I just found out, as apparently other have as well, that Chase is now charging a $10/month "service" fee on top of what they agreed was a fixed low interest rate (3.99% in my case). This effectively raises my interest rate to about 5 1/2%.in addition, they have increased my monthly payment almost three-fold (which may make it difficult in the current economic climate for me to qualify on debt to income ratio in refinancing my home—to take advantage of low mortgage rates). Their ploy is that they will take away the $10 service fee and reinstate my previous monthly payment amount, if I agree to double the interest rate on my outstanding $8,000 debt to 7.99%!
They claim the are following the letter of the fine print in the agreement, but it is clear to me that they are ethically and most likely, legally, violating the agreement as it was initially publicized to me, in order to get my business. This is clearly fraud.
I am very interested in actively pursuing this matter—not only for my own self-interest, but because it is time for us hard-working American people to stand up for our rights in the face of corporate greed and rip-offs. Banks like Chase can take bail out monies (our tax dollars), distribute some of the funds to their high paid executives, use the monies to buy pharmaceutical companies and the like to increase their profits, and still continue to hoard money rather than providing loans to hard working American people who need money to get buy during these difficult times. On top of it all, those of us who are responsibly paying off our debts, are now finding the rules being changed by Chase in mid-stream—in order to further bail this Bank out of its own difficult circumstances.
Maybe we should be charging them a service fee whenever we make our payments on time, and deduct this service fee from our principal balance!
I hope some socially responsible lawyer will contact me and others to start a class action suit. I will also be contacting my local Congressperson whom I know will be very concerned about this matter, and looking into other avenues for recourse—not just to help myself financially, but to take a stand against such unilateral, unethical and illegal corporate actions.
0 comments