I took on J P Morgan Chase

[Joanne98]

Sat Oct 31, 2009 at 06:54:00 AM PDT

Many out there in Kos Kountry may be in the same shape I am. Just a few short years ago I was courted by every big bank in the country. Most every day I got elegant love letters begging me to take advantage of low interest credit cards, and flattering me with sweet nothings about how my excellent credit rating made their corporate dicks harder than the cement pond in Jed Clampetts’ backyard.

Like a big stupid carp in Clampett’s pond, I not only swallowed it hook, line and sinker, I patrolled the waters looking for competing bait-—ridiculously low rates, cash-back offers, and plastic that befit my superior financial status, with prestigious names like "Kryptonite Titanium Diamond Gold Card."

PrescottPatriot's diary :: :: Then, almost as suddenly as I had been crowned the Kingfish of Credit, the boat was swamped and I got tossed into shark-infested waters. What hurt most was that my former suitors, safe in their bailed-out canoe, didn’t even bother to throw me a fucking life ring. But it was only when they started beating my head with the paddle and trying to drown me that I decided to fight back.

Starting a business takes money, lots of money. And when you run out of personal cash-in-bank type of money, and have second mortgaged your house, you might, as we did, turn to your good credit. All those low interest credit cards they used to send to us every month, well we made use of them. Paid for marketing (trade shows) and prototypes.

By the end of 2008, we had turned a corner business-wise, still not in fat city but we were making sales, turning a small profit. Most of which went into paying down those credit cards.

Then late in 2008, Chase, after taking billions of our taxpayer money, screwed me. And this wasn't one of those pleasant screwings, this one hurt real bad.

I didn't find out until later, but somehow all my credit cards (6) were set to paperless statements, all at the same time on the same day. Now anyone with a business knows, you need the paper copy for tax purposes, so no friggin' way I would have set these accounts to paperless statements. The only way to set all 6 accounts to paperless simultaneously is to have your (as in J P Morgan Chase) computer system do it.

Well, I missed a payment here and a payment there, because I (and my accountant) was used to getting a paper notification. Payments missed by one hour are as missed as if you skipped them altogether. Shortly thereafter, I start getting "Dear John" letters from Chase, one for each credit card, informing me that because of late payments, they were forced (FORCED, I TELL YOU) to reset my credit limits. Two of them were closed altogether (the two I had already paid off).

Remember, as has been related here before, if the card company closes your account, that's a VERY BAD THING to your friendly neighborhood credit rating rats. So that in turn fucked up my credit score, so they could then raise the interest rates, to the range of 26 to 29.99 percent. Ouch, more screwing, that one hurt real bad.

Now, to get to the sweet part. I wrote, not to the bank (they are criminals not to be reckoned with), but to the FDIC, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney General. Apparently, someone somewhere forwarded my letter to the "Comptroller of the Currency". About a week later, I got a call from a nice lady from Chase Bank who informed me that their system did not automatically set accounts to paperless, that I must have done so myself.

I told her I knew I had NOT set them to paperless, that I had proof their system had done it; I got a little hot. She said "wait, I'm calling to say we're refunding excess interest charges, resetting your interest rates to prior levels, and reinstating the two cards that had been canceled and would take care of the credit bureaus etc etc etc."

All I can say is WOW.

A few days later I got a letter from the "Comptroller of the Currency" who apparently looks into these things, saying if the bank didn't resolve it within 30 days to contact them.

You can damn sure bet their computer system fucked me, under the direction of some weaselly VP who got a fat bonus for his/her profit enhancement plan. These bastards are profit-motivated, and skirt every law they can. Only I think this time, they may have gone over the line. I am dead certain they did this on purpose. I am following up with the Comptroller of the Currency to see if an investigation of Chase's practices is in order.

And you can damn sure bet they don't want everyone writing to the feds about it. So my recommendation is, if anything like this sequence of events happened to you, write the Comptroller. Be explicit, get a little hot. Write them, fax them, call them.

