We've had a Visa card from Chase bank for almost 5-years now. Our account had a fixed APR of 7.99%. Not only were we NEVER late paying this account, we have NEVER been late paying any of our accounts. NEVER! We have a credit limit on the Chase Visa card in excess of $15,000 and have NEVER exceeded our limit and have ALWAYS paid more than the minimum amount on our balances. The same goes for ALL of our other accounts. There is not even ONE derogatory item in our credit reports.
In November we received a notice in our regular credit card statement that stated effective our December billing cycle that Chase would be raising our Visa card percentage rate from 7.99% fixed APR to over 21% Variable APR. I thought that there was some mistake and called Chase customer service department to inquire. The Chase rep I talked with confirmed that our APR would be changing from 7.99% fixed rate to 21.24% VARIABLE APR. I asked why - considering we have always paid on time never exceeded our credit limit - in short had been excellent customers.
The Chase customer service rep stammered and then said that we were carrying too high balances on our credit card and loan accounts. BTW, Chase Bank bought out Bank One where we had one auto loan - which, we paid off a few months after the auto loan switched to Chase Bank. Chase Bank also bought out another financial institution where we had an auto loan on a second vehicle. All of this info was in our credit reports and certainly no secret to Chase.
At the time, we were carrying a little over $14,000 balance on our Chase Visa (we have had over $15K balances several times before). We decided not to charge anymore on the Chase Visa card and just pay down our balance over time to avoid being charged the new higher APR.
Come January, I received our Chase Visa statement (no new charges made) and to my shock I saw that they had increased the APR on our EXISTING balance to 21.24%! I called Chase to find out why we were charged 21.24% on our EXISTING balance - which had an APR of 7.99%. I was told that we had a chance to opt out of the new rate increase but that we had to notify them in writing that we would not accept the proposed rate increase.
I told the Chase Bank customer service rep that I saw nothing in their notice that we had to write to refuse the new rate increase or I certainly would have done so. I pointed out that we had not charged anything to that card since receiving the rate increase notice. I said I wanted to opt out now and the Chase cs rep said it was too late and I had to opt out in writing to Chase by the end of November. I said I didn't see anything about that in their notice and certainly would have if I had seen it. The Chase cs rep said in a snotty tone "I don't know why you alone didn't see the notice when everyone else did".
I said that I didn't want to pay the new rate and what could be done about it. She said nothing - except pay your balance in full ($13K) at the time).
I don't see how Chase can raise rates on an existing balance. I really don't understand why they would raise the rate so high on long-term excellent customers of theirs. This whole situation stinks and the new rate is something you could expect from an UNDERWORLD LOAN SHARK - not a supposedly reputable bank.
We are going to pay off our Chase Visa balance in full this month and will NEVER do business with Chase again - under ANY circumstance. NEVER!!!
If you are an existing customer of Chase Bank or are considering doing business with Chase Bank in the future, I urge you to reconsider. If they would do this to us, after being long-term excellent customers of theirs, then I don't believe they would hesitate to do this to any of their customers at any time they chose to.
Chase Bank are SCUM and are conducting business with a LOAN SHARK mentality. I have to agree with another who posted a similar complaint about Chase Bank: "CHASE BANK SCUMBAGS ARE LOAN SHARKS!!!"
Boycott the chase bank loan sharks!
James
San Francisco, California
U.S.A.
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