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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:40 am Subject: Has anyone dealt with Chase?

I'm dealing with circuit city visa which is through chase and they're totally unreasonable with working out payment arrangements. I was just wondering what steps they generally take. Do they take action and generally sue or do they generally charge off the account and sell it to a collection agency?

Thanks,
Johnita

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:34 pm Subject:

First off how late are you? What is your balance & minimum payment? Sit down at home & figure out what you can afford & call them asking for either retention or recovery department.You will probably have to bounce around until you find someone who has the authority to place you in a hardship repayment plan.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:52 pm Subject:

Between my husband and I, we have three Chase accounts. When we explained our hardship to them, they offered us hardship programs on all three accounts. I don't remember the exact terms, but I think it was under 10% interest rate for a temporary period (six or twelve months?). The minimum monthly payment amount would have been 1% of the outstanding balance, and they would have reversed the late fees. We couldn't afford the program, even on those terms. At about 60 days past due, they sent my husband's account to their pre-litigation department, and at about 90 days past due, they sent it to their litigation department for review.

The other two accounts with Chase are still in their regular collections department. Go figure!

Guest · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:02 am Subject:

They sent my account to a CA who was very rude and used profanity towards my son. I sent them a DV and CD letter and haven't heard from them since.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:10 am Subject:

I had two chase accounts and they were very quick to send me to court. But when they sent me a summons, I called them up and the people I talked to not rude or nasty. Even though they are tough on settlements - I was not able to settle just one because they had combined the accounts and could not settle on the amount of both cards, they worked out a repayment plan that I could afford. Keep trying to set something up you can afford - maybe it was just the person you spoke to. If you get another person, they may be willing to work with you.(don't know if it will work but worth a try)

Good luck and let us know how things are going.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:12 am Subject:

Alias - Can you tell us how you went about getting the offer from Chase for the hardship program? Can you tell us what circumstances you were in, what did you say, what proof did you have to submit to prove what you were saying?

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:52 am Subject:

Gerald A. Smith CEO Credit Card Services
Phone: 302-282-3100
Fax: 302-282-3939
E-Mail Address: gordon.smith at chase.com
Replace at with the proper symbol.Found this on google.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:09 am Subject:

wow thanks, I think I'll spend a bit of time drafting a letter to send to him. Is there anyone here that wouldn't mind reviewing it before I send it so I can get a second opinion on the content?

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:45 am Subject:

Smo, I just sent hardship letters on all three accounts to their regular mailing address. I explained to them that we were experiencing financial difficulties due to a loss of income. I gave them approximate numbers of what our income and expenses totaled to. On one account, they called and offered a hardship program once they received the letter. (I believe they have at least a couple of different hardship programs, depending on whether your situation is short or long term.) On the other accounts, once the collectors started calling, I asked them if they had received the letter, and they pulled up a copy. I still had to explain the whole situation to them again, but then they offered the programs.

Good luck!

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:50 am Subject:

Johnita, I would definitely call back again. If there is one thing that I've found in dealing with numerous different creditors, it's that it really does depend a lot on the person you talk to. Overall, I've found the Chase collectors to be professional, helpful, and willing to try to work something out with you. Even once our account reached pre-litigation, everyone I spoke with was professional and willing to try to work something out. I just didn't have any funds to be able to work anything out!

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:02 pm Subject:

The plan they have offered is $140.00 a month and while I would love to be able to enter into this I just can't possibly afford that much but they won't budge on amounts. So I'm very worried they will rush off and sue. The amount of the bill before they started tacking on all their fees was just under 6k. Their fees is one of the things that got me into this situation. We had this account completely current then all the sudden they add over 500.00 in accumulated interest which sent the card overlimit and of course then they start adding on over the limit fees and with the min payment at that point jumping to almost 600.00 of course I couldn't pay it so then the next month you get over the limit fees plus late fees and more accumlated interest and from there it has just snowballed and went completely out of control.

The last statement I believe has the balance sitting at almost 7500.00 maybe a little more I'm honestly not sure but I know it's a lot more then what it started out at a very short time ago. I would really like to repay them but I can't possibly with the amount they are requesting. I continue to make very small payments on the account but I'm guessing that won't stop them from taking legal action since it's not the amount they want.

Thanks guys for all the advice, I'm really hoping to avoid bankruptcy but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to I hate waiting until things get really out of control before considering that.

Johnita

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:20 pm Subject:

Johnita, I understand where you are coming from. I also wanted to avoid BK, but we just signed our papers yesterday to file Chapter 7. I had to do a lot of soul searching. I finally decided that if we did not file Chapter 7, we would almost certainly lose our house. Chase was threatening legal action, and I figured it was only a matter of time before someone decided to sue us. Since we owe more money on our house than it's worth, that would add two more (a first and a second mortgage) creditors to the list that we would be unable to pay--and it still wouldn't help to pay any of the ones that we already couldn't pay. Since we do currently make enough money to pay our mortgages, we decided that it wouldn't serve anyone's interest to let it go that far.

I can tell you that, based on my experience with Chase, you will have lots of warning before they decide to file suit. They called us the week that our account was sent to pre-litigation, and followed up with a letter the next week, and more phone calls after that. They told us that the account would stay in pre-litigation for 35 days unless we could come to a payment agreement, then it would move to litigation, which still didn't mean that it would automatically end in a lawsuit.

