at least I’m not paying $120 in interest a month.
Oh yeah. They are fucking us all. I never even HAD a Chase card until they bought Washington Mutual. MY ACCOUNT WAS ALREADY CLOSED WHEN THEY BOUGHT IT!!!! And still I got that letter raising my interest rate on purchases from 16.99 to like 23.99%. Not to mention the new rate on my old balance transfer, that was 23% and will probably be like 28% now. So, I called them. And the basic mesage was this: though shit lady. You can write a letter to “corporate.” I didn’t even get the option to close my account and keep my current rate. They already get $80.00 a month in interest out of me. And I just found out that Chase bought another company that I have a card with–and they are raising my rate another 4% on that one. To “maintain their profitability.” I’m seriously considering telling the to go fuck themselves and not pay another dime.
Holy crap. Just call them up and tell them you didn’t get a letter and that you want to cancel your account. Afterward give them the ol’ “FUCK YOU.”
At least, that’s what I’d do.
I got that lovely letter also. I got it and ASAP called chase. I had a WAMU card taken over by chase, have a 2200 balance (which is not even half of my credit limit) have a 9.9% rate, and have never made a late payment, and always pay MORE than the minimum payment per month.
When I called, I realized that they had actually jacked my rate WITHOUT me knowing from 9.9 to 10.24 for no reason! SO that further angered me. SO, I spoke with the representative, and she instructed me that I had until the 22nd of June to “opt-out” of the rate change… meaning I had to pay off and close my account. Well, that’s exactly my plan. I loved my Wamu card, and never ever had a single problem with that card. It’s when Chase took over that things got really bad. The service rep said that she’s been flooded with calls from people about this “letter of doom”, lol. I said that I was not surprised, considering that there are probably alot of really p****d off people getting this letter who HELP chase maintain profitability. They pay their bills on time, and pay more than the minimum payment every time… arent those the people you don’t want to lose???? Makes no sense to me.
I too am pissed, I had Providian, bought by Washington Mutual who, held to the same agreed upon terms, then the assholes at Chase give me until june 22 to either accept a ass fuckin without lube or to cancel my card and pay balance until paid off at current rate….. A BIG FUCK YOU TO CHASE!! I hope everyone cancels their cards and you go belly up you assholes!
All,
please write more FUCK CHASE emails online anywhere you can, let it be emails, blogs, whereever you can, the “FUCK CHASE CREDIT CARD” messages needs to be out there.
Thanks,
-Gordon Smith (cock sucker… yeah that’s me)
I wanted to vent as well.
When Chase took over WAMU they screwed up my paperless notifications and had the website down for a long time so I could not get it updated then in a day they jumped my rate from 7.9% to 29.99% due to a late payment that they caused by not notifying me of the bill and them not being available to be reached to correct it.
Once I noticed it a couple of months later I got them on the the phone and had a good hour and a half mother fucking with some dick head from who knows where, they finally relented and agreed to change my interest rate back to 7.99.
Well, that was two months ago and when I call them they say it takes 60 days for the change to take effect… it took them less than 60 minutes to kick it up but it takes 60 days to correct their problem.
I know you need credit to operate in the world but I know cash still works, I think I’ll pay these pricks off and try to go back to cash and barter.
FUCK CHASE
WAIT FOR THE CLASS ACTION SUITS… THEIR COMING
I transferred all my cards over to Chase so as to utilize life of loan 4.9%….this included charges made to finish our house. Anyway, put way too much on it! But at 4.9% for life of loan, well, it was too good to pass up. I got notice that they were going from minimum payments of $430 to $1100 a month!!! Now, on one hand, this will will, in the end, eliminate this card balance in a year and half. But I thought about transferring the amount over to my Bank America card, which I recently paid off. Getting desirable offers from them, but not life of loan offers. I have made myself sick going over my budget trying to find $1100 to put on this card……..Is suicide an option? just kidding.
All of you who do not have life of the loan accounts are probably screwed. For those of you who do you should flood the Comptroller of the Currency office that regulates banks with complaints. He has indicated that he is sympathetic and there have already been 14 class action suits filed against Chase for violation of the Truth In Lending Act and fraud among other things. You can search the web to find if there has been a class action filed in your district and request the law firm to make you a representative plaintiff. Switching balances to another card is unsafe because another company can raise your rates just as Chase has done. Another 850,000 card holders were sent notices in June that their life of the loan minimum payment was going to be increased from 2% to 5%. This after several class actions were filed against Chase for doing the very same thing to card holders in January. By the way, this raising of the minimum payment was encouraged by our federal regulators during the Bush administration. Why do you suppose the banks were given nine months before the new credit card reforms go into affect? Do you suppose our elected representatives could have been bought off by the banking lobby?
Chase has gone crazy with these interest rate hikes. I have excellant credit and have never been late with a payment. After charging and paying down over $20,000 in debt within only 2 months, I opened my June bill to find the balance of $2,000 with a 19.99% interest rate attached. Needless to say, I was very angry when I called Chase and was told, rather rudely, that this move is due to the economic situation and, to make me feel better, this was an “across the board” decision. How nice to know that I am not alone in this rip-off. Wait! It gets worse……my July statement came with another increase….a whopping 26% rate. I plan to transfer my balance to Citi who, by the way, was gracious enough to negotiate a lower rate of 9.99% after they also increased the rates.
REVOLT AMERICA! We must unite! They are legal loan sharks, and I for one am not paying them one more dime!
