The Circuit City Rewards card, which is what they use for their no interest promotions for high-ticket items, is actually a Chase credit card. Chase is the absolute worst credit card company in existence - no customer service, inflated charges for a variety of "services". Had I realized that the Circuit City promotion would be handled by Chase, I never would have purchased anything from them.
However, I did not realize it at the time, and so I am now responsible for making payments to Chase. On 1/26/06, after I had made my January payment, Chase decided that it would now cost consumers $14.95 if you attempt to pay your bill online anytime within 5 days prior to your due date. They made no attempt to notify any of their customers, and claim that they did not need to do so since they posted it on their website. You only see this notice if you actually go in to pay your bill online, which is something that most people only do when they are ready to pay their bill.
When I went online today to pay my bill which is due 3/3/06, I was confronted by this statement in red telling me that I would be charged $14.95 since I had not made my payment on 2/27/06. I called and was told too bad, but I had to pay the $14.95 whether I paid online or over the phone, and it is obviously now too late to pay by mail. I could drive the payment to the payment address in Wilmington, DE, which is an hour from me, but, oh, wait, there's only a PO box, and anyway, they don't accept payments in person. The only other option available to me other than pay $14.95, which no other bank charges for online payments, is to pay off the account in full. It was supposed to be no interest until but obviously they don't really want you to have that option. I am paying it in full today and will never again deal with Chase. They could offer a credit card with 2% interest for the life of the card, and I wouldn't deal with them.
Every experience I or anyone I know has had with Chase has been negative. I intend to inform the CEO of Chase, which is part of JPMorgan, of the shoddy, deceptive practices of his credit card company, and also to report this to the business section of the local paper and to the state attorney general since it is my firm belief that they can not change the payment policies without notifying customers.
In the meantime, my advice is to have nothing to do with Circuit City or with Chase Bank. I can not believe they are charging customers to make a payment online when that means they get their money much more quickly than when paid by mail. At a time when most places are working to convince customers to pay online, Chase seems sadly out of touch both with technology and their own customer base. Most business people will tell you that it costs more to acquire new customers than keep current ones, but Chase seems to operate on the exact opposite theory. They must feel that there is an unlimited supply of customers for them since they persist in alienating their current ones.
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