However, the options they gave me once it reached pre-litigation were even more limited than while it was in the collections department. If I remember correctly, the options were: 1. Bring the account current, then it would be sent back to the collections department for possible reduced payment arrangements, 2. make four monthly payments that would bring the account current, including new billings during that time, 3. pay the account in full, 4. Settle the account for less than the full balance (but their initial settlement offer was somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 to 90%).

Our other two Chase accounts are still in their regular collections department, and have never been moved to litigation. So those are my experiences with Chase, for whatever it's worth. YMMV

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:18 pm Subject:

this was the letter that I sent to chase on Tuesday (edited for some personal content):

Gerald A. Smith CEO – Chase Credit Card Services
gordon.smith@chase.com
7/15/08

Dear Mr. Smith,

My name is xxx, my account number is xxx, my social security number is xxx. I have held a Chase Credit Card for 15 years, the number has changed several times due to lost/stolen cards but you should be able to see that I have been a very long standing customer along with my late father xxx social security number was xxx. I am also a recent used car buyer, and I was pleased to find out that Chase would be financing my vehicle. That account number is xxx.

Four year ago my father passed away from Cancer and I was thrown into a deep depression, as he and I were very close. When he passed away I was struggling to maintain my job and home life and frankly my sanity. I was 1-3 days late paying Chase for several months in a row, I ceased making the payments in full, and my balance ran quite high. I had a $30,000 credit line and did not think it mattered how high the balance was as long as I was making my payments. I have since found out how wrong I was. Chase raised my interest rate from 10% all the way up to 30%.

Last year I refinanced my home and paid off $30,000.00 that was due to Chase. At no time was I past due but I did have a high balance. Chase then immediately reduced my credit limit from $30,000 down to $3,000, again with no notification. I called and begged Chase to revise that amount, it was revised to $7,500 which is what it remains to this day.

I have been told by a friend that the above actions by Chase violate my rights related to something called the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. I never received notification of the actions taken by Chase. I, along with a large number of Americans, are struggling with higher costs and lower incomes and I know that this is a concern to the Credit Card companies. I have been unable to sell our home in xx for the past 2 years, and every dollar matters to us. I have been unable to refinance either property due to my lower income and high credit card usage.

My husband has been unemployed since we moved 2 years ago and he is due to start his new dream job so our immediate financial issues will not be as severe. But it will take some time to get back on our feet.

I am writing this letter to you to ask for one, some, or all of these 5 things to be done in order to positively affect me as a customer and a person, and allow us to be able to qualify for the refinance loan that we so desperately need. Our home has an ARM which will likely be going up within 6 months.

1.) Please adjust my interest rate to something more reasonable. I called and asked for a revision and was told I did not “qualify” for one. I feel that the 16% interest that I am paying on my “small limit” cards is much more in line with what I deserve.

2.) Please increase my credit limit so that my revolving credit line is not so adversely affected. It does not need to be much, several thousand dollars would make a large impact on my credit score. I have learned my lesson about credit and what I need to do to maintain a strong credit rating and will never again let it get out of hand.

3.) The credit bureaus are showing my high balance with Chase as $31,280, credit limit as $7,500. This needs to be adjusted to properly show my current high balance rather than what it was last year.

4.) Please help me understand why I do not qualify for a card with some sort of point/mileage reward system? I have called several times about this and was never given any satisfactory answers. I was simply told I do not “qualify” for one. Have I not paid Chase enough in interest and other fees over the past 15 years?

I would sincerely appreciate anything that you could do to assist me with this matter. As you can see I have been a long-standing and loyal Chase customer. Please help me change my families’ financial life.

Thank you in advance,

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:35 pm Subject:

you could blow me over with a feather ....

I got a call Friday evening from Mr. Smith's assistant ... she spoke to me for about 15 minutes, asking questions and getting some clarification on some things I had written in the letter. She corrected me about a few things as well, such as the ECOA's intent to determine credit eligibility based on color, creed, religion etc, and that it did not properly apply in my case. She also explained that I had been late 6 times in 7 months, but that yes most of the lates were 1-3 days. She explained that the decision to increase my credit and raise my interest amounts were based on my payment history and amounts paid, which I knew.

I assumed she was explaining these things to prepare me for a "too bad, so sad" speech. Lo and behold she apologized that they could not approve a higher credit balance, but that they would reduce my interest amount down to 9.99%. I assumed she meant for a few months or maybe a year, but when I asked for how long, she said for the life of the card as long as I make my payments on time, and she encouraged me to pay down the card as soon as I was able to.

I was so happy, you have no idea how relieved and thankful I was. I intend to still pay the same amount that I was before, but I'll be doing so with the knowledge that it will be paying down MY debt and not feeding CHASE's coffers.

So here is a case of when complaining actually WORKED, and THANK YOU to cajunbulldog who dug up the email address for me to use. You're a STAR!

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:39 pm Subject:

Oh and she also said to call her back in 6 months and she would see what she could do about getting me into a reward program of some sort. She indicated that if I paid the card down a good bit she would be much more likely to be able to do something.

Oh and the 9.99 interest was actually only good for the current balance on the card, NOT for new purchases, so this card FOR SURE will be taped inside my CHASE bill folder rather than being used! I think that was a perfect solution, as I won't be tempted to use it knowing that my new purchases will be with a 30% interest tag!

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:25 pm Subject:

Just be sure that you pay that bill EARLY every month. If you pay it late, it will probably default back to the 30% rate!

Good work!

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