Hey people,
Don’t think closing the account will keep them from raising your rate. I closed our account in Feb. 2009. I just opened my statement for Sept. and low and behold!, they raised the rate anyway. I’m thinking of asking them to open the account back up, max it out, and then walk away. Never, NEVER, have been late or missed a payment. That may change!!
Chase tried to stick it to me this month too. It is great though because I had such a low balance, it was easily paid off. I received no notification of this rate increase. I’ve had this card since 2005. I have never had one late or missed payment on this card, or any other card for that matter. Anyway, I was paying my bills today and just by chance I looked down the statement and saw the rate. It went from 7.99 to 14.24%. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it was almost double. If I was carrying a large balance it would have really screwed me. I called customer “no” service and they basically gave me a blanket statement. It is due to economic conditions and it had nothing to do with anything I did. Yeah, that seems fair. You spend your whole life trying to build a good credit history to get decent rates and apparently it means nothing. The lady on the phone didn’t care and the supervisor they sent me to in their retention center cared even less. Well, you should really keep it for an emergency. No thanks. I think I’d rather save money that get f’d in the A in an emergency. Chase can suck it. Honestly, all credit card companies can suck it. They breed us from birth to be good little consumers “He with the most toys wins” attitude and we all live at the end and beyond our means and spend our lives in debt, hanging by a thread. Someone is getting rich out there off these cards, and most likely it is someone that was already rich. If you want to really put it into perspective look at your interest rate on your savings account. It’s typically one percent. How much is your money worth compared to the money you borrow from these blood suckers? I work hard for mine. This entire country has become the same thing. The people that work hard take it in the ass and carry the weight of the people that don’t. Regardless, from here on out, no more credit cards for me. I’m done trying to keep up with the Joneses. The more stuff you own ends up owning you. No thanks. Oh yeah, F U Chase!
The assholes did the exact same thing to me this month: NO NOTIFICATION WHATSOEVER, just the rate suddenly jumping from 7.99 to 14.24% on my statement. I’ve had this card with 7.99% since 2000, so I only noticed the increase by accident, as after all this time I hardly ever check that rate which was SUPPOSED TO BE GUARANTEED fixed unless I was late or missed a payment or something like that. Which I’ve never done, not on any of my cards with any company, ever. Thanks to your post I guess I can rest pretty much assured that this has nothing to do with whatever I’ve done or not done, the bastards just decided to squeeze more money out of us… What a lovely bunch they are… I used to think Chase was reliable, as until now they’ve never attempted any tricks on me like a couple other CC issuers have in the past, but after this sneaky move I’ll be looking forward to ending my business with them ASAP. Take a hint, Chase: if you want to raise rates, at least do it in the open, DON’T TRY TO SNEAK SHIT PAST PEOPLE!
Never a late payment, always paid my accounts forward as aggressively as I can. No luxuries, no meals out, no movies, only paying down, down, down. The only reason I have Chase cards is because they were bought out from WaMu by Chase. Just received a notice that they’re raising my rates to 21.25% from 12.9% and 17% respectively. This is a living nightmare.
The first line of defense is to switch my salary’s direct deposit to my credit union; Chase has played too much with my earnings already. The next is to pay those balances off immediately ANY WAY I CAN which includes selling stuff on Craigslist, Ebay, and maxing out my credit union line of credit to pay off those balances.
I’ve been trying to help out my brother, who’s unemployed and about to be evicted, and I don’t know how I’m going to manage, but I will. If Chase flounders as a result of so many irate consumers fighting back, there can be no bailout for these predators. NONE!
We had two credit cards with Chase. One directly through Chase and one through Wa Mu (who chase bought out).
They raised the interest on one of the cards from 13 percent to 23.24 percent. There was no notice sent to us in relationship to the interest hike. We always over pay on both of them and have only paid the minimum amount probably 3 times all told. NEVER ever a late payment.
What a crappy way to reward their faithful customers. My credit score is sterling and I won’t let these guys kick me in the teeth. We went to the bank that we have been with for over a decade and arranged a credit card through them at slightly over 8 percent. I will NEVER do business with CHASE again. Dirty Dogs that they are. We have paid them off completely and have moved on. I do wonder what they will do for a customer base in the future though. Probably turn to the young people who don’t know better yet.
Join our group…we are giving the credit card companies a REALITY CHECK! We bailed their ass out and this is how they thank us. We are a group that are going to boycott further payments until they drop the interest rates! Play fair, or we aren’t playing. We can break them if they don’t come to their senses. Its a numbers game and we are holding all the cards…literally! Stop paying for 6 months and they will be singing a different song! If you are tired of being bullied by Chase and Capitol and the rest of em…join us!
Hello All,
I was 2 days late on a pmt and Chase upped my rate from a life time of 4.99%
to 22% plus a late charge of $39.00 bucks. I called customer service and talked to an India calling center who basically said tuff luck. Then I asked for a supervisor and got a guy in USA that said same sorry you loose. We got you. No second chance,, no nothing which equated to an extra 100 bucks a month in interest based on $5,600 balance. This sucks. I am going to send the president my shirt off my back. You can do the same as follows
Gordon A. Smith
Chase Card Services
Three Christina Centre
Wilminton, DE. 19801 By the way he is only 50 yrs old and Chase paid him more than 12 million in comp for the yrs 2008. What is the deal!!! He is so greedy and makes all of us pay for shit. I hope he sleeps good at night cause I dont,,, I will mail the shirt off my back to him,,please do the same,,FUCK YOU GORDON A. SMITH and the horse you rode in on……