Chase Cardmember Services Chase doubled min.pymt. per month. Added $10 serv. chg. I always paid on time! Elgin, Illinois
I have had "promotional rate for life of loan" with Chase for many years and always paid on time.
Now I have bill from Chase doubling my miniumum payment and adding a $10 service charge on top of it!
When I called, they told me that they had the right to raise the minimum payment per month from 2% of the loan to 5%. And they could add the service charge if they wanted.
My only alternative is to accept an increased rate of 7.99%. Or I was told that I could transfer the balance to some other card.
I don't understand how they can arbitrarily raise a minimum payment and add a service charge. It is obvious they are now unhappy with their agreement to give me a .99%, and 3.9% interest rate. They have no excuse to raise it based on nonpayment or any other breaking of the agreement from my side.
How can they arbitrarily and unilaterally break their agreement with me?
Nancy
Boca raton, Florida
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Flynrider
Phoeix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Have you read your card agreement?
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, January 16, 2009
You say, "How can they arbitrarily and unilaterally break their agreement with me?"
If you've read your card agreement, I'm sure you'll find language that says that they can change the terms of the agreement as long as they give you notice. Just about all credit cards have this language in their contract, which is why it's a very bad idea to borrow money using a credit card. The one sided card agreements give the banks the freedom to change the terms on a whim, while they give you no leverage at all. Chase sent out the amendment to their card agreements last month, which I bet 99% of customers didn't bother to read (I did).
Back in the credit free-for-all days, banks lowered the minimum payment due from 5% to 2%, so their customers would feel free to carry a larger balance from month to month (i.e. accruing more interest). Now that credit is tight, they're going back to the old 5% standard. Chase is doing this only on low interest balances (below 4%). The service fee is tacked on to persuade you to transfer to a higher rate. If you go to their 7.99% rate, the drop the service fee and keep the minimum payment at 2%.
This is an excellent example of how banks take advantage of these lopsided credit card agreements. They're manipulating the terms to make it unattactive for you to keep your balance at the lower interest rate. If you think this is something unique to Chase, think again. These tricks are standard practice in the credit card industry.