Working as a manager within a collection agency I work hand in hand with many banks and am fully educated on the Fair Debt Act and the slew of banking laws that have been put in place to protect the consumer. Chase and it's counterparts have gone up and beyond in breaking them.
Our company had a fair to allow individuals to take on this pay card. The idea of this card is to have a payroll check entered and then you can use the card as debit or credit. There is no need for a checking account it sounds harmful doesnt it? The problem that arose, and the field representatives of Chase failed to mention, is that it is not serviced at any local branch.in fact it is serviced in another continent India. If there is a problem or a question you have you cannot reach anyone here but over there and for some strange reason they have not been prompted to follow their counterparts laws.
An example we, meaning my husband and I, have the card. We call to check the transactions and balances before using the card. When calling to the customer service hotline we are given an amount that is our balance. I ask again is this the amount? I ask is there anything pending I'm given the response that nothing is pending the amount is what it is. Well my husband goes to use the card 7/3/07 at the cash station and it is de-activated. How is that possible since neither one of us did it. He calls again for them to say that it was lost and stolen and when that happens it is deactivated. That was the first explanation An outright lie!!! The card is in both of our hands who reported that? Then another person when I call says it is closed because we had a negative of $83.00. What business practice is that for representatives affiliated with this large corporation to not know the product they're servicing and giving false information. It gets better, when I disect the information, with a person who really doesn't speak English, I am told 75.00 of this are fees. The fee structure with this card is that every 72 hours you are negative you recieve a 25.00 fee as well as a service fee. Horrible!!! So it goes back to the 15.00 dollars or so used when we are told we had more than enough on the account. When we ask why we weren't notified no one could answer when I explained that what they did is against the law an individual hung up on me. I got them again on the phone and they removed the fees I was willing to pay the negative but the only way is through mail which would mean that we would recieve another fee on the account. I said I want another option and they said adamantly there was none. Later come to find out that we can use Western Union and Moneygram. We asked to close the account and this would have been the end.
Chase (India counterpart) claimed the account was closed so no money can come in or should get higher. Well when our payroll came around the money was requested by Chase to go there. Now of course the payroll department can't stop this check but definitely by the next check. The question is if the account is closed how is money deposited? When we call to find out where the money is they are claiming they do not have it a check was cut. The process which I was informed by a local branch manger Cindy Kim is that if there is a mistake by the company that it is to be rectified by next day air. This was claimed to have gone by regular mail. It is 7/13/07 Where is it? When calling the executive office to file a complaint I spoke originally to Sandy Prat and she was as clueless as the rest and was giving me the number there at customer service to ask questions. This loop is what I felt I was in no one had answers and all te while my husband and myself have not and probalby will not get this money back.
My question fellow consumers is how do we keep our trust in banks that have practices like these? How can JP Morgan Chase claim they are helping our economy when they can't even keep their business here? Also if they have done this to me and my husband and I am vocal how many more who don't have the resouces to speak out is it happening to?
Bernice Colas-Johnson
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.
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