Comptroller of the Currency
Customer Assistance Group
1301 McKinney Street
Suite 3450
Houston, TX 77010

Fax: [phone]
Toll free: 1-800-613-6743
TDD Number: 713-658-0340

You may use this if you want. Good luck.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/31/790014/-I-took-on-J-P-Morgan-Chase

[xchrom]

1. first i gotta say

:woohoo: and congrats on starting a business!

second is -- The Comptroller of the currency has a lot of power -- especially over credit cards companies -- and why this office hasn't been pressured by administrations to do their job is beyond me.

things don't have to reach these desparate times if that office would do it's job effectively.
but it's very very laissez faire.

[WatchWhatISay]

4. How your statements probably got set to paperless

If you pay you bill online, often times, when you login, before yo, go to your account your go to a page that tries to sell you on going "green" (paperless, nevermind all the trees they waste mailing out new credit card offers). At the bottom is a small printed area where you can choose "no thanks, just take me to my account". But if you are in a hurry or pre-occupied on a phone call, you might, instead, click the box that gets rid of your paper statements, which is bigger and more prominent.

Oh, and guess what? I was just informend by one of my creditors that if I didnt choose to go paperless, they are now going to start charging me for paper statments!

[xchrom]

8. WTF?!?!

:rofl:

crap like this keeps up -- it isn't going to end well for every one.

[nightrain]

2. glad you had some success. Chase just lied to me about

the duration of my 0%, so I paid them off and cancelled all accounts.

[DemReadingDU]

3. Who is this Comptroller of the Currency?

Is this person with Chase bank? The state of Texas? The U.S. Government?

[Paula Sims]

9. A bit of insight into the regulators. . .

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an arm of the Treasury that regulates National Banks (all banks that have National Association or NA in its name). That includes Chase and other large banks. Other regulators include the local states, FDIC, Federal Reserve, NCUA (for credit unions), and OTS (for S&L's and such). They're national as are all the other regulators.

Depending on the regulator of the institution, that's who handles the complaints for that bank. How do you find out who regulates? That's a trick because unless there's a National Association or NA in their name, it can be tough. The best thing is to write to local congressmen (and/or senators) and they'll forward it to the regulator -- or write all the regulators and they'll forward it on to the right one. In days past, some regulators were better than others, but now with all this stuff going on, more are willing to respond (especially if forwarded by a member of congress). Keep your documentation and make sure you have a strong, unemotional case. The banks MUST respond within a given time period.

Good luck to all -- keep at them and don't let up.

Hope that helps.

[DemReadingDU]

10. yes, Thank you! n/t

[tabatha]

5. Well done.

I hope your credit rating was restored to what it was.

[Speck Tater]

6. Chase is still charging me monthly late fees on a CC account that was PAID IN FULL 6 months ago.

Their online payment website messed up my scheduled payment when they switched me from the WaMu web site to the Chase web site, so I sent them the final paid-in-full payment by check. They charged me $30 fee because their web site screwed up, making my payment a couple days late.

Every month they send me another statement that shows a higher balance than the month before. (It's just shy of $200 now.) Every month I send it back with a letter explaining that the entire "balance owing" consists entirely of bogus late fees. I reiterate that the balance owing was paid in full and I owe them NOTHING, and that I will pay them NOTHING.

And every month they reply with yet another copy of a letter that begins: "We received your request for assistance on your credit card account and thank you for reaching out to us." The letter goes on to say that they are willing to consider a payment plan to help me pay off my balance. And every month I reply to that letter by writing back: "The account was paid in full in April and the late fees are the result of your web site error and I am not going to pay you anything. Ever."

Since they seem incapable of understanding and responding to simple English, I guess I will just wait until it goes to collection and then send the same information to the collection agency.

[2Design]

11. You need to write to the head people - and be more proactive or

this will bite you - it took me six months to get a card resolved that I had never charged on - they don't read - call - go in person to the local office - do everything you can before this is ridiculous.

[bain_sidhe]

7. Note: Joanne98 did not write this

It's a copy of a post from DailyKos by a user named "PrescottPatriot". If you have questions or just want to respond to the writer, head on over to Dkos.

(I don't mean this as a slam on Joanne98 - she has shared many valuable finds from around the web on DU, and I appreciate her..., um, scout reports. But I've noticed it's not always clear that the items she shares come from somewhere else (or at least, not to people who apparently can't SEE the link at the bottom!), so I thought I'd mention it.)